To Kill A Mockingbird Themes Essay

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.

Harper Lee's 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is recounted by Scout, who at the time was six years old. This book follows her journey in growing up and eventually losing her innocence through realising the evil in the world, mostly portrayed by the racism and prejudice surrounding her. A mockingbird is a metaphor for the destruction of innocence. There are three mockingbirds in the text: Boo Radley, Scout Finch and Tom Robinson. Boo has done nothing wrong except sit in his house and 'mind his own business', and has done nothing to hurt anyone else. All that has happened is he has been accused once again of crimes he did not commit. Scout is a mockingbird because she is thrust in the middle of all of the adults and their prejudices. Tom has done

All humans are born innocent. Innocence is a time when a person has never done something, it is the first step of a human beings existence. The second step is experience. This step happens after a person has done something he or she has never done before or learns something he or she has never know before. The motif of innocence and experience occurs many times in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The process of this growth is especially obvious in Jem and Scout’s journey through out the book.

The 1960’s was the height of racial issues during the 20th century. Even under these circumstances, Harper Lee, a white, female author, wrote her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Not only does To Kill a Mockingbird go against society’s opinions at that time, but it addresses themes that apply to everyday life. One main theme is ‘People tend to take risks for the people they care for’. To Kill a Mockingbird is about a girl named Scout and the problems her family faces. Her dad, Atticus, is lawyer who is currently defending a black man in court. Tom Robinson, the black man, was accused of raping a white girl. The story illustrates how society treats people who are different from them and how those people stick together. One example that supports

Passages undergone in life add up to one's characteristics. Passages are the emotional, physical and psychological rituals one faces in life. The theme of passage is demonstrated in many genres of literature including Harper Lee's coming of age novel To Kill a Mockingbird, David Malouf's historical novel Ransom, and Kurt Vonnegut's science fiction short story "Harrison Bergeron." Theme is a moral value or lesson the reader inferred from literature. The theme passage is especially inferred throughout the narrator Jean Louise "Scout" Finch eyes in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird.

     In my opinion theme with the most impact in 'To Kill a Mockingbird" is Hypocrisy as shown in three main incidents . These are the teachings of Ms Gates about the atrocities of Adolf Hitler whilst she hated blacks ; the missionary circle trying to show how Christian they are while believing that to be a brother of Christ you must be white and finally the hypocrisy of the American court system in the 30's by saying they stand for justice.

In Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, the main character Siddhartha tries to reach freedom of suffering, known as Nirvana. In order to do so, Siddhartha encounters a journey with following Samanas, a group of people who believe denying one’s self can lead to happiness. At one point, he also completely breaks away from Buddhism. He was trying to let his Atman be happy. “Atman means eternal self” (Flood 1). However, Siddhartha had focused either too much or too little on his Atman, making his path to Nirvana difficult.

Evidently, all of the religions in the world have different beliefs. Beliefs are the basis of one’s behaviour. Everything an individual does, traces back to the beliefs they have about the world. Hinduism and Buddhism are two religions that originated from the same nation, India. Both religions share beliefs on different paths to enlightenment, beliefs on reincarnation, and both believe in the spiritual practices of meditation. The purpose of this paper is to further discuss these beliefs, along with their similarities.

Liberation lies at three levels of meaning which have a correlation. Liberation at the social and political level, it states on the oppressed classes and people. It emphasizes on the conflict that arises from the economic, social, and political process that happens between the oppressed and oppressors. At the human level, liberation emerges as a historical process that shows the conscious development of people on their own through social changes. At the religious level, liberation means being free from sin the main source of all alienation from fraternity and the source of all oppression and injustice. This last form of liberation brings man into communion with God. The three processes are inseparable and form a unique complex process (Hillar, 2000).

end and one can be at peace and harmony with the world and all who reside in it.

It refers the soul of each individual living thing. Every living thing including people, animals, and plants have an Atman that forms the essence of the thing. The Atman is not the body of the individual because a body can not last forever. Atman is eternal and immortal meaning it stays with the person when they die and move on to a new cycle. Atman is a key philosophical concept in the Upanishads. According to the Upanishads Atman is different from the notion of an individual soul and could be described better as “deepest self”. They also teach that it is correct to say that you are God, because if you understand reality at the deepest level then everything is God. Next, according to Hindu belief each person has their own individual soul that shows uniqueness and personality. When Atman is experienced fully it is identical with Brahman. Atman and Brahman are timeless, holy, and divine. Atman refers to the experience of the sacred source within one self, while Brahman refers to the experience of the source in nature and the

There are 5 bodies in Hinduism that are relatively different than both Buddhist and Hindu realms. The bodies of our spirit are called kosa, which means “sheath, vessel, or container”. The first body is the tannamaya kosa which is the sheath composed of food. The second body is pranamaya kosa, sheath composed of vital force or also known as the etheric or health body that exists within the physical body as its source of life, breath, and vitality. Manomaya kosa is the third body which is the mind-formed sheath that controls ordinary thought, desire, and emotion. Vijananamaya kosa is the fourth body which is the sheath of cognition and is the vehicle of critical thought, understanding, wisdom, intuition, and creativity. Lastly, the fifth body

Buddhism is seen as a religion that leads more to spiritualism rather than religious teachings. Founded by Buddha, one must achieve their own spiritual awakening, or nirvana, through meditation and ethical living. Most Buddhists spend a large portion of their time in self-reflection or meditation as a way to liberate themselves from perceptions of inadequacy. Through human desires, Buddhists believe that suffering is an imperative part of life’s existence. The purpose of this paper is to understand The Four noble truths and The Eightfold Path, the main goal of Buddhists, and how meditation can relieve one from suffering.

Atman is sometimes translated as "self", "soul", or "deepest self". Each individual has a soul and the soul presents its own uniqueness and personality. At the deepest level of what you are, there is a divine reality, a divine spirit, that everything shares. The Atman is equal with Brahman, it refers to the experience of the sacred within oneself. It could be said that in this world, a spiritual being, the Atman, has a human experience instead of a human being having a

It is through this precious human life and birth that we can free ourselves from ignorance and see how things really exist. From Sanskrit: TAN = To expand, TRA= tool, instrument. TANTRA can be seen as a technology or tool for expansion of consciousness and alertness. TANTRA does not reject our objects of attachment or life conditions, but transforms how we relate to them. This is what makes this practice so compelling today. For example, our inner attitude towards money doesn’t have anything to do with the money we have. Under TANTRA’s view, there is nothing wrong about having money or enjoying life, or being tall/short, or fat/thin, or being married/single, or being employed/unemployed.., but whatever the circumstances, the attitude should be of detachment and equanimity, then a sense of freedom arises. So the world and our conditions become an ally instead of a hindrance in our spiritual development. In TANTRA there are two realities; SHIVA and SHAKTI, SHIVA representing the total matter or the absolute and SHAKTI representing the total energy or creative power. In TANTRA all reality can be divided on what we can see (visvamaya) and what is beyond (visvottirna). To experience the ultimate reality we need to dissolve the notion of duality in our consciousness. We need to become one from two.