Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there” ~ Scott Peck. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird abounds with the injustice produced by social, gender, and racial prejudice. The setting of the book takes place in the 1930s, where racism is a big deal in society. In the novel Harper Lee uses a mockingbird as an analogy to the characters. The Mockingbird is a symbol for Three Characters in the book, Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. The people of Maycomb only know Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others say about them. These Characters are then characterized by other people 's viewpoints. In the novel there are many themes that are adjacent to our lives, the one that is found in To Kill A Mockingbird is Human Conflict comes from the inability for one to understand another. “ You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (39)

As children grow up, they open their eyes to the harsh truths in the world around them that they once did not understand or question. This is experienced by the main characters of Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The story is of a girl called Scout and her older brother, Jem, who go through the trials of growing up in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Racism is rampant in the mindset of the townspeople, shown when the children’s lawyer father, Atticus, takes the case of an obviously innocent African-American man and they convict him in their hearts before the trial even starts. Through this all, we can see the theme of loss of innocence in the children. Lee uses characterization to portray

Racism has disrupted and changed the lives of the characters in `To kill a Mockingbird'. The main characters, the Finches, are persecuted because Atticus is defending a black man in court. My attitude to racism changes as this force is only disturbing Scout at the beginning of this narrative. Racism is, at first, bullying and discriminative on a basic level. My attitude develops as the force of racism is now affecting the many individuals in Maycomb. Furthermore, racism is life altering and causes some people to become outcasts, as in Mr Dolphus Raymond's case. Racism is back

“Everybody sees what you appear to be ... few people know who you really are.” This saying illustrates that if you appear one way, no one can see who you really are inside. When someone appears one way, you do not really get to know them but when they truly become themselves you can really see who they are and not just who they appear to be. However, they may only reveal their true selves to some people and keep acting like a different person to everyone else, or keep everything to themselves and do not show anyone their true self. Dolphus Raymond, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, all show themselves in a different way. Dolphus reveals himself to Scout and Dill during the trial at the court.

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee creates an amazing story, but there is one thing that is controversial in the book: Did Atticus do the right thing by taking on Tom’s case? In the book, Tom Robinson, who was a black man, was wrongly accused by Bob Ewell for raping Ewell’s daughter, and Atticus, a lawyer, decides to take on the case in a Maycomb, which was a very racist town. Bob Ewell, who is mad when Atticus makes a fool of him, goes after, and hurts, Atticus’s kids. So, the question is, did Atticus do the right thing by taking on the case, and by doing so, put his kids in danger? Most likely, the answer is yes, even though he put his kids in harm 's way, he still did the right thing, since his kids only came out of the experience with mild injuries, but a lot of knowledge and experience about how to live in the racist town of Maycomb.

In order to be your best possible self, you have to put yourself in someone else 's shoes. Atticus emphasizes that you have to untie your own shoes before putting yourself in someone else 's throughout his parenting in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Atticus strongly encourages Scout to explore the mentality of compassion, sympathy, and tolerance, by crawling into other 's shoes and trying to grasp what they go through in their everyday lives. When Scout puts herself in else 's shoes, she comes to the conclusion that the world is full of people who are willing to live their lives in hiding, just to be happy, and to hide from people’s harsh judgement.

J.F. Clarke once said "The bravest of individuals is the one who obeys his or her conscience." This quote means that standing up for what is right is the most profound form of bravery. Obeying one’s conscience is most difficult and requires the most bravery when others are against you, disagree, and mock or even threaten violence because of the exercise of one’s conscience. This quote is proven true in the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. It is revealed to be true through the actions of Mrs. Dubose, Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. Harper Lee takes the small rural town of Maycomb, in Southern Alabama, and transforms it during the course of the novel from a hardcore racist town into a community beginning to demonstrate its capacity for equality, fairness, and justice.

