“‘...Mockingbirds...don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us [anyone and everyone]. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird…’” (Lee 119). In the Pulitzer Prize winning novel of 1961 To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells the story of a young girl by the name of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch and her older brother Jeremy Atticus (Jem) Finch, and what their lives were like growing up in Maycomb, Alabama during 1933-35. Scout and her brother Jem are both children of the morally passionate lawyer, Atticus Finch, and both are exposed to the same experiences that shape their sense of right and wrong. Yet Scout and Jem come to dramatically different conclusions about good and evil and the essential nature of humankind.
As we have all been told, we learn many lessons throughout the course of our lives. The two main characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Jeremy Finch (Jem), learn many of these captivating lessons over the course of the story, especially lessons about the constantly changing environment they live in. The story is centered on Jem and Scout Finch whose journeys of growing up in the southern town of Maycomb teach them about everyday life in the 1920’s. It becomes clear that throughout the story, Harper Lee provides negative commentary on life in the South during the Great Depression, revealing the true deficiencies of society. Ultimately, throughout the story, Jem and Scout
Imagine making 95 cents a week, and not even being able to use the bathroom that everyone else uses. At this time period black people were treated like dirt, and they were basically slaves that did whatever a white person said. Well this is exactly what
The ability to learn a lesson is one of the most valuable capabilities a human being possesses. As Vernon Law once said; “Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterward”. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, the children learn extremely beneficial lessons through their experiences that are relevant throughout the course of the story. First of all, the children learn it is inappropriate to base an opinion on someone without taking the time to get to know them. Next, Jem and Scout are educated about the socio-economic situation, and the different types of wealth classes in Maycomb. Finally, the duo find out they should take caution when they complete an action, as all actions have a consequence. Through their interactions with others, the children learn valuable lessons that they relate to new experiences.
Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Many believe that courage is the ability to do something that is challenging and requires lots of effort, but that is not all. According to Psychology Today, six attributes of courage include feeling fear yet choosing to act, following one’s own heart, persevering in the face of adversity, standing up for what is right, expanding one’s horizons, and facing suffering with dignity and faith. People in the real world can show unexpected and overlooked forms of courage, just like Atticus Finch does in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird. The setting takes place in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, where a young girl named Scout Finch learns to see the lively views of society. Maycomb society is characterized by racism hypocrisy, prejudice, and fear. Scout lives with his brother Jem and his father Atticus, who is a well-known lawyer in town. Atticus is defending Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, the loneliest girl in the whole town. After the jury debates over the verdict, Tom Robinson is guilty for what he has done and gets sentenced to prison. Mr. Bob Ewell, father of Mayella, wins the court case, and starts to go after the Finch kids with his pocket knife. Boo Radley, a neighbor who has not gone out for many years, notices this and peacefully saves the Finch kids from Mr. Ewell. Lee clearly demonstrates through
To learn how to empathise with others is a life lesson that many do not have the chance to fully understand. Having the ability to understand and share the feelings of another is a skill that Harper Lee explores in her novel ’To Kill A mockingbird’. She has written many compassionate and understanding characters into her novel, such as Atticus, Jem, Scout and Tom Robinson. Primarily Atticus shows empathy all throughout the novel along with Tom robinson who demonstrates an understanding of thin on a smaller scale. Although Scout and Jem do not manifest this attribute to begin with, they learn the ability to empathise through the course of the novel from their fathers lessons and experience.
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set in a small Southern United States community called Maycomb during the Great Depression era. Even though the whole book primarily revolves around Scout and her life of growing up, she also learns about segregation and racism and how it relates to Maycomb’s history. It eventually leads to the trial of Tom Robinson where he is accused of beating up and raping Mayella Ewell. Even though it was clear that Tom Robinson did not do anything wrong, he was convicted by an all white jury simply because he was black. The trial of Tom Robinson and its verdict shows an example of how segregation in the court system prevents fair trials from occurring.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was published in 1960 and is read by ninth graders all across the country because of its Pulitzer-Prize-winning writing. To Kill a Mockingbird parallels Harper Lee’s life in the sense that like the main character, her father was a lawyer and she had a best friend similar to the one of her main characters. She used this real life experience to tell the fictional story of Scout, a young girl living in the prejudiced community of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout and her brother, Jem, encounter a young boy, Dill, and quickly befriend him. They become interested in the suspicious story of Boo Radley and his family. However, the story’s plot is centered around her father, Atticus, and his case to defend Tom
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee not only does the reader experience a monumental story about a time period in which racial discrimination is a very important and visible issue, but the coming of age moment that every child experiences at some point in his lifetime. Although there are many coming of age examples throughout Lee’s novel, the most apparent and noticeable change is seen Scout whom mature’s greatly during just three summers.
