Personal Narrative: To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee

“Human beings are poor examiners, subject to superstition, bias, prejudice, and a profound tendency to see what they want to see rather than what is really there” ~ Scott Peck. Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird abounds with the injustice produced by social, gender, and racial prejudice. The setting of the book takes place in the 1930s, where racism is a big deal in society. In the novel Harper Lee uses a mockingbird as an analogy to the characters. The Mockingbird is a symbol for Three Characters in the book, Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. The people of Maycomb only know Boo Radley and Tom Robinson by what others say about them. These Characters are then characterized by other people 's viewpoints. In the novel there are many themes that are adjacent to our lives, the one that is found in To Kill A Mockingbird is Human Conflict comes from the inability for one to understand another. “ You never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” (39)

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.

Based on the first six chapter of the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we can see that it moves at a rapid pace. It starts off as the beginning of summer and by the end of the sixth chapter an entire year has passed by. Throughout this year, we see Scout 's, Dill 's, and Jem 's adventures during the summers and Scout going to school for the first time. We also receive some additional background information on the mysterious Arthur "Boo" Radley.

In To Kill a Mockingbird by harper Lee, The story of a southern life in Maycomb during the mid-1930s you begin an exploration of human morality. Each character has morals on how to treat some one of the other race. Atticus and Bob Ewell are two characters with contrasting morals. Tom Robertson an African American male is court between both of them and is dependent the towns social morals in a court case.

During Civil War period, a pro¬slavery mob chained Francis McIntosh to a locust tree, burnt him fatality in 1837. There are a lot of abolitionists, like Elijah Parish Lovejoy, who lost their lives when criticizing lynching. Elijah Parish Lovejoy showed both physical and moral courage fighting against inequality. The real courage of abolitionists during that time was gaining equal opportunities for African-¬Americans, and be treated the same as white people no matter the consequences. Even after a century, there is no slavery anymore, there is still racism happening. In Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird, she shows the real meaning of courage fighting for equal rights in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression.

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.

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

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.

People often fear what they don 't understand. Evolutionary psychology can be traced back millions of years, when fear was avoided because of its repercussion of death. An aversion to the unknown was usually safer. Therefore, evolution culled for human traits that feared and avoided the unknown. Fear of the unknown shows how people become narrow-minded and ignorant to their surroundings, and how people behave when they believe something will happen even though they are solely intolerant. This ideology directly correlates to Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a MockingBird. Throughout the story, the townspeople attempt to overcome their various fears by turning against each other. In Maycomb, fear enforces racism and causes the townspeople to

I continue to experience one of the most sweltering summers ever. Jem now had a further anger than he did when he broke his arm. With football just around the corner, he couldn't have been more sure that he would not even be able to play. Since he now had a broken leg, he knew he couldn't even punt or kick for the team. But this ordeal would be omitted on the grounds that his injury would heal. Today’s weather was as hot as a sauna, no one was outside or could possibly go outside. Sitting in the living room with Jem, looking out the window, my brother and I observed the strangest sight. On the street, we examined a man walk out of the Radley house. “Who do you reckon that is?” asked Jem. “I don’t know.” I replied. A peculiar element about the man was that he wore all black.

Prejudice is a negative opinion or feeling formed about someone without thought or reason, and before knowing anything about them. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the citizens of Maycomb are prejudice and cruel towards Tom Robinson and he is put on trial and convicted because he is a black man. Prejudice was also destructive to Jem, and witnessing it every day left him hurt and heartbroken. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the destructiveness of prejudice is harmful to Jem and Tom Robinson, therefore children and people of colour are the most affected by prejudice at the time the book took place in the 1930’s.

"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 the novel of To Kill a Mockingbird, we learn about the Finch family and also a few other characters that all play pivotal roles in how the story plays out. Scout, the main protagonist in the story, learns about a character named “Boo” Radley from her friend Dill. Scout, Dill, and her brother Jem set out to lure Boo Radley out of hiding and into the open. All of the rumors consisted of grotesque descriptions describing the facial features of Boo. They were trying to get the monster out of the dark. Through the time they are investigating Boo, they find that Boo has been leaving them presents in a hole in a tree on Boo Radley’s property. The children get a little out of hand when they begin to act out the story of Boo Radley. Atticus

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, where the fight for equality is strong. For Charles Baker “Dill” Harris, a seven year old boy, the events in this small town will change his view of the world. Although he is originally from Meridian, Mississippi, he spends his summers in Maycomb, with his Aunt Rachel.

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.