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

“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.

We live in a society where African Americans used to be treated with no respect. What if you had to experience the same things that they dealt with? They faced racial discrimination and injustice in court. Mostly in the Jim Crow South, certain groups of white people during this time made it impossible for African Americans to receive justice. Even if they were innocent, blacks could be brutally punished and were subjugated by violence. In court whites would generally win even if they did not have any strong evidence to support their arguments. Especially in the south, during the 1930s, African Americans had little value and basically no legal status in society. They were meant to be treated like animals and, generally, many people believed that whites were always superior to blacks.

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.

Racism has been a hot subject for many years. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it is the central theme of the novel. When Atticus Finch is asked by Judge Taylor, to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, Atticus accepts and defends Tom to the full extent of the law. Atticus even makes the plaintiff, Mayella Ewell, question how the incident involving herself and Tom Robinson, actually happened. Nevertheless, when Atticus made the case proving that Tom Robinson did not commit the crime he was accused of, a jury of white men all ruled that he was guilty. Furthermore, what does this say about the jury, the defendant, the plaintiff, and the lawyers involved in the trial? Did the jury decide guilty because of the information provided by the lawyers or was it because of the color of Tom Robinson’s skin?

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

“‘...Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). After having read most of the book, I now see that this is a significant and meaningful symbol in the novel. It represents innocence, like that of Tom Robinson 's. In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, which is based upon a true story, Tom Robinson, a man accused of rape, Scout Finch, a tomboy and lawyer’s daughter that observes occurrences in Maycomb, resists racist comments, and does not always understand things, who is also the narrator of the publication, both in a childish fashion and in an adult like fashion, and Atticus, a lawyer who is intelligent, respected and respecting, and defends Tom Robinson in his time

People, especially children, often make mistakes that will either lead to great or undesirable outcomes. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the children make several mistakes that help them mature. Firstly, the children learn how courage is more than just physical strength. Likewise, they learn that if you judge someone by their race, you will never understand their true inner character. Finally, they learn that in order to understand someone, you must understand what experiences they have been through and what they are currently experiencing. Therefore, the children’s early mistakes in judgement teach them valuable lessons, which help them make more mature decisions later on.

Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys the concept of courage through differing individual’s perspectives. In the racially segregated community of Maycomb, the existence and genuine form of valour is misinterpreted by the citizens. Audacity is associated with physical strength and will; one’s engagements and victories. However, Harper Lee explores its disparate forms through opposing individuals, defining the presence of authentic courage. Readers are exposed to several forms of courage, from individuals who acquire diverse values and beliefs. Lee discovers intellectual courage through the maturation of youthful Jem Finch’s into an adult. In the life of a principled lawyer, Atticus Finch’s moral fortitude is vividly illustrated as he continues to defy all social conventions when defending Tom Robinson. Through the eyes of a morphine addict, Lee introduces emotional courage in Mrs. Dubose’s when suppressing her unprincipled habits. By imbedding the quality of “courage” in the lives’ of various characters, Lee effectively illustrates the numerous forms of the motif ‘courage’ and its genuine definition: intellectual, social and spiritual.

Everybody knows the book To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the main storylines in the book was with Atticus, the father of the narrator. Atticus was a lawyer and was assigned to defend a black man in the 1930s. The book To Kill a Mockingbird has many events such as jem scout and dill go up to the radley place and jem has to read to Ms dubose for cutting all her calimesa buds. The story takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama. The book was published in 1960. The main characters included the narrator, Scout, her brother, Jem, their father, Atticus, the house maid Calpurnia (she is black women) and other characters like Ms Dubose and Aunt Alexzandrea. Even though Atticus knew that he had no chance of winning Tom Robinson 's case, he should defend him because he would be a good example for his children and that it is the right thing to do so it makes sense to defend Tom Robinson.

In nineteen forty-nine, a twenty-three year old Harper Lee arrived in New York City where she worked for the British Overseas Air

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.