People often fear what they don 't understand. Evolutionary psychology can be traced back millions of years, when fear was avoided because of its repercussion of death. An aversion to the unknown was usually safer. Therefore, evolution culled for human traits that feared and avoided the unknown. Fear of the unknown shows how people become narrow-minded and ignorant to their surroundings, and how people behave when they believe something will happen even though they are solely intolerant. This ideology directly correlates to Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a MockingBird. Throughout the story, the townspeople attempt to overcome their various fears by turning against each other. In Maycomb, fear enforces racism and causes the townspeople to

“‘...Mockingbirds… don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us [anyone and everyone in Maycomb]. 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.

There was a copious amount of discrimination in the 1930’s deep south, whether it be racism or sexism. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, conflicts arise when an African-American man is unjustly accused of raping a white woman in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. Citizens of the town are forced to choose whether they believe to follow what the rest of the town thinks, whether that is their true opinion or not, and be honest with themselves and stand up for who they really think is innocent. However, as shown throughout the book, many people have trouble publicly announcing their opinions on the matter, choosing to convey their opinions in more subtle ways. Because of different occasions that question people’s morals and virtues

‘“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-…-until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”’(Lee 33). Said by Atticus Finch, this is perhaps the most important line from the book because it makes Scout Finch become who she becomes. Throughout the plot of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout Finch’s views and understanding of the society that surrounds her changes very drastically. Her understanding of the good and evil in society evolves the most, due to the teachings of Atticus Finch. In the beginning of the book, Scout Finch was what every child once was; innocent and simple. As the book progressed, she became aware that life was a complex and confusing world, and she struggled to

One of the characters the reader can most easily follow through this change is the protagonist, Scout. Scout begins the book as an innocent young girl who finds no wrong in the world around her, but as the trial commences and tensions run high, Scout soon learns of the evils the world possesses. Society’s hatred for the blacks is shown so commonly in everyday life that all the children in the novel use the word nigger in an innocent way. Society has taught these kids at a young age that calling the negroes niggers is the cultural norm and that they are expected to use it. Atticus reminds Scout not to use the term, but Scout points out the prevalent usage in their world. “‘Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.’ ‘’s what everybody at school says.’’From now on it’ll be everybody less one—’‘Well if you don’t want me to grow up talkin‘ that way, why do you send me to school?’(77). This conversation shows the reader that the influence on kids to use racist terms is heavy, even the kids can see it. Scout’s brother, Jem, is also influenced by the public’s thoughts. Scout overhears Atticus telling their uncle that he hopes he can get Jem “‘through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease’” (91). The disease Atticus is referring to is the racism the town shows toward negroes. He recognizes that it is common in the town around them, but

“There’s nothing more sickening to me than a low-grade white man who’ll take advantage of a Negro’s ignorance” (Lee 296). In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses many different conflicts to prove the point that overcoming obstacles is tough to do alone. The narrator of this book is Scout Finch, who takes us through her childhood in a city called Maycomb in Alabama in the 1930s. Maycomb is like every other city in the south, most people being racist. Scout and her brother, Jem, are the children of Atticus Finch, who tries to teach them many lessons about growing up and about life. Atticus is the lawyer for a black man named Tom Robinson in a trial where he is being trialed for raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. It is a detriment that Tom is black because there is a lot of racism. Mayella’s family is a dirty and disrespectful family in that town. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses conflict to show that overcoming obstacles cannot be done by a single person.

Not only have the adult characters in the book To Kill A Mockingbird set a solid ground of good morals and beliefs for the children in the book but also young readers decades later. Children are often influenced by adults in their life whether it has been a positive or negative moral aspect. Children often receive advice and encouragement from their guardians or adult figures. In author; Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, readers observe three parents who have influenced their children heavily, in this essay readers will look further into Atticus Finch, Mr. Radley and Bob Ewell.

This book is a story that revolves around a girl named Scout Finch. Scout has a brother named Jem, a father named Atticus, and a friend named Dill. The characters live during the 1930s in a town in the southern United States called Maycomb that is filled with drama, racism, and mean old women. In the story, “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, there is a girl named Scout who acts as the narrator of the story. The key events in the story are about either Scout’s childhood, or about Atticus’s job as a lawyer, who had to defend a black man named Tom Robinson against a white woman who claims that she was harassed by Tom. In the end, Boo Radley helps Jem and Scout after they are attacked by Bob Ewell. The three main characteristics in the