Personal Connections In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum...There was no hurry, for there was no where to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb.” (Lee 6) In Harper Lee’s classic story To Kill a Mockingbird,

1. (56-59) Scout admires Ms. Maudie because she’s honest and kind to them, even though they are just children. On page 59, Harper Lee writes, “She had never told on us, had never played cat-and-mouse with us, she was not at all interested in out private lives. She was our friend.”

classes or the races in the town and hates to judge people. He is a

Matt Berman from Common Sense Media commented, “This richly textured novel, woven from the strands of small-town life, lets readers walk in the shoes of one fully realized character after another.” To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, one of the major messages is identity. Harper Lee lets the people look into the perspectives and identity of some of the characters that make it seem very life-like. In the novel, many characters possess both admirable and dislikable qualities which are shown through their actions. With the nurturing of her father, Scout contains the charming qualities of being courage and mature for her age. The father that instilled these characteristics in Scout, is Atticus Finch. While dealing with the stressful case of Tom Robinson, Atticus maintains to keep the likable aspects of sympathy and strong will. The antagonist in this novel fighting against Tom Robinson is Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell has instilled, in him, the terrible qualities of cruelty and racism. These life-like characters that Harper Lee illustrates gives people a clear vision of who the characters portray.

Far beyond blood relatives, families are people that care for eachother, and they all have influences on one another. These families that everyone finds themselves in make up who they are as people, and shape their morals or beliefs. This idea is portrayed through countless stories and works of literature, including the novella of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck and the novel to Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. Although their books address different topics, Lee and Steinbeck both use their individual characters to portray the theme of family impacts on people's personalities and beliefs.

​In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout Finch, and her brother Jem, learn the importance of seeing things through other people's eyes. At the beginning of the story, the people living in Maycomb County, can be considered "mockingbirds" because they are innocent. Their father, Atticus, leads as a strong example while defending Tom Robinson, a black man convicted for rape. The residents of Maycomb (besides the Finches) fail to see situations through other people's eyes. For example, when the trial takes place, most people do not have empathy toward Tom Robinson, resulting in some of those "mockingbirds" becoming killed. Trying to see situations through other people's eyes can keep someone from hurting somebody who is innocent.

charged at Chris, and Lee with inhuman speed. Lee placed Harper down from his shoulder and reached into his waist to pull out a handgun, but before Lee or Chris were able to fire their guns there was a large hail of bullets from outside. There were bullets breaking the glass windows of the school as it shredded the dogs’ skin like paper. Chris tackles Lee down to the ground trying to protect him from any incoming gunfire. The heads of the dogs start to burst like balloons covering the entire room in enormous amounts of blood. Chris, Harper, and Lee are covered in the blood and body fluid of the dogs. Chris whispers into Lee’s ear “Stay down” he cautions him of the danger of the men standing outside the building. The men outside bash open the

“Invisible threads are the strongest ties”(Friedrich Nietzsche). The connections that individuals cannot see, like love and friendship, are the most influential ones. These connections they have with other people teach them morals like the value of empathy and respect. Harper Lee explores the different types of connections in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel is about a young girl and her brother growing up in the racially divided town of Maycomb, Alabama.

Not every person's perspective in a society is the same. Our perspectives differ due to how we were raised and our personal beliefs. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee bases the story from a six year old girl's perspective. We refer to this character as Jean Louise Finch, or more commonly known, Scout. Her perspective and beliefs are most evident when she gets into a fight with a farm boy named Walter Cunningham, when she and her twelve year old brother Jem go protect their dad Atticus, a lawyer, at the County Jail and when she protects a neighbour across the street from a distressing situation.

Injustice is a theme that Lee portrays through Tom Robinson’s case and both Jem and Scout have trouble getting to grips with the fact that an innocent man is going to jail for a crime he clearly did not commit. The fact that good people can still suffer injustice is difficult to take on at such a tender age. However, the two understand the situation and although they are not happy with the result they are ‘coming of age’ and

Never criticise a woman's choice of attire, especially her shoes, no matter how unsuitable to the conditions, or inappropriate to the situation they are. Duane immediately realised his mistake, and attempted to atone for his error of judgement by holding up his hand. However, the effort to apologise wasn't driven by altruism - Duke had quickly realised that he could hardly expect Karmen to listen to his clothing advice on their planned shopping expedition if she were still seething at the comment about her heels, - unlike the gift of his treasured Pork Pie hat, which was.

Jem´s Moral Integrity Jeremy Atticus Finch, or Jem as we know him, is a twelve year old boy raised under the jurisdiction of Atticus Finch. Jem is the eldest of two and the only boy. Being the older sibling, Jem realizes the long held values of Maycomb, but only as he matures does he understand what it means to have moral integrity. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is not only a novel telling Scout's story, but Jem´s as well.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee states "The novel is a love story pure and simple." When she says this, she does not mean true love but mostly friendship and respect, as well as love to other people. Jem and Scout are two examples of people who show their love for other people in the book.

Through the course of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Jem encounters a series of events that cause him to grow up. During Tom Robinson’s trial, Jem’s eyes were opened to the racism and prejudice of the South: loss of innocence, a major theme in the novel, is a realization of the cruelty and injustice in the world, and that one must develop a tolerance for it.

Imagine you are a lawyer tasked with an impossible case, and everybody in your community is against you, but still there is a shred of hope you cling to. What might that be you ask? That to which you cling are your morals. In To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus Finch had been given the Tom Robinson case, where a black man was convicted of raping a white woman. As a single father of two children, he continues to reinforce his values throughout the trial and during his daunting task of raising his children. In To Kill A Mockingbird what Harper Lee suggests about the nature of morals is that you should try to stand up for what you believe in even if people oppose or reject your ideals. Even when faced with an insurmountable opposition you should stand up for your morals because in the end if your don't follow your beliefs you are just contributing to the problem. We should try to create a voice for what we believe in and impress that upon the next generation so they can continue to exercise their beliefs to make the world a better place.