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.

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

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

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.

People of different race go through an unfathomable amount of issues concerning their race and social class. Problems with race and social class enhance a considerable amount of problems which takes place throughout the novel. Throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, three main conflicts arise throughout the story. The people of the town are extremely prejudice not only with race but with social class, also during the novel, the residents of Maycomb show an unfair bias towards people of a different races and social class, but guilt and innocence is the resolution of it all.

"Never make someone else suffer for the mistakes which you make. Be responsible and account for what you do." The Ewell family does exactly this to Tom Robinson, blaming him for a crime he does not commit, and getting away with it. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a story about the lives of people in the county of Maycomb in the 1930 's. Lee uses mockingbirds to symbolize innocence and purity, she explains that mockingbirds should not be killed, unlike other birds, because they do not cause destruction, they only sing for others ' enjoyment. Tom Robinson is an African-American man who gets accused of raping Mayella Ewell, by her and her father, Bob Ewell, who is a drunk. In court, the jury rules Tom guilty, only based on the fact that he is black, and the Ewells are white, however, Tom is, in fact, innocent and has done nothing wrong. Tom Robinson best represents the mockingbird in the text, because he symbolizes innocence by only wanting to help people, with no bad intentions.

In To Kill A Mockingbird it is a recurring theme for a lack of education to develop into a lack of judgment. This novel, by Harper Lee, includes many lessons taught by Atticus Finch to his children. He taught Scout and Jem, his children, that race and appearance does not affect the quality of a person, you will never understand one’s actions until you see things from their point of view and lastly to look past the evil in everyone. Atticus has great domination over his children and the way they are growing up. Education can help overcome the judgment in a community, but develop one as well.

Everyone grows up hearing elders saying how “back in their day”, things were done differently. Although it often makes people roll their eyes when they hear that saying, it tends to be true. Each generation has its own pros and cons, and each time period is unlike the previous one. This is especially true for the 1930s, where discrimination was at its peak since the Civil War, and the majority of the United States was in extreme poverty. This sets the scene for the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, where the young narrator, Scout, tells the events that happen in the small town of Maycomb. The plot of the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, has a more profound effect since it is set in the 1930s.

“Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” ~ Atticus Finch. Atticus, a major character in Harper Lee 's classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” says this after giving the children rifles. Atticus indicates they can shoot at any kind of bird besides the mockingbird, because unlike other birds who will eat peoples plants and ruin their gardens, the mockingbird will just sing. The mockingbird exemplifies one who is weak, or defenseless. To kill a mockingbird is equivalent to one who takes advantage of any who are weak. “To Kill a Mockingbird”, written by Harper Lee, is often considered a direct influence from her own life in 1936.Published July 11th, 1960, Lee was 30 years old. She died February 19, 2016 at 89 years old.

It is the 1930s in a small town in Alabama, Maycomb County to be specific. The Great Depression is in full swing, people are dirt poor, slavery is abolished but segregation is not.

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 her seminal novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces many racial controversies that

“There is no such thing as a people who are all wicked or even all good,” states the main character in Catherynne M. Valente’s novel, The Girl Who Soared Over Fairyland and Cut the Moon in Two, when - after meeting both friends and foes - she realizes that there is both good and evil within one’s heart. A similar idea is presented by Harper Lee in her classic, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee’s novel is set in the 1930s, in the small southern town of Maycomb where prejudice and rumors surrounding outcasts are commonplace and a fact of life. The plot follows two siblings, Scout and Jem, and their interactions with other Maycomb folk while growing up. The events center around Tom’s trial - where he, a man of color, is wrongly accused and convicted of raping a white woman. Throughout the story, the children meet many different people who they initially deem to be good or bad, but later realize they made hasty judgement Several of these characters - which, despite first appearances, are later revealed to be good - include a white woman who lives in poverty and does not understand common courtesy or friendship, a lady of society and class who has unjust prejudices against anyone below her, an outcast of society hidden away in a house rumored to be haunted by a malevolent phantom, and a mean, old lady trying to break free of an addiction to morphine. This idea, that good can even be found in people originally seen as bad or downright wicked, was an extremely optimistic view for Lee’s

“Racism is man’s greatest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”- Abraham Joshua Heschel. This quote by Mr. Heschel perfectly summarizes the amount of pure racism that was present in the southern United States, all because millions of people believed in one false statement, that separate was equal. The intriguing novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. In this novel, she has utilized the lifestyle and attitudes toward “African Americans” in the 1930’s to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee’s attitudes and personal values, as the novel appears to be autobiographical to her days as a child. The racism that is apparent and a focal point in the novel is, although fiction, closely matched to that of a racist era in America, during the 1930’s, also known as the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression hit virtually every group of Americans. Sadly, African Americans were hit the hardest. Already by 1932, half of the black Americans were forced out of their job, and racial violence soon became more common. Lynchings in the South went up 75% from 1932 to 1933. These hardships experienced during the Great Depression were also represented in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Jem and Scout Finch, in a town corrupt with people believing false assumptions, try to show their understanding towards the negroes, with the help of their father, Atticus. During that time, the case of a young black man being

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Taught me many lessons that I apply to my life each day. To Kill a Mockingbird has made an incredible impact on my life and has made me realize many things. As I have gotten older I have begun to realize how things are not always as they appear to be. Whether it is people, situations or even opportunities. You may think you know or understand someone when in reality you may not even understand anything about the person at all. Today, society is often quick to judge and make assumptions about individuals without even knowing their story and sometimes even half of their story. Being a teenager and a young adult in the world today can be difficult. We are told how to act and how to dress according to the world’s standards. Harper Lee taught me the importance of being myself through her story about Scout. I now know how important it is to stand up for myself and never let anyone belittle my values.