A masterpiece of American literature, winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1961, an instant bestseller was Harper Lee’s simple love story. Harper Lee, home to a small Alabama town called monroeville, was the Author of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel captures the life of a young women and her childhood growing up in a small southern town, Maycomb county, Alabama. As this young woman gets older, she learns more and more about life through the townspeople of Maycomb County; Courage, kindness, cruelty, and love are some of the main lessons portrayed throughout the book. The townspeople, especially a few select ones, are a huge influence in the childhood of this young women, they also help you understand the town itself and the people living there. Lee does an amazing job of helping you understand the lifestyle in the town and helps put a vivid visual and understanding in ones mind while reading the novel. Calpurnia, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Tom robinson are just a few characters home to Maycomb County, that make the novel a masterpiece of American literature.
Calpurnia is a cook for the finch family, but is considered to be family to them and is a big influence in their lives; Scout finch, the youngest of the two finch kids says, “Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angels and bones” (Lee 6) . She is a colored women and in Maycomb county, colored people are not considered people to most, but unlike the rest of Maycomb County, the finch family did not see them that way and respected colored folks as they would white people. Calpurnia is a huge supporter of the Finch’s and is like a mother to Jem and Scout, since their mother died when Jem and Scout were very young. She watches over them and is a big influence in jem ...
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... Boo Radley teaches a lesson of not to jump to conclusions about people or believe every rumor you hear, instead get to know them first and is a main character in the book because many events that happened involve Boo. Calpurnia helps understand the story and is vital information in seeing how she affects the way the finch family lives and it shows how she is kinda like a mother figure and also how the finch’s need her in their family. So a simple love story isn’t always about love between two people, but also about the life you live and Harper Lee used it in this way by showing her love for the south and her family and her simple old fashioned town. So in this case, everyone has their very own little love story and Harper Lee's love story was a masterpiece of American literature.
Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, Inc. 1982.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a remarkable novel following the childhood of Jem and Scout, the son and daughter of Atticus Finch. Living in a small and drama filled town of Maycomb County they encounter a great deal of people who do not stand by their word. Hypocrisy occurs throughout this novel first by a man named Dolphus Raymond, then by two women Mrs. Merriweather and Miss Gates.
“Naw, Jem. I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” (Lee, page 304.) This is one of the famous quotes in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. In the book there is an important character named Calpurnia. Calpurnia is the Finch’s housekeeper and cook. Calpurnia is also the bridge between the whites and the blacks for the Finch family children, she is an important female role model, and she also teaches the children important lessons on respect, kindness, logic, and finally discipline. Without Calpurnia, the book would not be the same.
The story “To Kill a Mockingbird” is about Scout Finch and her family and how they are affected throughout the court case of Tom Robinson. In chapters 12-15 of the novel Atticus is preparing for the court case of Tom Robinson. Aunt Alexandra also decided that she is going to stay with them for a while so she could give Scout and Jem a “feminine influence”. Jem and Scout go to church with Calpurnia and Aunt Alexandra doesn’t like it. Dill shows up after running away from home because he says his parents aren’t paying enough attention to him. Aunt Alexandra tries to push Atticus into getting rid of Calpurnia but Atticus refuses. A group shows up outside their house and talk with Atticus. Atticus goes to Tom Robinson's cell and the kids follow.
Jem and Scout are going to Calpurnia’s First Purchase church for the first time. Jem and Scout are the children of Atticus, a prominent white lawyer in Maycomb, and Calpurnia is their African American cook and nanny. Scout, the narrator, is describing her less-than-flattering view
Characters in a book not only tell the story, but teach the reader a lesson. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that exhibits racism and gives the readers a taste of what it was like in the 1930’s. One of the several major characters of this book is Jean Louise Finch, better known as Scout. She matured greatly because of women characters such as Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, and her Aunt Alexandra. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout teaches all readers the lesson of how it is important to have a motherly figure in your life; she does so through possessing the traits of being curious, tomboy, and hot tempered.
When Atticus takes Calpurnia to Tom Robinson's home, she has to sit in the back seat so as not to appear as Atticus's equal. She does not eat at the same table with the Finch family although she has been a part of it since Jem was two. She is clearly loved by the family but by no means is she their equal.
Throughout all those years as the kids were growing up, Calpurnia has shown and given an immense amount of love and support towards the children, just as a mother or a motherly figure should. Atticus sees her as a faithful member of the family, and he refused of letting her go when Aunt Alexandra suggested firing her. In addition, Atticus trusts Calpurnia with the children; he trusts that she will look after them and cook them food when he is not able to. Calpurnia and Scout have grown closer as Scout grew up because often times Jem would exclude her. For instance, when Jem became close to his teenage years, he would act out often and tell Scout what to do. Scout burst into tears after one argument where Jem told her that she ought to start acting more like a girl. As a result, she fled to Calpurnia, where she offered to keep Scout company whenever she needed: “...so you just come right on in the kitchen when you feel lonesome” (131). Also, Scout stated how Calpurnia seemed glad when she appeared in the kitchen. This shows how Calpurnia is always loving and supportive when Scout needs a shoulder to cry on, and how Calpurnia cheers Scout up when she’s not having the best of days. Besides from making Scout and Jem meals everyday, Calpurnia demonstrates exceptional mothering towards Scout on a daily
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.
Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, focuses on the maturation of a brother and sister in the "tired old town(Lee 3)" of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930ís. Maycomb, a classic southern town full of gossip, tradition and burdened with a legacy of racism, seems a strange place to stage a drama which encourages equal treatment and non prejudice. However, the narratorís fresh outlook on the sleepy town furnishes the reader with a multitude of viewpoints on civil rights. The traditional Southern racism of Maycomb is looked at through the eyes of our young narrator, Scout Finch. Scoutís innocent perspective compels her to ask questions about why whites treat blacks the way they do. These questions are crucial in Scoutís search for her own identity. Scout must come to terms with the racism of her town and how it affects the people in her life. She must find her own position and what role she will play in the whole racial game. A number of people greatly influence Scout. The two major role models in her life, her Aunt Alexandria and her father Atticus, pull Scout in two opposing directions. Through their dealings with Calpurnia, the Finch's black housekeeper, both the reader and Scout are able to distinguish what path each individual wants Scout to follow.
To Kill a Mockingbird novel is a warm and humorous piece of writing though it deals with critical issues such as racial inequality and rape. The novel was published in 1960 by Harper Lee and it gained immediate popularity and success becoming a modern literature in American. The plot of the novel and characters are based on Harper’s perception of her neighbors and her immediate family. Also, it is based on her observation of events that took place near her home area in 1936 at the age of ten years. To Kill a Mockingbird symbolizes killing harmless and innocent people. Tom Robinson is an example of an innocent man falsely accused of raping a White girl known as Mayella Ewell (Lee 169). Another example is Boo who is misunderstood by the society
By utilizing character foil between Aunt Alexandra and Atticus, Lee was able to illustrate a contrast within the white society. In order to show how a typical white person would behave during that time, Lee introduces Aunt Alexandra to portray how most white people would act in Maycomb. “You all were coming back from Calpurnia’s church that Sunday? (Lee, 1960, p. 222)” This quote exemplifies how Aunt Alexandra is always discriminated against black people. She was shocked to hear about Jem and Scout going to black church with Calpurnia. While Calpurnia is portrayed as a well-mannered person who acts like a mother to Scout and Jem in this novel, Aunt Alexandra looks down on Calpurnia, because she was born with different skin color. In response to Calpurnia’s action, she told Atticus, “...you’ve got to do something about her... (Lee, 1960, p.224)” to discrete herself and to prevent Calpurnia from being in the same social class as her. While Aunt Alexandra symbolizes as a racial prejudice in this novel, Atticus is one of the characters that represents both a...
Published in 1960 and won Pulitzer Prize later, To Kill a Mockingbird is a semi-autobiographical book by Nelle Harper Lee and a classic in American literature. An extraordinary work and probably the most widely read book about racism, it represents the battle of justice and prejudice, goodness and evilness which prevails in humanity from a little girl’s point of view. It covers a span of three years during which both Maycomb, the small town, and people there, especially Scout Finch and her brother Jem underwent significant changes.
These two clash throughout the film because of Calpurnia’s expectations of being a “lady” and how Scout takes “being a girl” as an insult. In one brief scene that is not included in the film, Jem, the brother, is angry about the court conviction and asks Atticus why “there are no good people like us and Miss Maudie”, the Finches’ neighbor that is on the jury instead.
Oates’ novella is a love story between Officer Dromoor and the Maguire women, both Teena and Bethel. It is a tale that morphs a love for justice into one that represents a love for feeling supported. The Maguires are scorned by the people of Niagara Falls. Teena, even more so after the gang rape, is perceived as the town ‘whore,’ drug addict, and a bad parent. John Dromoor’s mere presence on the family creates a mutual respect, or love, amidst such difficult circumstances. Years after the events at the Rocky Point Park occurred and Dromoor is no longer in the Maguires’ lives, the story ends with Bethel’s husband telling her that she “looked so lonely, suddenly” (Oates 154) after
To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel of a young girl named Jean Louis (aka Scout) and her journey of growing up as an attorney’s daughter. Scout, her father Atticus, and her brother Jeremy (aka Jem) live in a small backwoods town of Alabama called Maycomb. Atticus tries his hardest to teach them what he believes is right, but since his wife's death, he has had trouble raising them on his own. He decided to hire an African-American housekeeper named Calpurnia. Calpurnia, along with a few other women, teach Jem and Scout many lessons to help them through life.