Who Is Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird?

The novel “To Kill a Mocking Bird” is based in the fictional small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. When slavery and the Civil War were still present in the people’s way of living and the civil rights movement of the 1950s and '60s are far from close. The novel focuses on the Finches: Scout, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus, and the trial of Tom Robinson and how it affected them and the town. Witnessing the injustice of Tom Robinson’s trial changed Scout Finch in many ways. Scout learns that there is more than one type of courage, she learns about race and its complexity, and she also changes how she views the people around her by putting herself

Being at the top of the social hierarchy has been a must for every American of past generations, but can lead to fatal damages for some trying to obtain that goal and a cause to ruin people’s lives. In a remarkably triumphant story on compassion, Harper Lee explored the horrors of racial prejudice in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Set in the 1930’s, the poor town of Maycomb, Alabama has been hit by the depression hard, which created a vast, complex social pyramid, with distinct families and lifestyles. At the Finch household, composed of a little nine year old girl, Scout, a twelve year old boy Jem, and their father Atticus, proceed through a whirlwind of events throughout the next few years. Atticus, a lawyer who is a hardworking, honest man at the top of the social hierarchy of Maycomb, has to defend a colored man by the name of Tom Robinson. This happened to be very unusual for the time period, as the family has to transcend through the struggles in a racial prejudice town and learn the raw nature of the worst in humans, thus trying to overcome these events through compassion. The author utilizes metaphor, characterization, and mood to describe the situation of Maycomb, it soon then becomes very clear that the dangers of ruining innocence can lead to a vast road of horrors and evils.

“To Kill a Mocking Bird” is not only a great book but also a book that portrays a clear and concise message. This book is about the murder, immense persecution, and hatred towards an innocent man, Tom Robinson. This book Written by Harper lee is about a rape case against an African American man during the years of 1932 to 1935 in Maycomb, Alabama. These years were filled with racism, hatred, and segregation. A rape charge against a black man, Tom Robinson, with the victim being a white woman, Mayella Ewell, was ultimately a death sentence during these times no matter the actual truth to the incident or if it even occurred in the first place. This story portrays the truth of racism and the extreme level of tyranny directed towards African Americans. Lee lays out in detail the entirety of Tom Robinson’s case from the

In Harper Lee’s historical novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the main protagonist, Atticus Finch, delivers his final argumentative response to not only prove the innocence of Tom Robinson, who was allegedly convicted of raping Mayella Ewell, but to address the inequality and immoral code of conduct against African-Americans faced in society. Finch’s purpose is to publicise the unethical treatment blacks receive from whites and to show that they should not be the culprit of society due to their race. He adopts a passionate and sincere tone in order to emphasize the discrimination African-Americans face in society to the people in the courtroom.

As the United States “progresses” in economic, educational and technological advancements we still are fighting for racial equality. With more than 50 years since the brown vs. board of education case there is still incidents like Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and Phiando Castile where many questions are still unanswered. However, Harper Lee dealt with these same problems in 1960 when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created an emotionally confronting story. Lee writes through the eyes of “Scout” a lawyer’s daughter in a small sleepy town of Maycomb in Alabama during the great depression. Throughout the book “Scout” learns coming of age lessons from Atticus and her own experiences. But when Atticus takes on a case defending a black man (Tom Robinson) convicted for rapping a white woman (Mayella Ewell) and is found guilty. “Scout” her brother Jem begin to understand the effects of the prejudices in society. Therefore, Lee applies the literary concepts of diction and tone to revel the truth that prejudices in society negatively affect the way people treat each other in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

Whites go to such extreme lengths at punishing the blacks by sending each other to jail or attempting to murder one another. Due to unfortunate events, Tom Robinson, an innocent black man, who was framed and forced to go to trial, had to experience the most traumatic events a person could imagine. The day before his trial, a mob attempted to kill him, not wanting to give him the chance of being able to go on trial. They thought that it would be best to end things then and there. The reason for the trial was because of Mayella’s false accusation, testifying that Tom had raped and hit her, knowing that he was an easy target as he was black and people were less likely to believe his side of the story. To her, he was her scapegoat. She was doing this in order to save her father from the humiliation that he has an incestuous and abusive relationship with her, and also because she does not want to be punished by her father if he were to find out that she tempted a negro man. Unfortunately, she won the trial and successfully sent Tom to Jail where he tried to escape and was shot 17 times to his death. One way to see this is that they were just preventing Tom from escaping and may have killed him unintentionally. The other way is that they did not consider that it was a human being before them, but solely looking at him by the pigmentation of his skin. Their actions make it

