Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

“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)

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

This is when Atticus sits Scout down and says, “First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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.” Another time the author forces the reader or the characters to step into someone else’s shoes, with the Cunninghams, is when Atticus explains to Scout the Cunningham’s money situation. In chapter 2, it is told that Mr. Cunningham was at one time a client of Atticus’ and couldn’t pay Atticus back for his wonderful doings, in money that is.

“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.

During Civil War period, a pro¬slavery mob chained Francis McIntosh to a locust tree, burnt him fatality in 1837. There are a lot of abolitionists, like Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who lost their lives when criticizing lynching. Elijah Parish Lovejoy showed both physical and moral courage fighting against inequality. The real courage of abolitionists during that time was gaining equal opportunities for African-¬Americans, and be treated the same as white people no matter the consequences. Even after a century, there is no slavery anymore, there is still racism happening. In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, she shows the real meaning of courage fighting for equal rights in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression.

Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the story of two children coming of age and learning about their hometown and the whole world. The two children in the story are Jem and Scout Finch. Jem and Scout live with their father, Atticus, in Maycomb County. Throughout the story, many problems arise which teach both children about bravery. The three bravest characters in the novel include their neighbor Mrs. Dubose, a convicted black man named Tom Robinson, and their father Atticus.

By learning this lesson, Scout was able to act maturely is particular situations, without even knowing it. If Scout was never taught this lesson, she might have said something rude to Mr. Cunningham, costing her the

Later in the book Scout is at a “missionary circle” with her aunt. In this scene on page 308 Scout uses a more mature tone showing that she is growing up. She asks Calpurnia (the maid) if she can help and tries to imitate Calpurnia, “I tried to press my behind against the door as Calpurnia had done, but the door didn’t budge.” she helped serve the ladies and “‘Whatcha going to be when you grow up,... Don’t you want to grow up a lawyer?’ Miss Maudie’s hand touched mine and I answered mildly enough, ‘nome, just a lady’’’. This also supports the theme of growing up by practicing the role of an

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.

Scout is always stating her opinion, and that opinion often gets her into trouble. The way she handles herself, and the actions of others, can result in a comical mental picture. For example, when she was telling her teacher, Miss Caroline, about the social standings, and open ended ways of Maycomb County. She said, “ ‘Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham.”... I thought I had made things sufficiently clear. It was clear enough to the rest of us: Water Cunningham was sitting there lying his head off. He didn’t

The same cool air that flows through the sky, is the same as the rotten prejudiced air, in which, the people of Maycomb breathe every day. It’s an unnecessary sickness that spreads throughout the whole town. In Harper Lee’s novel of To Kill a Mockingbird, it symbolizes the many divisions and classifications used in Maycomb to differentiate different groups of people. Although, each individual is in fact different, the people of Maycomb are blinded to the fact that, “’there’s just one kind of folks. Folks’” (Lee 304). Scout understood the fact that people shouldn’t be judged based on divisions and classifications, and rather focused on people’s similarities. Scout’s mature way of understanding, le her see something, that most people in

One example in which Scout puts herself in else 's shoes is when Scout walks Dill out of the courthouse. When they stop outside Dill is offered a drink from the alleged drunk Dolphus Raymond’s brown paper bag. Scout is quick to judge, because Raymond likes to live with Negroes. “Mr. Dolphus Raymond, the man who lives with a black woman and has mixed children, offered Dill a sip of his drink to settle his stomach. I said, ‘Dill, you watch out, now,’ because I knew Mr. Raymond drank alcohol out of that bottle in the brown paper bag.” (Lee, 268). Scout assumes that Raymond is giving Dill whiskey, because of his bad reputation and the rumors spread around by the innumerable nosy townspeople, but instead Scout is quick to learn that Dolphus Raymond gives people a reason to hate him, so he doesn’t have to have the mentality

At the beginning of the novel, Scout has her first day of first grade. The class’s new teacher, Miss Caroline, knows nothing about Maycomb tradition, especially since she moved from North Alabama. At lunch time, Miss Caroline asks Walter Cunningham, Scout’s friend, if he would like to borrow a quarter from her for himself and repay her the next day, but he kindly refuses. So Scott tells Miss Caroline,” That's

To kill a mockingbird written by Harper Lee. Themes are the subject of a talk, a piece of writing or a person's thoughts. There are many themes present in this great American classic such as courage, racism, prejudice, morality and of course coming of age. Lee communicates these themes with characters, events that unfold and the scenarios that Jem and Scout have to face.