To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis

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.

Discrimination throughout America has created a monumental impact on people of all race, religion, and ethnicity. It has outraged and criticised minorities of the entire U.S population. It might seem like a small deal, but only the people facing discrimination would know. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the movie The Help by Tate Taylor, are based on similar ideas of how discrimination has made an impact on everyday lives of people who look different and have different beliefs. To Kill A Mockingbird was published in 1960 but is based on the times of 1930’s, a time of the Jim Crow Laws. In the 1930’s, discrimination was a big complication. It is based on the racially charged events of the early 1930’s. Similarly, The Help is set in the early years of the 1960’s, mainly focusing on the idea of gender and racial discrimination. The character Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird and the character Skeeter from The Help have both similar and different views and reactions towards discrimination. Scout thinks it is unnecessary and a waste of time while Skeeter comparably thinks it is wrong and that all people should be treated equally.

In Tate Taylor’s movie, The help and Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird shows and portrays similar and relatable themes. This can be presented throughout both the book and the film from the general context and storyline. The common themes that have been explored in both texts are race and justice. These two themes are displayed from beginning to end across both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help.

As the famous American author, Nerburn, says,“It is much easier to become a father than to be one”(http://www.wiseoldsayings.com/fathers-quotes). Nerburn writes about how hard it is to be an eligible father .He proposes the question, “Do people think their father is the person who is able to provide them a lot of guidance or help? In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem and Scout live with their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer, and regard him as an excellent example. However, Scout and Jem don’t value Atticus as a father with full diligence because he is elder than most of other students’ father and he is not able to do any sports. Due to the accident with the mad dog, atticus’s educations and the case of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout come to understand, respect, and finally admire their father.

Mockingbirds will only sing their hearts, not cause any damage or give their lives to pleasing others. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird great examples are shown of different types of mockingbirds. Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Arthur (Boo) Radley are great examples of representing a mockingbird.

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Help’ are two racially symbolic texts, written by Harper Lee and directed by Tate Taylor, respectively. The novel is set during the Great Depression, in a small town in Alabama, named Maycombe County. The movie was based during a momentous time for civil rights, in Jackson, Mississippi, 1960. Numerous significant attitudes and values, regarding civil rights, are depicted through strategic text conventions, in both types of texts. Themes of ‘Black versus White’, justice and class are present in both texts, but are portrayed drastically differently through the use of language and stylistic features.

“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”...

To Kill A Mockingbird is a universally beloved book that perfectly encapsulates being a child and growing up in the south. Though the times have changed, many of the experiences that Scout and Jem have are shared by children today, from an overactive imagination to playing with the neighborhood kids during the summer to a universal dislike of school shared by most young children. Not everything in TKAM is pretty; though Maycomb might seem like a sweet innocent town from the outside, on the inside however, anger, hatred, and racism run rampant. The town where everyone goes to church sunday is the same town that formed a lynch mob and would have killed Tom Robinson had it not been for Atticus and Scout. Race relations and social justice take

To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAMB), written by Harper Lee, is a conflicting novel that sheds light on the prejudice, racism, and inequalities that govern our nation’s past and present. Taking place in Maycomb County during the 1930’s and at the heart of the Great Depression, TKAMB reveals the systems of segregation that was enforced in Southern states, the disparities that existed in Maycomb County among the citizens, and the ways in which the status quo was maintained to marginalize Negros, normalize abuse and gender relations, and preserve whiteness. The novel poses Atticus Finch as one who embodies justice and his children, Jem and Scout, as characters who represent innocence and ignorance to the prejudice and racist society. Upon further analysis,

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, the portrayl of friendship and racial inequality is expressed throughout this tale. They are based on observations that Harper Lee experienced firsthand. The main themes of this novel is innocence and the racial injustices of the south. The mockingbird represents an innocent being and to kill a mockingbird shows injustice cruelty. Scout and Jem’s childhood is innocent and they have never seen evil in the world until they start seeing the injustices for themselves since their father is reprsenting a black man (To) and they see how the townspeople treat them for doing so. Atticus Finch embodies the ethical voice of To Kill a Mockingbird. He has experienced and understands the evil that the world beholds

In To Kill a Mockingbird discrimination is shown when Tom Robinson was accused of raping and beating 19-year-old Mayella Ewell and is put up to unfair trial because of his skin colour. In The Help discrimination is shown through the isolation and ill-treatment of the maids. This is shown when Minny Jackson tells Aibileen Clark about how Hilly Holbrook has been putting pencil marks on the toilet paper so she knows if

Furthermore, Jem learns the inherent value of human life through the trial of innocent Tom Robinson. When the story first opens, Jem and Scout have little regard for the value of life. This is shown when the trio of best friends halt their fool’s heaven plays to turn to a real, but just as exciting, topic: the mysterious monster with hands forever stained red because he ate vermin raw: Boo Radley. The numerous rumors that swirled around the hidden man were mind candy for the best friends. Before long, Dill has challenged Jem and Scout to try to get Boo to come out of his “haunted” home. While Dill ponders the best way to lure Boo Radley out of his dark shell, Jem puzzles over how to make him come out. He says, “It’s kinda like making a turtle come out...put a flame underneath it…you don’t know what hurts it…” This shows his indifference to what the turtle feels, believing that a turtle’s senses and feelings must surely be duller and less important than his, even believing the turtle’s pain was no

The phrase “To Kill a Mockingbird” is brought up countless times in the novel, a mockingbird referring the individuals in society who are corrupted by other people’s actions or views. There are numerous characters who become mockingbirds throughout the novel, who are unwillingly changed in various different ways or even destroyed completely by evil. Whether the mockingbird is a full grown man like Tom Robinson who is being falsely accused or children who witness injustices too early in their lives for them to comprehend. The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” explores the idea of what it means to be a Mockingbird and how mockingbirds come to be.

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.

“A study by Psychologist Susan Segerstrom found that ten years after graduating, law students who were optimistic earned an average of $32,667 more than their glass-half-empty peers.” (Warrell) According to Margie Warrell, in her article, “Why Optimists Are Happier, Healthier and Wealthier!”, people who are optimistic about life have more opportunities and pessimistic people fall behind. This article connects to the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, by stating that looking for the positive side of life will only give positive results. The story of To Kill a Mockingbird is about Atticus Finch, a white lawyer who attempts to defend an innocent black man, and is told through the eyes of his intelligent and innocent young daughter, Scout. As Scout grows up, she encounters many people who make her angry, but instead of letting these people bring her down, she uses them to learn how to find the good in people. When children grow up facing difficult problems with the people in their lives, they learn to look for the positive aspects of people and treat them with respect.