To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and A Separate Peace by John Knowles were two novels full of deception but in different ways. To Kill a Mockingbird was a novel with deceptive actions rather than deceptive character builds. The actions were necessary in the story to prove the honesty in other characters. Mrs. Dubose and Mr. Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird were characters based on deception towards the children, Jem and Scout. Miss Gates was never really open about her views on persecution and deceived Scout in the process. A Separate Peace has a deceptive character. The character Gene seemed almost based on deception towards every other character in the novel. Deception is the most important theme in A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird …show more content…
because of the characters and their actions. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the character Mrs.
Dubose was not very important in the grand scheme of things but her actions towards the children taught them a lesson. Near the end of Mrs. Dubose's life, she made Jem read to her for varied amounts of time even though Jem did not want to because he felt as though Mrs. Dubose was not a very nice person. It was told to Jem later that, “Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict” (Lee 147), and that Jem reading to her was how, “she meant to break herself of it before she died” (Lee 148). This dishonest deception in the novel was how Jem came to realize that what his actions with Mrs. Dubose were not a punishment but a safe haven for Mrs. Dubose. She may have deceived Jem but it was for a good reason. It would have made her death a lot harder on Jem if he would have know about her addiction and how his actions were affecting …show more content…
her. In A Separate Peace, Gene and Phineas were supposed to be best friends that trust each other completely but that ends up being a lie on Gene’s side of the friendship. Gene says, “I was the least trustworthy person he had ever met” (Knowles 100). This statement from Gene was a direct link to his deception. Phineas had his full trust in Gene as a person and Gene is the exact opposite according to this quote. Even though Gene knows that he was not trustworthy he still didn’t make any effort to tell Phineas. As Gene was trying to protect himself from Phineas, Mr. Radley was just trying to protect his son, Arthur Radley, from the outside world. For Mr. Radley to do this, he had to deceive Jem and Scout in many points throughout the novel. A prime example of this was when he told Jem and Scout, “Tree’s dying. You plug ’em with cement when they’re sick” (Lee 83). Mr. Radley's goal was to limit the contact that Arthur had to Jem and Scout. This meant that Mr. Radley was going to do anything and make up any devious excuse to justify his actions without raising too much alarm. Gene had moments during the novel where he would have an opinion about Phineas but not say it to him. This was because Gene, “didn’t want Phineas to understand me as I understood him” (Knowles 48). Gene was deceptive towards Phineas because of what Gene didn’t say to Phineas. The quote is an example of one out of many situations where Gene had thought of something that could have been easily talked about with his best friend. This was not what happened though because Gene was not confident enough to admit anything to Phineas. Gene is deceptive throughout the entire novel but mostly without any verbal communication between him and Phineas. In chapter 26 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout's teacher talked to the class about persecution and this conversation got Scout thinking about Tom Robinson and his trial. The teacher, Miss Gates, gave Scout reason to believe that she was a hypocrite by talking about Tom Robinson’s trial in two different ways. She was deceptive towards the class about her views on persecution when she spoke about it being wrong. In class, Miss Gates said, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” (Lee 329). Scout then remembers what Miss Gates said after the trial and how she thought it was a good thing for Tom Robinson to get persecuted. Miss Gates used deception in her classroom and because of this it affected the way she was looked at as an educator. Phineas’s accident in To Kill a Mockingbird was a very important part in the novel because it made the characters involved show their true outlook towards it and how they reacted to the challenges that arose because of it.
Deception involving the accident of Phineas falling out of the tree was because of Gene and what he would or would not say about the event that took place up in the tree. “I couldn’t make the last confession” (Knowles 162), is what Gene said close to the end of the novel. Gene deceived Phineas about the accident every time it was brought up by not telling him the truth about how he really fell. Gene was very deceptive which caused his relationship with Phineas very difficult in Genes mind.
