Irony is the opposite of what is and what seems to be. Harper Lee uses irony in
her novel To Kill A Mockingbird on several occasions to illustrate the difference
between appearance versus reality. An example of this is the cementing of the tree.
Jem and Scout received many gifts from the oak tree like: chewing gum, a ball of
twine, soap carvings of Jem and Scout, a spelling medal, Indian-heads, and a pocket
watch. Jem and Scout write the gift-giver a thank you note intending to put it in the tree
hole the very next day. When they arrive at the tree they noticed that the hole had been
cemented. Jem and Scout asked Mr. Radley why he filled the hole with cement and
his reply was, 'Tree's dying. You plug 'em with cement when they're sick. You ought to
know that, Jem'; (pg. 67). Later that same day Scout finds Jem crying because he had
realized that Mr. Radley was preventing his brother Boo from pursuing a friendship with
them. The difference between appearance and reality comes into affect. First, Mr. Radley
tells Jem and Scout that he cemented the tree because it was sick when it was not.
Secondly, Jem realized that Mr. Radley had lied just to keep Boo from having any friends
from the outside world. Harper Lee uses irony when Aunt Alexandra hosts the missionary
circle.
The ladies that attended Aunt Alexandra's missionary circle acted as hypocrites.
She says, '...I made a pledge in my heart. I said to myself, when I go home I'm going to
give a course on the Mrunas and bring J. Grimes Everett's message to Maycomb...'; (pg.
233-234). The are speaking with compassion of neglected Blacks somewhere in Africa
while treating the Negroes that live in and around Maycomb with very little respect. Later
in the conversation Mrs. Merriweather tells Scout, 'Out there in J. Grimes Everett's land
there's nothing but sin and squalor'; (pg. 234). Harper Lee was showing us the difference
between appearance and reality at the missionary circle. The ladies feel sorry for the
Blacks in Africa but not the ones in Maycomb. They are both black, what difference does
it make where they live? All the Blacks in Maycomb country are being prejudiced against
by all the whites. A lesson on democracy teaches us that even whites can become
prejudiced against other whites.
Cecil Jacobs talks about his current event article about Adolf Hitler persecuting
To Kill a Mocking Bird is narrated retrospectively from the view of Scout, the daughter of Atticus Finch a lawyer of Maycomb, and younger sister of Jem. The informal vocabulary of the narration is still good enough to suggest it is spoken from the view of an adult Scout, (looking back at her childhood) but is casual enough to be understood by most readers.
Jem sacrifices his ending childhood, childlike privileges and a close sibling relationship with his sister, Scout.
When Atticus discovered what Jem had done, he was furious and punished him by making him go read to Mrs. Dubose everyday. He knew, though, in his heart that she had it coming. Atticus had told Scout that "when summer comes you'll have to keep your head about far worse things it's not fair for you and Jem, but
He also starts to think more about whats right instead of thinking what others will think about his decision. For ex amble when Dill is hiding under Scout‘s bed he calls in Atticus much to his friends dismay. Jem again shows maturity when Scout is beating Walter Cunningham and Jem stops it because he know that the Cunninghams don‘t have money and therefore he cant help it that he doesn‘t have lunchmoney. Jem understands that instead of fighting him they should treat him with respect and he asks Walter to come have lunch at their house.
During Dill’s last night in Maycomb for the summer, the children wrongfully venture onto Boo Radley’s property. He shoots at the children, and in their escape, Jem loses his pants. He later returns to find them mended and hung over the fence. The children continue to find gifts for them hidden in a tree (presumably from Boo himself). A fire at a neighbor’s house breaks out, and as Scout stands in awe of the flames, someone slips a blank...
Harper Lee grew up in Alabama in a time when racism was rampant and the people were merely sustaining an adequate life due to the Great Depression. The story is set in the rural town of Maycomb, which is a place where, “there was no hurry, for there was no place to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with...” Maycomb is a slow paced, hot, poverty-stricken Alabaman town with outdated infrastructures where people had old-fashioned values and traditional views. These factors then spread an outbreak of fear, which dramatically steers the course of the novel.
hitting him on the hand with a ruler. After school one day, Scout sees some tin foil in the tree outside of the Radley home. After examining it, she realizes that there are pieces of gum inside. On the last day of school, Scout sees another object in the tree, this time the object being two Indian head pennies.
