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Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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Dangers of Mob Mentality: Lessons Taught in To Kill A Mockingbird & Monster Have you ever fallen victim to neglecting your thoughts and opinions to fit in with a group of people? The vast majority of society has experienced this phenomenon firsthand because of the social pressure to be a part of the group. To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, centers around six-year-old Scout Finch and her brother as they navigate their childhood while taking an interest in the mystery of her neighbor and learning about her town’s “disease” when her dad works on a court case involving a black man and white woman. Monster, authored by Walter Dean Myers, is about sixteen-year-old Steve Harmon, who got himself tangled up in a robbery that resulted in …show more content…

The men in the mob are individually hard-working citizens who would not act this way. But when brought together, they lost their individuality and tapped into a mob mentality. When Scout reminded the leader of the mob, Walter Cunningham, of who he was, the mob came to their senses and retreated. Later on, when Atticus is talking to his children about the previous encounter, he teaches them that mobs are made of people no matter what, but they’re all still human.” (Lee 210) Furthermore, referencing that Scout was the only one to snap the men out of their mob mentalities, he says, "That proves something—that a gang of wild animals can be stopped, simply because they're still human.” (Lee 210) To Kill A Mockingbird teaches its readers to judge others on who they are as a person instead themselves with a snare. Even more so, it serves as a warning against the dangers of mob mentality. The 1999 release Monster by Walter Dean Myers serves many reminders to its readers, one of the most important and prevalent being standing against mob mentality and peer pressure. A subtle example of this theme is on pages 61-62. An inmate asks Steve if he wants to speak to the preacher while in

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