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s use of indirect and direct characterization of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, father, and citizen of the predominantly racist county of Maycomb, reveals the town’s harsh views on Atticus because of his rightful but risky, defense of an African American man, Tom Robinson, accused of rape. The people in the racist society of Maycomb believe that “‘[Atticus is] nothin’ but n----- lover” because he defends Tom Robinson (Lee 110). Being associated with people of color in this town destroys your reputation and causes people to look down on you, as they think that colored people are less human than whites. Atticus, therefore, seems less valuable as a person by association with “n------s”. Even

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores the consequences of a societal structure founded on bigotry, racism, prejudice, and the hunger for power. Lee employs a variety of literary techniques to portray the consequences of Maycomb’s errant societal structure or even social hierarchy. Thus, Lee uses 1930s Maycomb to critique and evaluate the flaws in her own 1960s America. A particular incident which is central to Lee’s underlying message is the trial of Tom Robinson. Robinson’s trial serves to reveal the institutionalisation of racism and bigotry, as well as the insatiable thirst for power created by the social hierarchy.

In Harper Lee's very fruitful novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the creator investigates the issue of equity utilizing the image of the mockingbird. Set in the 1930s Deep South - a period of extraordinary narrow mindedness and racial disparity - the novel unravels as a record of bad form to the most generous yet unreasonably blamed subjects for the town of Maycomb. The kind hearted, however African-American Tom Robinson is unjustifiably put on trial for the charged assault of youthful Mayella Ewell. In spite of racial treacheries, Boo Radley is defrauded by the group taking into account the unfair town legends the Maycombians have made about him, driving him to live in a state of banishment inside his home. Atticus Finch, in spite of the fact that

A closer look at the ways of the South during the time period 1925 through 1935 reveals the accurate representation of society in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Many of the fictional events occurring in the novel are closely related to actual historical events that took place in the South during the time period in which the book is set. Most importantly, the trial of Tom Robinson illustrates how life was for a black man in a world dominated by white men. Tom Robinson’s trial can be paralleled to the trials of the Scottsboro boys, the horrific lynching that occurred in the South, and the general attitude of white society towards black society during the time period.

Arguably one of the greatest books of it’s time, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird has successfully become a classic and powerful piece of American literature since it’s release in 1960. Connecting loosely to Lee’s life, To Kill a Mockingbird is narrated through the eyes of a young girl nicknamed Scout, similar to young Lee, through which she describes how she sees society and it shows her starting to comprehend what is happening around her. Through Scout’s life it is shown that the main idea prevailing throughout To Kill a Mockingbird is the concepts of racism in society as well as systematic social injustice. While Lee shone

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” (King). A timeless phrase from one of equalities most notable voices. Over 50 years later, these words of Martin Luther King Junior ring out, calling for racial barriers to crumble, and those who are ignorant would say they already have. But dig a little deeper, and they are found to be still standing, now decorated with facades of constitutional equivalence, and buried beneath years of tepid acceptance. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, written in the same time period as Martin Luther’s words, evident racial bias is presented through a court case in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama. A black man by the name of Tom Robinson is charged with the rape of a young white woman, and Atticus Finch, the father of the young narrator, Scout, is the audacious white man that takes up the position of

Setting in the 1930’s, Harper Lee’s fictional portrayal of the typical black man in To Kill a Mocking Bird set off what has happened to hundreds if not thousands of African-Americans in those times. Her book was generally about the racism that existed in the southern states of the U.S. “In scripting Mockingbird, Lee sought to document the region 's historic problem with racism and expose the anatomy of segregation at the moment of its legal dismantling. In doing so, she perspicaciously commented on the institutional mechanisms of racial hierarchy, and ultimately turned to fiction to facilitate cultural change in the face of law 's failure to end the injustices visited upon black citizens of southern towns.” (Halpern) Years past this horrendous time, the question still awaits, has racism truly ended? Did Atticus Finch do all he could to help Tom Robinson to prevent his fateful end? In this paper, I will answer these questions. But first, here’s a few real-life examples of African-American men who just like Tom Robinson been falsely accused.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee, published in July 11th, 1960. The novel was a huge success, especially because it is based on the period where America was leading with the human inequality among races; to represent this period, it is located in the city of Maycomb, Alabama, in the year of 1930. It is narrated by the a child called

In July of 1960, a soon-to-be very famous book was published. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by the one and only Harper Lee, and was soon to be a household necessity. As many people would discover after reading the novel it seems Harper Lee definitely challenged the social status quo of the 1930s. She consciously addressed the controversial habits of the time that hadn’t been addressed or discussed. She talks about the lives of black men and women, white children, the pressure to act like a girl, and the lives of the daily people living in a small town.