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Mark twain and american literature
Mark twain and american literature
Mark twain and american literature
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To Kill A Mockingbird: Childhood Experience
Have you ever thought of an answer to reply to your children, when they ask you, “What was the world like when you were a child?”, “What things that happened that impressed you most when you were a child?” or “How interesting is your childhood experience?”. Everybody must have had their childhood. Some of the experiences may cause them to smile, or even laugh, while some of them may bring back bitter memories. It is always hard to express the childhood incidents or experience in a clear and interesting way, since they were past memories that happened long time ago. Moreover, when a person has grown up, they will never have the same feeling which they might have in their childhood.
However, the authors Harper Lee and Mark Twain can express their own childhood inside the stories they created, in a lively and realistic way. The two novels
To Kill a Mockingbird and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer have a very similar characteristic. It is the way they describe a person's childhood experience, and their feelings and new knowledge that come out from those experiences. This characteristic, however, has given me a big revelation after reading the two novels. The novels show that the childhood experience of a person has a great positive influence on his personality, behaviour, and ways on dealing with others. This idea has been shown by the authors in both novels.
From the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, one could discover that innocent behaviour and misunderstanding can lead a child to view a person or thing incorrectly and incompletely. This behaviour can also lead a child to a wrong perspective. In the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird, the main characters
Scout, Jem, and Dill thought that the Radley family and their member, Boo Radley, as strange and unnatural human beings. They described Radley's house as “That is a sad house....” (Harper Lee, 48). This is a “fact” they heard from their neighbours. Until one day, their neighbour Miss Maudie's house was found on fire. While Scout was standing outside in the cold watching the fire, someone from behind her and put a blanket around her shoulders. Later, Scout and Jem realized that there was only one person in town who had not fought to put out the fire -- Boo Radley. Scout asked, “Thank who?”(Harper Lee, 76). Jem replied,
“Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when he put the blanket around you.”(Harper Lee, 76) It was then that Scout and Jem started
In the beginning of the novel, many falsehoods by the townspeople portray Boo Radley as a villain. These misleading opinions, very apparent in the adult community, are well illustrated by Miss Stephanie Crawford. She helps skew the children's impressions. Since Atticus, although often interrogated, does not want to create a breach of etiquette, he refuses to speak about the Radleys. Therefore, Jem receives most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who insists she knows the whole truth about the Radleys. It is from Crawford that the children learn of Radley's scissor attack on his father and other such interesting rumors. Thus, Arthur Radley is labeled as a "hant", a possibly insane and dangerous man, and the "malevolent phantom” (Lee, pg. #). The latter comes from the fact that Radley had not been seen for many years, and was beli...
...heme of maturation in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, is conveyed through the characters of Scout and Jem, in conjunction with the assistance of their virtuous father Atticus Finch. Early in the novel, Atticus ascertains himself as a major facilitator in the maturation process of Scout and Jem by incessantly providing mature solutions to his children’s predicaments. Moreover, Scout, a major benefactor of the Boo Radley incident and Atticus’ wisdom, has helped her develop into a very tolerant and mature individual. Undeniably, Jem’s remarkable development into a broadminded and compassionate character can be directly attributed to Atticus’ kindness and Jem’s exposure to the Tom Robinson trial. In synopsis, it is evident that the individuals and social circumstances that surround an individual play a major role in defining the type of individual one will become.
In Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" shows and teaches many lessons throughout the passage. Some characters that learn lessons in this passage are Scout, Jem, and Dill. Scout and Jems father Atticus, is taking a case that affects their lives in so many ways. They all learn new things throughout the story and it impacts their lives greatly. There are lots of things including the trial mostly that change the perspective of the world they live in. The kids are living in the Great Depression and it shows just how bad things really where. Scout, Jem, and Dill have experiences that force them to mature and gain new insight.
In this book, Harper Lee clearly demonstrates the importance of not judging a book by its cover in the person of Boo Radley. Boo was a boy never seen outside his house ever since he was caught by the authorities involving himself in mischief. Rumors had been spread that he was locked in his house and chained to his bed by his overly religious family. Since people never really knew what Boo looked like, Jem made up his own theory. “Boo was six-and-a-half feet tall judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face…” (13). Although nobody really knew Boo, he was blamed for everything that went wrong in the town. As the story goes on Boo starts to secretly involve himself in Jem and Scout’s lives. He does things like putting a blanket on Scout’s shoulders during a fire at Miss. Maudie’s house. “You were so busy looking at the fire; you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you.
Have American’s lost the ability to show empathy? Although a novice reader may struggle to see how a book written over 50 years ago bears any connection to our modern world, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird could not be any more relevant. The citizens of fictional Maycomb County acknowledge their flawed legal system and unfair social castes as unfortunate truths of life, of which all you can do is accept it as fact. The sole exception is lawyer Atticus Finch, who is in charge of defending the accused in court. After seeing all too many men receive a sentence simply because of the color of their skin, Atticus embarks on a quest to teach Jem and Scout, his children, that prejudice can be fought. By understanding and exposing ourselves to different people, we can free ourselves from prejudice.