As a young woman in Alabama sat down to tell this tale of a sleepy Southern town based off her own home, little did she know that it would become a powerful and timeless novel, becoming renowned as a piece of classic literature. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird tells a story of a childhood in the deep South. Written in first person account, the story is told through the young eyes of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. It tells of the childly endeavors to lure the fascinating Boo Radley out of his solitary isolation to the trial of an African-American man named Tom Robinson, facing a court filled with prejudicial white men under the accusation that he raped a white woman.As the novel progresses, Scout learns of the inhumanity in her hometown. She gradually begins to know of the cruelty and prejudice faced by Boo, Tom, Atticus and many others.. Atticus tries to help Scout understand these complex concepts and continually works to helps her stay grounded throughout the crisis. He tells Scout of mockingbirds. A mockingbird is a grey and white, medium-sized bird that is most commonly known for it’s ability to mimic sounds and sing them almost endlessly. Atticus says that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird because they are innocent creatures. He does not literally mean a mockingbird when saying this, rather its meaning is metaphorical and open to interpretation. Throughout the novel, many characters could been seen as a “mockingbird” but it seems that the symbol of the mockingbird
Some lessons can 't be taught, simply lessons have to learned. The exceptional novel of a small town in the south, To Kill A MockingBird, written by Harper Lee goes into the lives of children in the early 1900’s. Love and hate, curiosity, innocence and experience can relate to the lives of three children; siblings, Jeremy Atticus Finch, (Jem) and Jean Louise Finch (Scout), and their summer friend Charles Baker Harris or for short, Dill. With the children 's mother passing as young children their father, a well known neighbor and lawyer in Maycomb County, Atticus Finch fathers the children as they grow up. The town 's old legend of the Radley 's House, the home of the Radley Family, with town rumors that what lives
One of the major masterpieces of American literature, To Kill A Mockingbird, author Harper Lee captures the social climate of the 1930s in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the depths of the Great Depression. All members of Maycomb are confronted, at one time or another, by their community’s beliefs about race, gender, and class and must decide where their moral beliefs stand. Six-year-old Jean Louise "Scout" Finch narrates the story. Having mature tremendously, notwithstanding the rules of etiquette in her community, Scout expresses her attitudes and sees the injustice in her elders. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s, identity is primarily influenced by race and gender indicating what we realize about Maycomb society in terms of gender, race, and class.
In Harper Lee’s famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” she uses many elements of fiction to provide a clearer description for the readers to understand the themes better. The main theme of the novel is the distinction of good and evil in the morals of human nature. Lee uses the elements of setting, point of view, symbolism, and conflict to help her develop the storyline of the novel.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a story about a young girl named Louise “Scout” Finch and her older brother Jeremy (AKA Jem)’s life in the “tired old town” of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The story starts off by Scout explaining the events that lead to her brother, Jem, breaking his arm. Scout and Jem lived with their father, Atticus Finch, a lawyer in Maycomb County, and their cook Calpurnia. Scout’s mother died when she was two, so she didn’t have much memory of her.
Harper Lee published To Kill a Mockingbird during a rough period in American history, also known as the Civil Rights Movement. This plot dives into the social issues faced by African-Americans in the south, like Tom Robinson. Lee felt that the unfair treatment towards blacks were persistent, not coming to an end any time in the foreseeable future. This dark movement drove her to publish this novel hopeful that it would encourage the society to realize that the harsh racism must stop. Lee effectively fashions her characters to help further drive this point to the reader. Atticus Finch, and his children, Jem and Scout, play a pivotal role in this story. Atticus makes a very honorable name for himself, while Jem and Scout 's innocence is exposed to the real world and unacceptable behavior there is throughout society. Harper Lee eloquently portrays a theme of good overcoming evil during the Civil Rights Movement in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, through the beliefs of Atticus ' honorable actions, Jem and Scout 's innocence, and Tom Robinson 's trial.