In To Kill a Mockingbird and A Separate Peace, deception was the main and focused theme because of how the characters reacted. In A Separate Peace, Gene was the most deceptive character and To Kill a Mockingbird had plenty of deceptive events that took place and the reaction rather than the characters. The characters Gene, Mrs. Dubose, Mr. Radley and Aunt Alexandra were all very deceptive in the novels because of the situations they were put in and how they
reacted.
Throughout the novel, Phineas develops a theory that the war is a ruse made up by “fat old men who don’t want us crowding them out of their jobs” (Knowles 115). This is not just a joke between him and Gene; it is part of what makes up Phineas’ character. He always chooses to accept whatever is preferable rather what is truthful. It is also possible that his theory about the war is caused by the fact that his broken leg prevents him from enlisting; if he cannot participate, then he refuses to accept it as the truth. Phineas does eventually inform Gene that, “I always knew
Courage, integrity, and truth are three themes taught by the main characters in To Kill A Mockingbird and Mississippi Trial, 1955. The authors wanted readers to understand courage is what’s earned after completing something you thought was impossible. Integrity is shown by teaching readers to be honest, and believe in what you think is fair to others. Finally the authors’ outlined truth by showing you need to have knowledge in other’s actions in order to know the truth about them. Good authors get readers to connect similar personal experiences to the events in the book, and teach moral lessons from them. I have connected these two books to myself, and will continue to think about the themes throughout my life.
“Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody's going to know whether you did it or not,” says Oprah Winfrey. Integrity is shown through unyielding support of ideals on morals, while being complete or deliberate. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are several strong examples of integrity. The author in To Kill a Mockingbird illustrates integrity fully and completely through two characters that really stood out to me: Atticus and Mrs. Dubose.
In the words of Joseph Stalin, “One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” The death of Finny was a tragedy, but was one that probably could not have been avoided. In the book, there was sufficient evidence that strengthened the possibilities of Finny’s death. Those possibilities did not rid Gene of all consequence. It was partially his fault. Those possibilities, however, suggest that Finny’s life would not have been spared had Gene had a stronger identity. If Gene had had a stronger sense of self, then he might have not jounced the limb. Sufficient evidence suggested that Phineas would have been killed in the army, broken his leg a second time from a lack of caution, and fallen from the tree for the branch would have broken.
Do you not believe we need more compassion and tolerance in the world? Why can we not be like Atticus, Jem or Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee? These characters show great compassion and tolerance throughout the novel despite the society they live in. They have the courage to stand up for what they believe in.
At the beginning and the first chapters of the book, Gene shows a very weak character accepting everything that’s offered to him by Phineas, not considering any other facts like his studies or anything he’s responsible of doing like the night he spent with Phineas in the Ocean when he couldn’t study for his trigonometry exam and almost missed it. Gene lacks self control until the last chapters of the book unlike Phineas who has a total control of himself and is pleased with the way he lives his life. Gene complains about the way of his life with Phineas and sometimes thinks Phineas is affecting his life in a bad way consciously whereas it’s his own fault not wording his thoughts to Phineas. Gene is never sure himself in many occasions and what his own properties are. He always thinks Phineas is good at everything and doesn’t give a second thought to what he is himself, a very successful student with a fine ability in sports. He becomes aware of his academic abilities when Phineas tells him s...
Gene is probably the most obvious to blame for part of Phineas’ death. Gene clearly feels guilty, that is why he returns to the tree fifteen years after the fact, for some sort of closure. As Gene and Finny were about to jump from a tree branch into the river together, Gene shook the branch causing Phineas to fall into the river unexpectedly and hurt his leg. Later on, when Phineas re-injured his leg and was having it set in a routine operation, he passed away. The doctor said that it was p...
