To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

The act of prejudice is one that everyone experiences. Whether it be, a person who is distributing hate, or a person who is receiving hate, everyone has contact with it. Although it is present all over the globe, it is prominent in the United States. Both in the present and the past, endless acts of discrimination have taken place and left a monumental impact on the country. The effect that it leaves can be seen in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In this story, sexism, racism, and isolation, are demonstrated in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. As the story progresses, Lee compares these concepts to one another and uses them to make a statement about the problematic nature in America.

We all have those special books that we hold close to our hearts due to the transformative affect they have upon us. Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) is one such book. This story of discrimination may just alter the way we all view ourselves, others and the world we live in. Set in the 1930s throughout the Great Depression in South Alabama, the novel allows us all to come to the disturbing realisation that this novel remains as apt today as it did when it was first written 57 years ago.

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.

Lee implies that people learn lessons through life experiences that school can ever teach. Throughout this novel, Atticus taught his kids many lessons that was hard for them to hear at times, but it later on helped them in the story. Or it helped them grow up and mature. On page 40 of To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus was explaining to Scout that Miss.Caroline was new and didn’t know anyone, and she especially didn’t know the Cunningham’s story, Atticus states, “Atticus said… but if Walter and I had put ourselves in her shoes we’d have seen it was an honest mistake on her part” (40). This quote by Atticus is meant to explain to Scout that Miss. Caroline just made an honest human mistake. He tried to get Scout to realize that if he put herself in Miss.Caroline’s shoes then she might better understand the confusion. Obviously you can’t really be in her shoes, but he said it figuratively to show her why it was important to give her another chance, or at least try to be nice and listen. Atticus taught this to Scout at home later on that night. At her school after that she tried to just get by in her class. Lee also shows mainly throughout that the school system doesn’t help when it comes to teaching children life lessons. As shown in the earlier quote Atticus, had told Scout to jump in Walter’s shoes, and walk around in it. This other quote shows how Scout actually takes into consideration of Atticus’ words, and chooses to not bother Jem because she tried to imagine what it had

“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”...

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.

During the Great Depression, racism was a common practice in the southern states of the US. Negros and those who opposed the intolerance were often discriminated by the rest of the bias and ignorant society, who believed in white supremacy and superiority over the other races. Maycomb, a racist town, exemplify this discrimination, imperiously judging others they view as being dissimilar from themselves. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, the author, weaves a brilliant story of prejudice, discrimination, and racism shown through the novel’s several characters and events, producing a mirror reflection of America’s racist society in the 1930’s.

America is the land of the free where everyone has been created equal... or is it? It becomes evident through this book that this idea cannot be true unless prejudice is completely overlooked. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee depicts the prejudice of 1930’s Alabama through racism, sexism, and social status, which plays a major role in how people are treated and expected to act. Through race, gender, and economic status the citizens of Maycomb marginalize certain groups of people making them seem inferior to them.

We can use the characters, the setting, and the relationships between characters in To Kill a Mockingbird to understand how the past affects the future. When Lee’s novel takes place, it is during the prime of racism and discrimination in America, specifically Alabama. Caucasians are incredibly rude to African-Americans solely because of skin color. Many cities and states are segregated during this terrible time period. To Kill a Mockingbird accurately illustrates how life during the 1930s was when it came to racism, the Great Depression, and false rape accusations.

To Kill A Mockingbird, a coming of age novel written by Harper Lee, is set in a fictional small, southern town called Maycomb in the 1930s. From simple details in a childhood story, Lee apprises how the world is full of pain caused by prejudice. In early chapters of the novel, Atticus, the father figure in the novel, remarked that “You never understand a person until…”. However, people wouldn’t care less. So instead of understanding, they start judging.

In Maya Angelou’s words, “ Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Society has begun to accept all races, genders, and beliefs, and has achieved “the political correctness,” but much of the world’s history is based upon hatred and individuals who discriminated based upon these issues. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, sets this novel in the 1930’s, in Maycomb County, Alabama, USA about the Finch family: a daughter, Scout, whos the narrator of the novel, Jem, the son, and the father, Atticus, who is a prestigious lawyer. The father is given a case to defend a black man who was convicted for allegedly raping a white woman. In which, the town folks disagree with a white man

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about prejudice and reveals how tearing people down due to their demographic features can damage a society. The social basis of prejudice was an issue that many Americans faced in the early 20th century, but Lee specifically focuses on the discrimination that takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. Lee essentially explores the social realities throughout this piece by revolving the story mainly around the bigotry that took place during this time. Several types of prejudice are present in Maycomb, the major types being race, social class, and gender.

One of the main focuses throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is racial discrimination in the 1930’s and it emphasizes the lack of candor relinquished to African Americans. Racism has always been a major component in things, but the negative impact of racism has continued to gradually evolve and dissipate .

“Racism is man’s greatest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”- Abraham Joshua Heschel. This quote by Mr. Heschel perfectly summarizes the amount of pure racism that was present in the southern United States, all because millions of people believed in one false statement, that separate was equal. The intriguing novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. In this novel, she has utilized the lifestyle and attitudes toward “African Americans” in the 1930’s to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee’s attitudes and personal values, as the novel appears to be autobiographical to her days as a child. The racism that is apparent and a focal point in the novel is, although fiction, closely matched to that of a racist era in America, during the 1930’s, also known as the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression hit virtually every group of Americans. Sadly, African Americans were hit the hardest. Already by 1932, half of the black Americans were forced out of their job, and racial violence soon became more common. Lynchings in the South went up 75% from 1932 to 1933. These hardships experienced during the Great Depression were also represented in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Jem and Scout Finch, in a town corrupt with people believing false assumptions, try to show their understanding towards the negroes, with the help of their father, Atticus. During that time, the case of a young black man being