The Flaws of To Kill a Mockingbird
Is it possible to judge literary classics to have failings or are they beyond contemporary measurements? As perfection is not attainable in any media, "classics" such as To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, can be found to have many instances of fault and flaw. A great novel should ease the reader into learning the story's characters and histories. It should include a plot that keeps the reader up all night wanting to read more. And it should also include a theme that remains clear and focused; to reach out to a reader without being encumbered. However this is not the case with To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird has faults with its characters, plot, and overall theme.
The introduction of both the characters and their histories are flawed. The novel hastily presents a great number of characters within a short amount of written space; causing the reader trouble when trying to differentiate between them. With a few dozen individuals taking part in the goings on in the story arc, one finds oneself constantly backtracking through the story to find previous references and descriptions of the characters to remember who they are. What is worse is the fact that many of the names of said persons mentioned early in the story make no appearance at all later on in the work. "...but they were Haverfords, in Maycomb county a name synonymous with jackass...John Hale Finch was ten years younger than my father" (Lee 5).
"Jem gave Dill the general attitudes of the more prominent figures: Mr. Tensaw
Jones voted the straight Prohibition ticket; Miss Emily Davis dipped snuff in
private; Mr. Byron Waller could play the violin..." (Lee 159).
This leads t...
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...un in his hand" (Lee 112). This lesson or theme is one of several that the children learn in the story, this particular one being from the incident with Mrs. Dubose. The majority of the novel makes use these sub arcs and lessons to add meat the novel. But instead dilutes the true them of the book, and the reason for which is was made.
In conclusion, one finds that because of problems found within the characters, plot, and theme of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, that this piece of classical literature is not perfect. Clearly by realizing its faults one can see that even a well-known and loved book is often no better than any of the mediocre novels of today. Classical works can indeed be judged, and many are far from perfect.
Work Cited:
Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird. (New York, N.Y.; Warner Books, Inc., 1982) 3-5,
99, 112, 159, 164, 247.
You know Dasher and Dancer and Prancer and Vixen. You know Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen. But do you recall the most famous reindeer of all? Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was misperceived at first. All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names, but after he led Santa’s sleigh, they loved him. Misperceptions like this happen all throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. As you read the novel you see original judgments made about characters transform into new conceptions and new understandings. Some characters twist your views of them on purpose, others do it involuntarily. To Kill a Mockingbird shows this happening over and over again. All you have to do is look for it.
Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird was published in the year of 1960, and is one of the few American classic novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize. The racism that is prevalent in many southern American towns in the 1930s is brought to life with profound imagery in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are several characters in the book, yet the true main character is the narrator's father, Atticus Finch. He is a man of great integrity and intelligence. A very heroic figure in more ways than one, Atticus possesses traits like being principled, determined, and, more importantly, he teaches others. When looking at To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that Lee uses lots of description, dialogue, and actions to portray Atticus as a heroic individual.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a phenomenal book that portrays life in the South during the 1930’s. This poverty stricken time, in which many struggled to get through, seemed to never grow dull by the means of the Finch family. Harper Lee’s award winning book was captured in a film containing the same title. Although the movie was in black and white and average in length, it lived up to the vivid story depicted within many pages. This worldwide hit reached many minds, but it is up to the people to decide which one is better: the book or the movie.
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, is an American classic, narrated by the young Scout Finch, the most engrossing character in the book. The novel is about the adventures of two siblings over the time of about three years. Jem and Jean Louise (Scout) Finch were two young siblings who one day met another young boy named Dill. Over time, Jem and Scout grow up under the careful watch of their father and friends, learning how to be adults. They play games, they sneak into a courthouse, and they learn a valuable life lesson. Scout was an intriguing character. As the narrator, you learn more about Scout’s feelings towards the events in the book and soon learn to love her. Let me introduce you to Scout Finch.
Shaw-Thornburg, Angela. “On Reading To Kill a Mockingbird: Fifty Years Later.” Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: New Essays. Meyer, Michael J. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press, 2010. 113-127. Print.