Black and white, right and wrong; do decisions that simple and clear even exist? Does a decision ever mean gaining everything without giving anything up? Many characters in To Kill A Mockingbird are forced to make difficult, heart wrenching decisions that have no clear right answer. Harper Lee presents many of these important decisions in To Kill A Mockingbird as ethical dilemmas, or situations that require a choice between two difficult alternatives. Both of these alternatives have unpleasant aspects and question morals and ethics. A person is put in an awkward position, with their mind saying contradicting things. These dilemmas are presented in many different ways. The decisions in the beginning of the book are simple and can be solved quite easily, yet they are symbolic of later decisions. Other dilemmas place adult-like decisions in the lap of a child. One dilemma concerned a man burdened with the strict traditions of the South. Then there are the two biggest dilemmas, Atticus' decision to take the case and Heck Tate's choice between truth and the emotional well being of a man. Lee's ingenious storyline is established by these crucial and mentally arduous choices faced by the characters.
Honesty being one of the topics in To Kill A Mockingbird appears in multiple major characters, Mrs. Dubose, Atticus and Tom Robinson are just a few, each one of these characters shows a different theme connected to the topic of honesty. Readers learn a lot more about not just honesty but other themes and can take what they have learned and apply it to the real world. Much like Scout does throughout the book readers grasp a further understanding of themes and the problems past and future societies
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is centered on the moral values and ideas of the people in Maycomb and how they react to things that go against their normal beliefs. All of the characters have their own senses of what is right or wrong, good or bad, etc. Aunt Alexandra's moral values are expressed throughout the book, especially in her feelings through her brother's case, but in public are confined to the indifferent and self-aware values of the county. While Aunt Alexandra has her set of displayed ideas and values shaped by the people in Maycomb, there are some hints to a hidden sense of justice in her throughout the story that gives her a sense of compassion for those discriminated in her world.
In the novel, To Kill Mockingbird some misunderstanding with children and adults were involved with some misunderstanding. Some adults think children nowadays don't know we are advancing. Towards time children are now advancing in many ways. We have now known and understanding life faster and seeing it easier in life towards time. Children now know easier ways to learn more easier with sometimes no help of a teacher as you can know they are the ones that teach us.
Chinese novelist Mo Yan once said the following: “One of the biggest problems in literature is the lack of subtlety.” But trends tend to prove otherwise. In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird”, which is often regard the best american novel ever written, subtlety is found rarely throughout. Whether it be in her characterization or allegory she fails to leave the reader with a shred of doubt about what or who she is talking about, through her incessant circumlocution, if it can be called that, she delivers a vivid and redundant recount of events through the eyes of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. If a section of the story (which encompass numerous almost unrelated shorter stories) were to be taken and examined, The Trial (chapters 17-22) would prove the most fruitful, and so it will serve as the subject of this essay.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the novel explains greatly about a famous phrase that starts with “Don’t judge a book by its cover. People aren’t who they seem to be because most people have qualities that they hide/fake about. This theme is the most significant aspect in the novel. Boo Radley is a character that does a perfect example of hiding his lifestyle the people in Maycomb heard rumors about him being a monster. Atticus is also another great example. In the beginning of the book, Jem refuses to eat dinner until his dad, Atticus, promises him to play football. When Atticus does not tolerate to do that promise, Jem calls/consider him a boring dad. Mrs. Dubose is considered to be a cranky lady, but she is a whole different person. Out of all
Did you ever want to know what would be a great book to read? Well here’s a book that is about honesty. The book is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One of the characters of this book is the Narrator (Scout) she’s learning many life lessons throughout the book but major ones at the end, Scout has a older brother named Jem and they get along with each other , her father is Atticus the best lawyer in town. Not because he wins every case but because he fights for what’s right. To Kill A Mockingbird should still be taught because it shows people what is right or wrong to do.
Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee the main conflict that arose most often was discrimination. Of course, there were others throughout the novel, but discrimination sticks out the most, especially through the use of characters. Two main characters Lee used to portray discrimination was through Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson. Both of these characters played an important role when discrimination was brought up, which will be further explained below.