The Truth In To Kill A Mockingbird

At the end of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout and Jem were almost brutally stabbed and suffocated by Bob Ewell. However, Boo came out of his house them. This took him so much courage as he was afraid of the world outside of his “prison”. His love for the children drove him to do this. Even though in the beginning he did a small bit of bad, he is truly a“mockingbird”. Boo was even referenced by Scout as a mockingbird after he saved Jem and her’s life by killing their attacker. When Boo’s actions were to be covered up, she stated, “Well it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird (by giving Boo undesired attention), wouldn’t it?” (Lee 370). Miss Maudie's quote morphed into describing Boo, just one of many ways it was seen in the book.

The American actress Goldie Hawn once said that “the biggest lesson you can learn in life, or teach your children, is that life is not castles in the skies, happily ever after. The biggest lesson we have to give our children is truth” (Safire 99). In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, a lawyer, emphasizes teaching his children the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To Kill a Mockingbird exposes the reader to several situations in Maycomb County, Alabama, in the 1930s, and reveals Atticus’s beliefs concerning those situations. Atticus’s beliefs can be seen through the lessons he teaches his children, which center around a reliance on coping skills and personal fortitude when dealing with unjust

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

Scout, Jem, and Dill work many summers to try to get Boo to come out of the Radley house for the first time in many years. Jem had been told many things about Boo in his short years in Maycomb, and he tells his sister Scout about the ‘monster’, saying, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (chap. 1). Jem’s ideas about Boo are very biased toward rumors that can be heard around Maycomb. This shows how Maycomb’s people often judge before they know, seeing as no one has seen Boo Radley in over twenty years and people are prejudiced to believing the unknown is always bad. Prejudice and rumors can often not be trusted and Boo Radley is no exception. After Miss Maudie’s house catches fire and half the town rushes outside to watch it burn, Atticus tells Scout, “someday you should thank him for covering you up” then Scout asks, “Thank Who?” And gets a response from Atticus, “Boo Radley. You were too busy looking at the fire, you didn’t even notice when he put the blanket around you” (chap. 8). Boo Radley is not really a bad person, he

In, To Kill A Mockingbird, we often see examples of racism in Maycomb as well as other misconceptions about those are not of a minority. The first example in the book is seen on page 16. In this excerpt, Jem describes how he imagines Boo Radley looks, based off of stories he has heard. He describes Boo as being six feet tall, having yellow teeth, having pooped eyes, he often drools, and that he eats squirrels and cats. As we see later in the story, these misconceptions cause the children to want to see Boo more and more, causing them to see him as a freak and not a person. The second example on page 267 comes from Scout about Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a man who is said to be half black. He calls Dill over to calm him down and Scout narrates by saying,

“But now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruining’ the family, that’s what he’s doing’.” (Lee 110). The power of hatred is one so strong, that it imprisons the Finches and African Americans of Maycomb County. In Alabama of 1920 to 1930, segregation is an established action of the Southerners, it’s a lifestyle. The slurs passed from the mouths of white Southerners and ending with the shooting of a black man, the ways of Maycomb County are ones seen as either shocking or common in today’s eyes. To Kill A Mockingbird is an eminent novel by Harper Lee that illustrates the aspects of discrimination and prejudice, tolerance and courage during a time in America where racial inequality

Boo Radley never harmed anyone, but was judged by the rumors spreading across the community. Although he was not actually introduced until the end of the novel, Boo Radley is set up to be the last discovered symbolic character for the image of the mockingbird. During the last chapter of the novel, Scout comes to the realization that blaming Boo for Bob Ewell's death would be "sort of like shooting' a mockingbird." (chapter 30). Getting Boo sent to jail or killed would be like killing a mockingbird. Boo is truly a good person. He left gifts for Jem and Scout in the trunk of a tree, he wrapped a blanket around them when Miss Maudie's house caught on fire, and he saved them from Bob Ewell when he tried to murder them. Boo Radley is a victim of Maycomb's social prejudice and a perfect representation of Harper Lee's description of the mockingbird.

