To Kill A Mockingbird Theme Analysis

Firstly, through the Finch family, Atticus teaches both his children that they should never judge a book by its cover, and that courage is one of the most important qualities one can have. Near the beginning of the book, Scout comes home from school, extremely flustered about the day. She then continues to rant about how awful the children at school are, as well as her teacher. Atticus, her father, replies “... You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. Later in the book, Atticus sends his son, Jem, to an old woman’s house, whom he hates, to read to her. Unknowingly by Jem, he is being sent to help the woman out of a morphine addiction. After Jem has completed his service, they find that the woman has died and sent a gift to Jem as a thanks for all he has done. In turn, Jem is completely dumbfounded by the gesture to the point that “[His] eyes nearly [pop] out of his head”. Atticus comforts Jem, then continues to explain the courage of the woman and the heroism of Jem, and how courage is “... when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.”. Not only does this show how Atticus’ core values as a parent, it also shows how he parents and how he wants his children to grow up to be. On the other side of things however, the Ewell family has incredibly loose family values, and certain members of the family are unwilling to help the family improve their way of life.

Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a realistic story that deeply discusses issues involved with the 1930’s that still resonate today. The struggles of life are evident within the believable characters of Maycomb County which is a microcosm, reflective of universal issues. Along with the authentic characters, setting and style also helps to convey Lee’s controversial notions of racial and gender prejudice, and persecution of the innocent, discussing many other ideas within.

One of the themes in To Kill A Mockingbird is the fact that there is both good and evil in the world. In the very beginning of the book on page six Scout describes her town as “a tired old town” and seems to view her Maycomb as slightly boring but with good-natured people. By the end of the book she realizes that not everyone is as nice as she may think they are. There are many examples of this in the book and the first one is on page 83 when Jem and Scout discovered that somebody had filled up their knothole with cement. This made Jem especially upset because he had enjoyed the connection it had made with Boo Radley.

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.

"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. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird" (pg. 119.) Miss Maudie spoke the previous quote with deep thought going into each and every word. She wasn't just trying to teach Scout a lesson, but she wanted there to be a powerful meaning behind it. Miss Maudie's main purpose was to stress that you shouldn't kill something that is doing no harm. Everyday "mockingbirds" are killed, broke down, and mistreated by society.

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.

The theme is very big and come together in so many ways. The first theme is that even though a someone hinds, and seem like to be a bad guy, doesn't mean he is.Next when all the evidence shows a person is indecent.The way these two themes go together is, the kids have to see no justice being do.When the jury of the Tom Robinson knows that he is innocent, but makes his guilt.This ties in with the other themes because the victim father tries to heart Atticus children.After Atticus wins over the evidence, and wants to get revenge.So he goes after Mr.Finch.

“Morals, Manners, Customs, and Public Perception” by Judge Paul Heath Till uses the theme of Southern Civility to express the change and influence our fast-changing society plays in the reconstruction of the Southern culture. Judge Till’s explanation of the Southern Civility can also be reflected in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, who uses the culture of the South to emphasize the conflicts and the expectations that the family must live up to be accepted into the community. The Southern civility is presented in both texts through the understanding and importance of family and the basic concept of values and mannerism.

The first book that Harper Lee wrote have very powerful themes. A theme makes a story good. The author picks the important themes and make a good story. A story can have many different themes, for example in her novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” there are many themes that make up the story. Some of these are Prejudice, Education, Growing Up, Innocence, the Mockingbird theme and a lot more.

The theme for “To Kill a Mockingbird” is that racism kills innocence. Scout gets bullied and doesn’t know why. At the beginning of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Scout’s innocence gets her in trouble by almost causing a fighting, “Do you defend ni**ers, Atticus?” I asked him that evening. “Of course I do. Don’t say ni**er, Scout. That’s common.” “‘s what everybody at school says.” “From now on it’ll be everybody less one.”(Lee 99). Within the first few years of Scout’s schooling, children taunt her but she doesn’t fully understand why. Scout thinks Atticus is just working on another ordinary case when in fact the city of Maycomb is about to witness the biggest form of racism. With this, begins the death of innocence for Jean Louise Finch. As the

The end of the trial brought along a trail of horrid events. First, after being found guilty by the Jury, Tom attempts to escape from Maycomb County Jail as a way of taking matters into his own hands. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful due to his severed arm slowing him down and was shot dead. Next, Bob Ewell openly spit on Atticus's’ face and threatened him and his family, which Scout found odd because after all he won the case. The truth of the matter was, the entire county knew why he won; he won because he was white and Tom was black, and not because he was right. This resulted his reputation going further into the dirt, which he did not take a liking to, and thus wanted to hurt Atticus back, for “making him look like a fool”. However,

The Influence of Setting on Themes and Events in To Kill A Mockingbird Vs. A Time to Kill

The universal theme I have developed from the story “To Kill a Mockingbird” is to never judge a book by its cover. I see this when Atticus defends Tom Robinson even though Tom is an African American in the 1930’s because he sworn by it. I also see this when people judge Boo Radley for things they believe he has done. The author Harper Lee develops this theme by using the literary element word choice.

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.