The thinning fog laced between the leaves of the pecan tree. Morning dew dripped down onto the blades of grass that wove around the tree’s roots. It was a typical Maycomb morning. The street was dark and empty. The woman who always hummed old hymns in her flowers was silently sleeping. The woman who hurriedly walked across the street every morning to tell the latest gossip was snoring away in her bed. The man who kept his reading lamp on through the night was beginning to stir in his bed, and his children, who ran to him every afternoon, were tucked in warm beds dreaming about the day ahead. Rays of sunlight were beginning to splash onto the porch. It was time to go back inside. One last look around the street, and the door closed. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch asks her neighbor, Miss Maudie, if she thinks Boo Radley is crazy. “If he’s not, then he should be by now. The things that happen to people we never really know. What happens in houses behind closed doors, what secrets-” (Lee 46) This novel is told from the perspective of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, a young girl who begins to see the different sides of human nature. In the beginning of the novel, Scout becomes fascinated in a ghost. She had heard rumors and accounts of people seeing him. She heard he ate cats and tapped on windows in the night. The all allusive Boo Radley had become an infatuation. During the evolution of the novel, the attributes of Boo Radley are revealed in small acts of
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.
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.
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.
Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird says, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what” (Lee 149). Atticus is the best example of what courage is this book for three major reasons. First, he is a single parent, secondly he defended Tom Robinson, and finally because he was willing to spare Mr. Arthur suffering by allowing his son, Jem, to take the responsibility of Mr. Bob Ewell’s Death.
The word courage is defined as “The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc, without fear.” In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch strongly demonstrates courage though his words and actions. He defends Tom Robinson even though doing this he puts his family at risk for discrimination due to the prejudice and racial inequity in Maycomb. In addition, Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley displays courage as he reveals himself to those who were around him such as the children after being shut away from the rumors that surround him from the people of Maycomb. Arthur displays courage as he attempts to communicate with Jem and Scout. Finally, Miss Maudie, portrays courage as she watches her house
The main characters of both, Reginald Rose’s play 12 Angry Men and Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, stand up for what is right even in the face of opposition. 12 Angry Men focuses on a jury 's deliberations concerning a homicide trial of which the accused, a sixteen-year-old boy, will be sentenced to death if found guilty. To Kill A mockingbird, on the other hand, is narrated by a six-year-old girl named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch who lives in the southern American town of Maycomb. The plot primarily revolves around her father, the attorney Atticus Finch, striving to prove the innocence of a black man unjustly accused of rape, to a town steeped in prejudice. Throughout both narratives, the main characters, Juror Eight in Rose’s play and Atticus Finch in Harper Lee’s novel, display similar characteristics and stand up for what they believe is right. They share many character traits and emphasise justice. Although they are both are confronted by disapproval, they manage to resist external influences with grace, though their methods may diverge at times. Ultimately both defend the accused of their respective trials, even though it is an unpopular and degraded position in the eyes of their fellows.
In any great film, there is a great message behind it. When you watch a movie, do you ever dig deeper than just sitting there and looking at what is going on? Perhaps, there is a message or a certain belief that film had. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird was released into a great film on December 25 1962. This film is a favorite to many people and is still ranked the 29th best film in the internet data base. The film is based around a court case for a black male that was accused of raping a white woman. It is a very inspirational movie. To better understand the film, you must know the director of the film, the leading roles in the film, the conflicts that the plot had to do with racism, and the themes the film and book withhold.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that shows what racism was like before all people were considered equal. The main characters are Scout Finch, an indomitable six year old tomboy who was smarter than what many people thought, and Atticus Finch, the father of Scout and Jem, who is an extraordinary lawyer. The primary conflict in the story is that Tom Robinson, an innocent black man who is accused of raping a white woman. Atticus was assigned to defend Robinson, but it would be almost impossible to win, because a white man’s word is always taken over a black man’s. Atticus is trying to show the jury what the truth is, and that the court is made to find out the truth, not judge someone by what color skin they have. By the end of the story, the characters have all learned that the world is not always fair to some because of the way they look or talk. To Kill A Mockingbird is a book showing that the justice done by a jury isn’t always the right way.
To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a tale of the reality of growing up in a community involving racial segregations and stereotypes. The story takes place in the 1930s during the early stages of the Great Depression in Maycomb County, Alabama. Scout Finch, the main character, lives with her brother Jem, widowed father Atticus, and Calpurnia, the house cook, in a cozy home that only allows love and happiness to seep through its walls and marinate in the streets that are filled with injustices. The title, To Kill A Mockingbird, represents a major theme in the novel, innocence. When teaching the kids how to shoot rifles, Atticus declares firmly, “Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it’s a sin to
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main character Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their father, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer in the southern Alabama town of Maycomb. They also have a black maid Calpurnia which allows the children to see that black people aren’t so different and thus they do not have the racial bias unlike most of the people in their town. The setting is also very important to note that around the Great Depression southern America was still heavily racist. During one of their many summers, Jem and Scout befriend a boy named Dill, who has come to live in their neighborhood for the summer and the three bond and play games together. Dill becomes interested in the ominous house that contains a mysterious
“...remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (90). Although, it’s not a crime to shoot one in the back seventeen times or send it to prison first for unjust reasons. It’s events like these that make people lose their innocents; in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Nelle Harper Lee, losing one’s innocents is just a pocket-sized trouble he or she has to worry about in Maycomb, Alabama. For Jean Louise, “Scout”, and Jeremy, “Jem”, Finch, growing up in the times of great economic depression and towering racial tension, losing innocents is a sure thing. Which is what sparks this page-turning, coming-off-age, classic; like all great literature of this caliber. Lee delves into a fundamental storyline nourished with interlocking themes of perspective, innocence, law-bending, and even bravery; all come across in a symbolic and profound way, deep in between the lines of Lee’s literary treasure.
d Scout and patted her with a ruler in front of all the students in the class. After that, Jem sympathized with Walter and grinned at him. "Come on home to dinner with us, Walter," said Jem. "We 'd be glad to have you" (Lee 30). Eventually, Scout learned how to respect others and not judge them before she looks at things from the other person 's point of view as Atticus told her, "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 39). In the meantime, since Atticus was a lawyer, he accepted to defend Tom Robinson, who was a black man accused of raping, Mayella Ewell, a white woman. Regardless of what the people in the town thought about Atticus defending a Negro, Atticus and his children endured a great deal of playground and ugliness for the justice. In the end of the trial, the white jury arbitrated that Tom Robinson was guilty regardless of the overwhelming evidence on his innocence. Eventually, Robinson was killed by a gunshot when he tried to escape from the prison.
In the 1950’s Harper Lee wrote a novel that would eventually change how people looked at literature. Her masterpiece, To Kill A Mockingbird, started much controversy. Some people looked at it as one of the best novels ever written, while others despised it calling it inappropriate and racist. The arguments dragged on for years and still continue to this day. This novel, which tells a story about a white man defending an African American and his children, goes beyond race. If you look deep enough into the background of the novel you can see a connection with childhood. Not only does it focus on how the children grow up, but it focuses on the connection the children have with the adults.
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
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.