Comment: through the use of the mockingbird metaphor Lee carefully portrays the inequality in maycomb. Through the innocent, unfiltered eyes of scout, boo and tom are portrayed as the personifications of good who were destroyed by evil. The intention of this stylist feature was to expose the nature of mankind to be stereotypical and show prejudice towards others, rather than empathetic and understanding. Lee also highlights how misunderstanding

Discuss Harper Lee’s Presentation of Maycomb Society in to Kill a Mockingbird Maycomb is described as a “tired old town” where the inhabitants had “nowhere to go”. Maycomb is very similar to any small southern town in the 1930’s, sexism, racism and other prejudices are at a peak, and old traditions are carried out regularly. To Kill a Mockingbird revolves solely around family, community and society, the focus point of the book, the rape trial, would not have occurred if society had not looked down upon the black community.

The characters in, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, often use prejudice against people of controversial issues. Many of the townspeople of Maycomb use prejudice on the families who are on the less wealthy end of the spectrum. Issues are still displayed because of the racial prejudice used against African Americans and those of other races. Lastly, gender is a clear issue in Maycomb because of women’s and girl’s rights and lack of respect towards them because they are female. All of the types of prejudice show that Maycomb has many problems all throughout the town between other families and townspeople.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird the theme is that truth is vital to human relations.

Life is like a thrill ride; one never knows what will be in store for them. Many characters in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee feel the same way about life, having experienced many surprising and unexpected turns of events. This story is about a sleepy southern town filled with prejudice, and a lawyer’s quest, along with his children Scout and Jem, to take steps in ridding the town of its prejudiced attitude. Despite being a white man, a lawyer named Atticus, defends an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. However, everything does not go as was hoped, and the mindset of the society overpowered Atticus’s fair-minded argument. From this emerges a theme regarding the bigotry and bias overwhelming Maycomb: A

Harper Lee's ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ explores the prejudicial issues which plague over the town Maycomb. Harper Lee uses the trial of Tom Robinson a black man accused of rape on a young white girl, Mayella as a central theme to portray the prominence of racial discrimination in Maycomb. The racial prejudice is also widely shown through the characterisation of Atticus. Having Scout as the narrator allows Harper Lee to highlight the gender inequity through a youthful unbiased perspective. The chauvinistic attitudes and prejudiced views of most of the town’s folk leaves Maycombs social hierarchy in an unfair order, victimising many of the town’s people due to their socially non-conforming habits some ‘socially unaccepted people’ including Boo

He is innocent of all of the claims and stories made up about him. He is robbed of friendship and trust with the entire town and is hurt by the cruel remarks made by the townsfolk. He had never done anything to harm anyone or anything in his lifetime; instead he strove to help people whenever he could, but tried to help them as best he could without being seen or noticed. One cold night when Scout Finch was standing frozen cold outside the Radley house, Boo secretly slipped a blanket over Scout’s shoulders to give her warmth. He also gave the two children, Jem and Scout, a few presents in a knot hole of a tree to show his compassion and warm heart. He even helped to protect the two children when Bob Ewell tried to murder them both. These examples show his innocence and that he is obviously not a monster. Scout comes to realise that he has inner goodness that must be cherished, alike a mockingbird. The town had committed a sin by harming him from the cruel things they had made up about him. And it was a sin when Tom Robinson, an innocent man, was killed when it came to his turn in the novel.

did not allow anyone to visit him or have the slightest contact with him. Eventually Boo's mental state triggers him to stabbed his father with a pair of scissors. Boo's fathers causes Boo to suffer innocently by stealing his childhood experiences away from him. This indicates that Boo is a mockingbird because he did very little to deserve this torment and isolation that his father inflicted upon him. Then, Jem and Scout from the beginning of the story never fully understood Boo's past life at all, yet they judged him on things they hear about. They suspect he was basically an evil monster that never comes out of his house. Scout starts the stereotyping by creating a nickname “Boo” for the innocent Arthur Radley. This nickname robs Arthur of his true name and identity, causing him to suffer. Furthermore, Jem and Scout constantly pester Boo in an attempt to discover his actual identity. They tell their best friend Dill that Boo is like a zombie. Jem describes Boo as being: “About six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cat he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 13). The stereotypical image created by Jem completely robs Boo