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Points on roles of children literature
To kill a mockingbird themes of innocence
To kill a mockingbird themes of innocence
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Charles Baker Harris (Dill)
“Next stop Maycomb Junction,” the conductor shouted. Everything went quiet. All of a sudden the whistles started to wail, and the train hissed. Eventually the gentle rumble of the tracks was all that could be heard. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is a heartwarming novel about prejudice, family, and the innocence of a child. Every summer a boy, hailing from Meridian, Mississippi, takes a train to the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. This boy is Charles Baker Harris, although most people just call him Dill. Through the pages of the classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the Character Dill shows that he is an imaginative, lonely, and innocent character as seen through many of his actions and ideas during this truly amazing and moral adventure.
Throughout the novel Dill seems to be overflowing with imagination. The role of Dill in this novel is to present the reader with a different view of the situation. Dill is an outsider and sees things differently to the others; this gives different perspective and shows the same occurrence, only in a different...
A. The “Tension between Darl and Jewel”. University of North Carolina Press (1992): 49-61. The Southern Literary Journal. Web.
In the town of Maycomb, a man who stands up against racism forever changes people’s views on racism. Scout, Jem and Atticus Finch all stand together against racism and prejudice in the tiny town of Maycomb. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in the town of Maycomb, prejudice is a disease, but Jem, Scout, and Dill are immune to this illness because of the people who raise them. For example, when Cecil and Francis told Scout that Atticus was a disgrace to defend Tom Robinson, even though Francis is Scout’s cousin. When Scout and Jem hear the verdict of Tom’s case, they both cry and are angry about the sentence while the rest of the town is ecstatic.
One of the principal aims of To Kill a Mockingbird is to subject the narrator to a series of
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.
“I ran in the direction of Jem’s scream and sank into flabby male stomach. Its owner said, “Uff” and tried to catch my arms, but they were tightly pinioned. His stomach was soft but his arms were like steel. He slowly squeezed the breath out of me. I could not move. Suddenly he was jerked backwards and flung on the ground, almost carrying me with him. I thought, Jem’s up. The scuffling noises were dying:someone wheezed and the night was still again”(Lee 301). What happened was Jem and Scout were coming home and Bob ewell attacked them and kill them because Atticus beat him in court.So the person that is wheezing later turns out to be Bob Ewell who was stabbed by the mysterious Boo Radley who saved there life. This would be one of Atticus lessons of kindness to others because Boo Radley single handedly saved their lives. Atticus has a lot of life lessons that are taught throughout the events of what happens in To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the book Atticus points out lessons his children can learn from like the true meaning of life, understanding racism, stereotyping people, and human kindness.
In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the main characters: Atticus, Scout and Jem were faced with many losing battles such as Tom Robinson's case, the "mad dog incident" and Mrs. Dubose's addiction to morphine. This builds on the theme of there are things in life that won't go your way. The book takes place in the 1930's or 1940's in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb. The novel takes us through the life and perils that the main characters undergo and teach us about growing up and being mature.
Childhood is a continuous time of learning, and of seeing mistakes and using them to change your perspectives. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates how two children learn from people and their actions to respect everyone no matter what they might look like on the outside. To Kill A Mockingbird tells a story about two young kids named Scout and her older brother Jem Finch growing up in their small, racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the years go by they learn how their town and a lot of the people in it aren’t as perfect as they may have seemed before. When Jem and Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man in court, the town’s imperfections begin to show. A sour, little man named Bob Ewell even tries to kill Jem and Scout all because of the help Atticus gave to the black man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee illustrates the central theme that it is wrong to judge someone by their appearance on the outside, or belittle someone because they are different.
A lawyer in Maycomb and the father of Scout and Jem is a well respected person because of his judgment, intelligence, and morality he demonstrates to other people. Atticus practices the ethic of humbleness and understanding that he teaches to Scout and Jem to never hold a grudge against the people of Maycomb. Despite their cold indifference to racial inequality, Atticus sees much to admire in them. He recognizes that people have both good and bad qualities, and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad. Atticus passes this great moral lesson on to Scout; this perspective protects the innocent from being destroyed by contact with evil.
Racial discrimination, although not the main focus of To Kill a Mockingbird, plays a large role throughout the novel. Many characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are affected by racial discrimination, whether they are the cause or not. Throughout the novel, three characters stand out as being affected by racial discrimination the most. These characters are Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson.
Dill’s imagination is his best way for him to deal with his troubles. Dill has a difficult life and he tries to do physical things to make his life better, like running away, but he soon finds out that does not work.
Walt Whitman’s 1859 poem “Out of the Cradle Rocking Endlessly” depicts the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence that chants or sings of fond memories from the past. By contrast, Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, written almost a century after Whitman’s poem, portrays the mockingbird as innocent but as a fragile creature with horrific memories – memories of discrimination, isolation, and violence. Harper Lee wrote her novel, which is rooted in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the Deep South, during a time of segregation and discrimination, social issues which can be seen not only in the novel but were witnessed by Harper Lee in her own life. While Lee does insert bits and pieces of her own life into the novel, this fictional story is told by the character Jean Louise Finch, better known as “Scout.” She tells a horrific yet heroic story about a time in the 1930’s from a childhood perspective. The title of Lee’s book is not at first as apparent as it would seem. In fact, the only literal reference to the mockingbird appears only once in the novel. The reader, then, must probe deeply into the characters and events of the book to uncover the significance of the mockingbird. After seeing the treatment and the unyielding courage of Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Atticus Finch, the reader can easily identify these three as mockingbirds.
Dill is an outsider of the town. He provides another child’s point of view, a child who is not related to Scout. According to the text, “Dill was from Meridian, Mississippi, was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on” (8). Dill isn’t from Maycomb, so he sees things differently than the natives of the town. It adds a new layer into all the things Scout is going through. Dill is young, but more mature than
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 of classic literature that everyone should take the time to read and appreciate for its execution of style and the importance of its content.
Ultimately, the minor characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are crucial in rendering the novel a masterpiece. Their individuality is refreshing yet meaningful, as they break the stereotypes that attempt to limit a prejudiced society. Scout herself is deeply influenced by the characters she meets, and the experience only increases her wisdom. Also, the symbols portrayed through minor characters speak volumes about humankind- not only of our flaws but of the promise of change and redemption. In truth, minor characters are of utmost importance in any story, because the world an author creates is only as good as the characters that populate it.
To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around human behavior and the boundaries that it facilitates. The boundaries of the quiet little town of Maycomb, Alabama are constantly tested by the games that people play. In each game, distinctions evolve. The distinctions become the rules of the game, of life, and from them, different boundaries form for each new character. With each new drama, characters and distinctions change, as do the boundaries which form them.