Of all the various approaches to criticism, the Mythological/Archetypal achieves the greatest impact over the entire literary scope, because the themes and patterns unearthed apply universally to all works, yielding results that can be applied to a great many texts. This is because the very nature of the Mythological/Archetypal approach is the exploration of the canon for widespread and pervading symbols, plots, and characters. These are all greatly extant in Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird, an extraordinary examination of the Depression-era South through the eyes of a young girl with rare intelligence and insight, living in a small town which is filled with these archetypal images. To Kill a Mockingbird, when approached from the Mythological/Archetypal viewpoint, is a prime example of the three primary elements that the method of criticism inspects: universality in character, symbol, and plot.
In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it, the second that God loveth it, the third that God keepeth it. But what beheld I therein? Verily, the maker, the keeper, the lover. For till I am substantially united to him I may never have full rest ne very bliss; that is to say that I be so fastened to him that there be right nought that is made between my God and me.
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.
Although the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has over thirty million copies in print since its publication in 1960, it is one of the most commonly banned novels from high school reading lists. Set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, the novel follows the adventures of Jean Louise Finch, affectionately known as Scout, and her older brother Jem as they encounter the social injustices in Maycomb when their father, Atticus, is appointed as a lawyer for the defendant in a controversial case. One might ask why it is often banned and most professionals will agree that the novel contains racism and offensive language; though, all books have flaws – wouldn’t one agree? However, some individuals challenge the flawed characters of the novel rather than the language and the racism. Take Atticus Finch for example, the father of Scout and Jem, a highly regarded lawyer, and an active citizen of Maycomb; what would the world be like without men like Atticus? Many consider Atticus to be a moral hero to readers and a model of integrity for lawyers. Although Atticus Finch is a highly respectable and kind-hearted man, he has several flaws as a character which diminish him as a true hero of the novel.
Scout Finch, our narrator and protagonist, grew up in a close-knit town of Alabama where people have clear social stations according to their living conditions and their family history in the town. The Finch family
Through being educated about courage, the children are able to be more courageous. In the earlier parts of the novel Jem gets into an angry confrontation with Mrs. Dubose while passing her house. Jem gets mad and later in the story cuts the head of all the flowers in Mrs. Dubose’s garden thinking that this action was an act of courage. As a punishment Atticus made Jem read to Mrs. Dubose for a month. At first Jem thought that it would be the worst thing ever but after a while he realizes that she is not such a bad person. After the death of Mrs. Dubose Atticus tells Jem about Mrs. Dubose’s courage. From this Jem learns the meaning of true courage. After the death of Mrs. Dubose Atticus told Jem, “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun” (Lee 149) Atticus is telling Jem what real courage is and about Mrs. Dubose morphine addiction and how she had vow...
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior, to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single parent in a small southern town in the 1930's, is appointed by the local judge to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping a white woman. Friends and neighbors object when Atticus puts up a strong and spirited defense on behalf of the accused black man. Atticus renounces violence but stands up for what he believes in. He decides to defend Tom Robinson because if he did not, he would not only lose the respect of his children and the townspeople, but himself as well.
Everyday, people have to choose between doing the right thing or the wrong thing. The article, “How newspapers reviewed ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ in the 1960,” was written by Joshua Barajas and he uses facts and statistics to show that To Kill A Mockingbird was a successful book. The author uses logical appeal well to reveal that To Kill A Mockingbird is a good book.
Paul Simon, the musician, once said, “If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything” (Simon 1). Racism in the 1930s and until the 1960s was a very serious issue. As stated, authors have taken this serious issue and turned it into great pieces of literature. Many of them have truly shown the seriousness of racism in society. Even though, criticism continues. Some critics have argued that Scout, in To Kill A Mockingbird, is an unreliable narrator. This is simply because Scout is a child. They suspect she is too innocent, naïve, and has an unbiased view. However, Scout as the narrator is a reliable choice because she allows the reader to concentrate more on the exterior of situations, she allows the reader to make his/her opinion, and she gives the reader direction of how to cover events and certain actions in the novel. Scout, as a child narrator, helps the reader ‘read between the lines’.
...a-kind, comes into being. Since we are all unique, we all have a precise and specific “imprinting protocol” which makes us human. Finding our exact “imprint” is “the mystery of the human person” (Cortez, 93). But, “the emergence of higher-level properties and complex systems with novel properties… cannot be comprehensively understood on lower-level terms alone,” affirming that what defines a physical being as being “human,” or what delineates David as a “real boy” is ultimately abstract and unknown (Cortez, 94). It is ultimately up to God.