Harper Lee’s only book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is the stereotypical tale of childhood and innocence, yet it successfully incorporates mature themes, like the racism in the South at the time, to create a masterpiece of a work that has enraptured people’s minds and hearts for generations. According to esteemed novelist Wally Lamb, “It was the first time in my life that a book had sort of captured me. That was exciting; I didn’t realize that literature could do that” (111). Scout’s witty narration and brash actions make her the kind of heroine you can’t help but root for, and the events that take place in Maycomb County are small-scale versions of the dilemmas that face our world today. Mockingbird is a fantastically written novel that belongs on the shelves for classic literature that everyone should take the time to read and appreciate for their execution of style and the importance of their content.
A well-developed theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is education and its importance to aging. Scout learns self-control, courage, and standing up for what is right. Scout Finch’s education process begins outside of the classroom with Atticus, her father, as the teacher. The Finch family lives in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the 1930s, where prejudice and inequality of races is widely accepted and practiced. Atticus stands alone, in defense, when a black man is taken to trial for the rape of a white woman. Scout learns, through her father, many valuable lessons that influence her actions daily.
Children may start out simple-minded but shift into maturing young adults. Jem is proof of this in Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird since he has many life experiences with the people who influence him most. Through this novel, Jem matures from an ignorant boy to a young and more to respectful young man due to learning loyalty and valor.
Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach, a contemporary novel, shares numerous characteristics with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written in the 1960's. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, McCorkle's novel documents the life of a young girl in a small southern town. The two narrators, Kate Burns and Scout Finch, endure difficult encounters. A study of these main characters reveals the parallels and differences of the two novels. Jill McCorkle duplicates character similarities and rape from Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to show the reader how young girls think and develop.
In To Kill a Mocking Bird, By Harper Lee, Fictional Novel, Scout has had many experiences with several characters. She as one of the main characters throughout To Kill Mocking Bird, has always judged other characters or people based on their appearances and actions. Atticus, scouts father explains about this by telling Scout that most people are nice “when you finally see them” (Lee, 376). But how does this theme apply to past minor characters? Does scout later realize that her thought of who the person was before was false? .Based on past characters scout judged before and after. The author Harper Lee shows that in the book To Kill A Mocking Bird, misunderstandings and interpretations, demonstrates the fact that, once you put yourself into someone else’s shoes, you as a human being will later understand and reflect on what you knew about the person before and determine who the person really is, and what morals do they as a character demonstrate. Though this, the theme implies to minor characters in the book such as: Calpurnia, Mrs. Dubose and Dolphus Raymond. Firstly, based on To Kill a Mocking Bird, Scout, understands the fact that most people are nice at first when you see them because of Calpurnia. From the book…”Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are anybody steps foot in this house’s yo company” (Lee, 33). In chapter 3 based on this quotation, When Walter Cunningham arrives inside Scouts home, Scout judged Walter. This made Calpurnia as a minor character angry and so she tells scout based on the quote. This makes Scout as a major character feel a bit mad because, Scout never agrees with Calpurnia’s teachings. Though later we as the reader realize that Scout has a change of character in the book. For e...
The world’s greatest innovator Steve Jobs once said, ”Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most importantly, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.” Whenever someone explains what courage is, a person’s definition would be about overcoming fear or having bravery. Despite that, courage can be an individual handling what society is asking from them and going by what their hearts say and dealing with their own problems. This concept comes into play in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, where several of Lee’s characters experience courage by going against societal means. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee connects the characters going through their own conviction to show her theme that courage is going against society’s beliefs and handling one’s situation.
In previous eras, anti-Black sentiment was widely acknowledged and sometimes encouraged in the United States. Black litigants have endured a long history of racist attitudes and inequality in the criminal justice system To this day, it is impossible to determine if jurors present an unbiased trial for the defendants regardless of their racial background. Although the undercurrent of racism may continue to be present in modern juries, racial prejudice in the modern legal system is certainly less flagrant as many.
It all took place in the quiet Alabama town of Maycomb, which was also during the Great Depression. Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and their widowed father, Atticus. Atticus is an honest lawyer, so they are doing quite well compared to everyone else during those tough times. Jem and Scout befriended a boy named Dill one summer who came to live in the neighborhood close to them. Later on, Dill become curious about a weird yet spooky house in their street called the Radley place. Mr. Nathan Radley is the owner of the house, whose brother, Arthur (nicknamed Boo), has lived there for years without adventuring outside. That fall, Scout goes to school for the first time and ended up loathing it. In the knothole of a tree on the Radley property, Scout and her brother find gifts. That summer, Dill is back and the three of them try to figure out Boo Radleys story. But their father puts a stop to it, trying to explain to them to try to see life from another person’s perspective before judging or thinking anything bad about them. The three sneak onto t...
Examine the Themes of Innocence and Experience in To Kill a Mockingbird. Innocence is a time when a person has never done something; it is the first step in the journey from innocence to experience. The second step in this movement is experience and this is what is achieved after. a person has done something they have never done before or learns something they have never known before. This theme of growth from innocence to experience occurs many times in To Kill a Mockingbird and is one of the central themes in the first part of the novel, because it shows how Jem and Scout change and mature over a small period of time.
Harper Lee is most famous for her class, American-literature novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created a story that reflects compassion, loss of innocence, and the courage to break barriers in the midst of adversity. By creating this novel, she built one of the most model, male figures in all works of writing: Atticus Finch. Today, Atticus Finch is seen as a literary hero, and a role model for many people. From his wise council, to his unprejudiced love and care for others, Atticus Finch lives up to the strong title of being a hero.