What Does Funny Thing Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

“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)

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has many ongoing themes such as Walking in Someone Else 's Shoes, Social Classes, Scout 's Maturity, and Boo Radley. These themes contribute to the story in many ways.

Harper Lee’s novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is set in a small, southern town, Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression of the 1930s. The story is told through the eyes of a girl named Scout about her father, Atticus, an attorney who strives to prove the innocence of a black man named Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape and Boo Radley, an enigmatic neighbor who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed. Atticus does his job in proving there was no way that Tom Robinson was guilty during his trial, but despite Tom Robinson’s obvious innocence, he is convicted of rape as it is his word against a white woman’s. Believing a “black man’s word” seemed absurd as segregation was a very integrated part of life in the south. The social hierarchy must be maintained at all costs and if something in the system should testify the innocence of a black man against a white woman’s word and win then what might happen next? Along with the prejudice amongst blacks and whites, the story also showed how people could be misunderstood for who they truly are such as Boo Radley. Without ever seeing Boo, Jem and the townsfolk made wild assumptions on what Boo does or looks like. Even so, while “To Kill a Mockingbird” shows the ugliness that can come from judging others, its ultimate message is that great good can result when one defers judgement until considering things from another person’s view. Walter Cunningham, Mrs. Dubose, and Boo Radley are all examples of how looking at things

Based on the first six chapter of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we can see that it moves at a rapid pace. It starts off as the beginning of summer and by the end of the sixth chapter an entire year has passed by. Throughout this year, we see Scout 's, Dill 's, and Jem 's adventures during the summers and Scout going to school for the first time. We also receive some additional background information on the mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley.

“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.

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

The saying “Life isn’t fair” is always right. No matter fair something seems, there is always something just about, no matter how small it is. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a young man named Tom Robinson is sentenced to death because of his race. Even though all of the evidence backs him up, he is still found guilty because he is African American. This happens because of all the prejudice that the people of Maycomb possess. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee depicts her views on prejudice and how it affects society. Harper Lee asserts that the amount of prejudice someone receives is dependent on one’s race and gender, and that to overcome prejudice one must become acquainted with many different groups of people.

Everyone is biased. That is the truth that no one can deny. However, it is how we react to the biases fed to us by society that truly exemplifies how much sympathy, compassion and intelligence we possess. Scout, the protagonist of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, lived in Maycomb County, Alabama as a child. Maycomb’s predominantly Caucasian populace always trusted the words of the trashiest white man above the words of the kindest black man. Scout bluntly states to her older brother, Jem, that, “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks” (Lee 304). She believes that whether they are black or white, rich or poor, people are all people and they are created equal. Scout displayed multiple times throughout the book that she did not agree with the townspeople on the subjects of race and class; she befriended individuals that were of lower status, she was raised and influenced by people who also disagreed with the townspeople, and she trusted African Americans.

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 Kill A Mockingbird’’ by Harper Lee. This book takes place in maycomb, a sleepy town in Alabama in 1933 during the great depression. Maycomb in located in the deep south where racial issues still exist. Atticus Finch is the town lawyer who defends a black man in a racially charged town. Atticus is a single father of two children Jem and Scout. The mother died early in their lives and they have no memory of their mother. He treats his kids as equals to himself by having Jem and Scout refer to him as his first name then the usually ‘’ Dad or Father’’. They call him by his first name in a respectable manner.

The text type of To Kill a Mockingbird is a fiction novel which deals with the racism the author observed as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee, who wrote her novel in a retrospective point of view. There were numerous aspects of historical, personal, cultural and social context in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee was born on the 28th of April, 1926, in Monroeville Alabama. Monroeville was a close-knit community that has many similarities with Maycomb, which is the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee’s father was a prominent lawyer, whom she drew inspiration for the protagonists father, Atticus Finch. Among Lee’s childhood friends was Truman Capote, from whom she drew inspiration to the character Dill. These personal details help portray Harper Lee’s own childhood home, where racism and segregation was highly evident. Another example of context which helped shape To Kill a Mockingbird were the events that occurred during Harper Lee’s childhood. In 1931, when Harper Lee was five years old, nine African-American men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicised, and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long term imprisonment. Many prominent lawyers and various members of the general public saw the sentences as spurious and believed that it was motivated by racial prejudice.