To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

Author uses Atticus teach these lessons through his wise words. Atticus teaches these lessons to not only the audience, but Jem and Scout too. Some of the main things he teaches his kids about are understanding people, using the mind instead of the body, the cruel reality of stereotypes, and true

The intriguing novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. Lee has utilised the lifestyle and attitudes towards ‘African-Americans" in the 1930's to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee's attitudes and values. The dominant reading of the novel is focused on the issues of racial prejudice, but there are also a number of other alternative and oppositional readings. Examples of this are the Marxist and feminist readings which can be applied to the text.

As Stephen King once said, “The trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool.” In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee, Jean Louise Finch, a young girl who also goes by Scout, experiences many things such as racism, friends, and family. Her father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer who is sacrificing his reputation to defend a black man, Tom Robinson. Scout and her friends take it upon themselves to uncover the mystery of Boo Radley. In this book the mockingbirds represent innocence. Many characters take on the role of the “mockingbird". Exploring Lee’s title, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence.

The ambition of oneself to pursue justice and righteousness may result in prosecution. In the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee, and movie "A Time to Kill" by Joel Schumacher, each demonstrate one’s open-mindedness and forward thinking leads to penalization through protagonists Atticus Finch and Jake Brigance. Both egalitarians take the position as an attorney for an African American and are prosecuted in the process.

“It's right hard to say," she said. "Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks' talk at home it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks' talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses, "But Cal, you know better," I said. “It's not necessary to tell all you know. It's not ladylike—in the second place, folks don't like to have somebody around knowing more than they do. It aggravates 'em. You're not gonna change

“It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right,’ he muttered”...

The use of a young white girl enables the reader to gain an honest account of the white community in Maycomb, Alabama. Instead of focusing solely on Tom Robinson and the black community, a significant portion of the novel is devoted to the description of the Ewell family. Although this approach seems counterintuitive to denouncing the discrimination of the black population, it makes light of the evils of Bob Ewell, who engages in an incestuous, abusive relationship with his eldest daughter. Scout offers a description of the Ewell children that reflects their father’s negligence: “No truant officer could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings." (170). Furthermore, Scout makes the observation that church is “Maycomb’s principal recreation” (11), and the Ewells abstain from anything resembling religion.

Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird details the life of young Scout Finch and brother Jem Finch, who is growing up in a time of racial uniqueness. Jem and Scout Finch are what most would call a typical family growing up in the small Alabama town of Maycomb. They encounter many different obstacles during their childhood missions with many characters making the novel an interesting read. Throughout the book, Lee is showing Jem and Scout grow up and become mature young adults. This novel, written by Harper Lee, demonstrates the themes of growing up, Innocence and most importantly, racism.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of the lives of Jean Louise “Scout” Finch and her brother, Jem, growing up in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. Their father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer defending a black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman. Throughout the book, Scout and Jem start to understand the world in more adult ways. The Tom Robinson trial allows the children to view the world with a much wider point of view. They start to notice and comprehend all of the problems of discrimination, prejudice, ignorance and hypocrisy in the Deep South of the 1930s.

To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee, 1960), an insightful and gripping novel composed by Harper Lee in 1960. Originating in Alabama South America, based during The Great Depression. This didactic novel highlights the controversy of racism, dominant discourses and social inequality through the storyline of young ‘Scout’ who has grown up with these prominent social issues in her everyday life. Scout finds herself having to find a new perspective as her father takes on the risky case of defending a wrongly accused African American man of rape.

The visit to Calpurnia’s church is included in the novel to visually demonstrate the black community and to display Lee’s ideas about the racial discrimination of African Americans and whites in the 1930’s. In the novel, Scout and Jem’s journey to the First Purchase M.E. Church is the first glimpse of the black community in Maycomb,

What insight does the reader gain about race in Maycomb from observing Scout’s visit to Calpurnia’s church? Consider race, relations, racism, and community. Support your ideas with text-based evidence.

Mayella Ewell is an abused young woman in Maycomb, Alabama who accused an African American man Tom Robinson of rape during the Great Depression in the early 1930’s. Mayella took advantage of the Jim Crow laws so she could end the mental and physical abuse her father caused. Since Mayella is white and female, she has power. Although she lives behind a dumpster this still provides a significant amount of power for her. In the book “To Kill A Mockingbird” Harper Lee shows Mayella’s power for class during the trial.

Having difference in opinions, Calpurnia and Aunt Alexandra offer a model to Jem of how to deal with a world that cannot accept people for who they really are through social class prejudice. Jem learns that people act differently around who they trust. Cal does not get the privilege of being the same person no matter where she is, because she has to live a double life to fit in. As Cal understands that Jem needs a model to follow she gives a situation to him asking, “Suppose you and Scout [talk] colored-folks’ talk at home it’d be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I [talk] white-folks' talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses" (Lee 140). Calpurnia compared to the black community makes Jem realize for the first time that Calpurnia actually continues to exist when she's not present at the Finch’s house. Sharing the ideas of social class prejudice, Cal informs Jem about the way one acts when around certain people or in certain places. This differs completely from

The story, in the eyes of two innocent children Scout and her brother Jem, of the discrimination and hypocrisy throughout the town. Maycomb County, Alabama, faces an African American’s injustice while the children learn valuable lessons from their father, Atticus and their housemaid Calpurnia, during the Great Depression. All the while, we are learning from it. To Kill a Mockingbird teaches us the lessons of morale, justice and equality.