preview

To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

Decent Essays

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, was written in 1960’s based upon themes from 1930’s about racist and prejudice people. This relevant novel, despite its age still is associated with the English curriculum in contemporary Australian schools. The novel is over 50 years old and still in the top 10 books to read in Australia. Told through the perspective of an adult, but through a child’s eye and language. The following novel is based on Jean-Louise ‘Scout’ Finch whilst she learns lessons from her father, Atticus who is defending an African American against a rape charge case. These lessons shape the way her naïve persona looks at the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. The themes of this novel symbolise prejudice innocent people as ‘Mockingbirds’. This resembles Tom Robinson, Arthur ‘Boo’ Radley and Scout Finch. These characters are separate in their own way, but marginalised by the public. Think about all the people today that are cast out because of being different? Would you be one of them? Resulting in the public and media, the term ‘mockingbirds’ considers to most people in Australia today as it portrays innocents as “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.” For instance, Mockingbirds today in society are refugees and asylum-seekers, forced away from their homes in sight for somewhere safe to live. Consequently, Australia unknowing where to put these people, don’t except them in their country so they remain stranded on ‘Christmas Island’. The Australian values statement, states about the ‘Respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual’. So why are we casting away people who are helpless and call upon us? As stated in Norimitsu Onishi’s article being at Christmas Island is “A jail, a high-security jail, and it feels like the asylum-seekers are being treated as criminals.” These poor people are innocent with nowhere to go, these people get marginalised just like Boo Radley. Casted out afraid of people, hoping to make things better for themselves. An example of this is all the terrifying and psychotic names Boo Radley gets called because of the towns

Get Access