“There is an amazing power getting to know your inner self and learning how to use it and not fight with the world. If you know what makes you happy, your personality, interests and capabilities, just use them, and everything else flows beautifully.” The Indian actress, Juhi Chawla is describing how everyone builds inner self through a process of twists and turns in the road of life. One of those people in particular is Jeremy Atticus Finch. In chapter 11 Jem and Scout decided to treat themselves with some toys from a local store when they were rudely interrupted by their gaustly old neighbor Mrs. Dubose. After weeks and weeks of nagging and brutally beating their father down for his case with a negro, Jem finally cracked. He burst through her gate and went straight into her yard at a dead sprint and picked the heads off of each beautiful white camellia in her yard. Once Atticus found out he made Jem pay for what he did with a service of reading to the crippled women every day for a
After Jem suggested a comforting idea that he and Scout could wait until everybody else left to spare her the act of enduring a wave of embarrassment, Scout said, “Jem was becoming almost as good as Atticus at making you feel right when things went wrong,” (Lee 347). Scout described her brother as helpful and considerate. He put Scout first and considered her feelings after the pageant to reach a logical conclusion of going home with Scout not fearing that someone would see her. That is a huge jump from his younger self when he used to tease Scout about being too much of a girl or excluding her, demonstrating an immense growth as grew to be understanding. Pursuing this further, Jem displayed a ginormous amount of courage when Bob Ewell charged at the two when he screamed, “‘Run, Scout! Run! Run!”’ (Lee 351). Jem was willing to let his little sister get to safety and away from the attacker, while he attempted to hold Bob off, resulting in a broken arm. Jem’s bravery and consideration really shined through that night, further establishing his progress towards
Donald Trump, the leader in the 2016 presidential race, said, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending the best. They’re not sending you, they’re sending people that have lots of problems and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists… And some, I assume, are good people.” Having a racist and stereotypical leader for America should deeply bother most Americans, but instead they rally behind his racist ideas and believe them. In America, the land of the free; there shouldn't be discrimination to any certain race or group. it destroys the meaning of America and how anyone is welcome and accepted. In Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, racism and making stereotypes is a big problem in Maycomb. The people of Maycomb have a stereotypical, racist view against blacks and other certain groups of people.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the town Maycomb has a big role in why a lot of things went the way they did. Maycomb was very prejudiced, the way the town is is immensely segregated. Because of the segregation, Tom Robinson lost the case. Even though all the evidence pointed to the fact that he did not do it, since he was a black male everyone automatically assumed he did it.
There is plenty of racism in Maycomb County. White people treat black people with disgust. “ I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it- seems that only children weep”(Lee 285). This quote is talking about how a jury convicted an innocent black man of a crime he did not commit. All of the white folks are overjoyed that the black man will possibly be put to death. In the quote it mentions that only children weep. This is to bring up the fact that only the children of Maycomb understand how terrible this is. Aunt Alexandra is holding a missionary tea in the Finch’s house. The ladies involved in this missionary are well-intentioned, although several racist comments are aforesaid. The ladies involved in this are trying to help children in Africa, though they have African - Americans in their town. The Africans in their town are treated with almost no respect.“If we just let them know we forgive ‘em, that we’ve forgotten it, then this whole thing’ll blow over”(Lee 310). When “them” is mentioned in this quote, they are talking about the Africans. The ladies are saying that the white folks have forgiven
Most of the discrimination in maycomb originates from the adults, although the children do pick up on this. This is shown when adults call Atticus a nigger-lover, so children at Jem and Scouts school pick up on this and in return call him a nigger-lover as well. One quote that shows this is when Francis says to Scout “he’s nothin’ but a nigger-lover” referring to Atticus (page 83). Francis said this about Atticus because He is defending Tom Robinson, who is a black man. This shows how the children in maycomb pick up on the adults racism towards blacks and anybody associated with them.
Sum up, the social relationship between these people here, this old town Maycomb is complicated and pretty tense. This novel has taught us so much, thanks to Harper Lee – one of the greatest writers of all time. It has opened our eyes wider about racism at that time and compared it to nowadays it has become so much better. People are equally, no matter what skin color you are, what religion you have, or where you’re from, what you’re appearance looks like, we are all equal, and we are all the same – human. So instead of treating badly to one another we should all united and make the world a better place.
Even though Jem and Scout routinely receive abuse from Mrs Dubose and often take the advice of their father to be the better person, Jem snaps when the old woman touches on a sensitive topic, their father. Both the children are very protective of their father and he and the family found themselves in hot water because Atticus