I chose to write a thank you letter because it seem to fit my writing style. This fits my skills because I’m not a big writing person and this feels like it was the easiest for me to do. The easiest part about writing a letter is knowing the characters well enough that you can talk about their personality and how they have impacted Maycomb. The most challenging part is going to be citing the story at least 3 times because I’m not going to know exactly where a character said something or remembering an episode. This project will help me with improving my skills by learning how to write a more complex letter and with higher level words. I want to improve my skills on citing the text by going back and finding 3 or even more events or dialogues from …show more content…
the story because I just skim through the chapters trying to find a quote and end up finding nothing which means I have to go back and look again. Quotes : “Neighbors image became blurred within sudden tears.”(362) “Atticus, are we going to win it?” “No, honey” “Than why-?” “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” Atticus said. (101) “The colored balcony ran along 3 walls…”(219) Dear Harper Lee, My name is Brayam Gamboa and I’m a freshman at Rolling Meadows High School.
In our library we have a diversity of books and it was lucky enough to be chosen as a mandatory book to read in every freshman English class. I’m writing this letter to thank you for writing To Kill A Mockingbird which is a fascinating book. We have done many activities to learn more about your book and understand deeper connections with the characters. I have read many other books and this is one of the most that has taught me a lesson on how bad segregation was.
To Kill A Mockingbird has allowed me as a reader to look back and realize how history really was. For example, many Maycomb citizens were racist towards colored people and many readers should feel how to live in a segregated neighborhood. The scene was when Scout was describing the courthouse and all the African Americans had to sit on top: “ The colored balcony ran along 3 walls..” (219) Also this scene impacted my feeling towards colored people when Scout became aware that all the courthouse members were white. Like many high school students who are reader this book, many of them think the word racism is a joke and don’t use it as it’s
purpose. Like many other books, characters traits get opened to the reader not just directly, but also hidden traits to show how much attention and good of a reader the person is. It shows how characters can change over time. This scene from the story made me look at Atticus a different way. Atticus was explaining to Scout why he was defending Tom Robinson and Scout soon finds out they have no chance against Bob Ewell. “ ‘Atticus, are we going to win it ?” “ No, honey” “ Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win. Atticus said.’ ” (101) Atticus admits that he will lose this case but has no doubt on dropping this case. This showed me how Atticus never gives up and is brave enough to defend a colored person even when blacks were unwanted. To Kill A Mockingbird also has touching moments and not just about growing up to be an adult because after all Scout is still a little girl. It shows that even though girls will try to act grown up they will still get sentimental for tiny things in the end of the day like in this passages:“ ‘ Neighbors image became blurred with sudden tears.’ ‘ Hey, Boo.’ I said.” (362). This episode really touched my heart when Scout starts crying because she finally gets to see and know Boo Radley personally, but also because she her dream came true when she dreamed in the beginning of the story to meet Arthur Radley. As I go on with my academic life, I will definitely remember all these amazing and impacting moments in the book. This book focused on segregation towards African Americans and how this affects society. I have learned that being isolated because another group of people does not like you is difficult to go on with your life. Going on being an adult I will share this book with my family and kids to tell them and show them that we are now living in a place that was once segregated.
“You can't delete racism. It's like a cigarette. You can't stop smoking if you don't want to, and you can't stop racism if people don't want to. But I'll do everything I can to help”-Mario Balotelli. This quote applies to “To Kill a Mockingbird” because racism is common throughout the novel and a select few characters don't fall to the common influence of racism.
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.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a heartbreaking, timeless novel that examines stereotyping and its consequences. The novel shadows Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman in racist Maycomb, Alabama. Frequently, To Kill a Mockingbird has been banned for use in many schools because of the racial content in it. In the novel, racial tension and slurs are used frequently. Although the novel does contain these things, To Kill a Mockingbird should definitely be taught in schools because it represents accurately what it was like before blacks received their civil right, it teaches valuable life lessons, and it shows how novels like To Kill a Mockingbird helped the civil rights movement.
To Kill a Mockingbird "I simply want to tell you that there are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father's one of them." – Miss Maudie The quote above states that Atticus Finch was a man who did unpleasant things, but this quote is false. Miss Maudie had every good intention when she told Jem and Scout this and her point was taken in the way she intended it to be taken by the children. Her point could have been better worded if the portion that reads "our unpleasant jobs" were replaced with "what is right." Atticus did unpleasant things only because he knew that they were the right thing to do. Miss Maudie told the children about their father in this way only to avoid saying that the rest of the town was wrong.
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’.
Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1960’s the powerful symbolism this book contributes to our society is tremendous. This attribute is racism (Smykowski). To Kill a Mockingbird reveals a story about Scout’s childhood growing up with her father and brother, in an accustomed southern town that believed heavily in ethnological morals (Shackelford).
An important reason why To Kill a Mockingbird is relevant today is the ever growing resurgence of racism throughout the country. Events such as the ones in Jena, Louisiana, seem to become more common each day. Recently, a black professor at Columbia University had a noose placed on her door. The novel, which was an attempt to spread knowledge of the racism in the south, was trying to stop the very things that happen everyday now. As racism becomes more and more prevalent, this novel will be a good tool to help teach the next generation about racism, and about how it is wrong.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” is marvelous and unforgettable novel. Not only show how dramatic, sad in and old town – Maycomb be like, but through her unique writings, some big conflicts about politics and critical is going on through this tired old Southern town. Not just in general like education, friendship, neighbors but also pacific in individuals like family and the people’s characteristics themselves. In one book yet can covered with such many problems, Harper Lee must have been experienced a lot and deeply understanding that time. That is why the book lives, becoming literature and get the love from the audiences a lot. One of the problem and mostly run along with the story and interest me is racism between white people and black people socially.
The novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee has numerous accounts of racism and prejudice throughout the entire piece. The novel is set in the 1930's, a time when racism was very prevalent. Although bigotry and segregation were pointed in majority towards blacks, other accounts towards whites were also heard of, though not as commonly. There are acts that are so discreet that you almost don't catch them, but along with those, there are blatant acts of bigotry that would never occur in our time. Lee addresses many of these feelings in her novel.
The racism shown throughout the book, and taking the Jim Crow laws into consideration, teaches the reader about how racism can affect people, and how Scout learned that it was wrong. The Jim Crow laws enforce the fact that segregation and racism is right, and that is how things should be. But, some of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird go against racism and segregation, teaching the readers a lesson that everyone should be treated fairly, no matter their race. Atticus, Jem and Scout are three of the greatest examples of going against racism, and the Jim Crow laws. To Kill a Mockingbird allows people to get an idea of both sides of segregation and racism, and the Finch family set off an example that should be followed in the way black people should be
America has always been a country with different cultures, races, and people. Only, not everyone has been accepting of different kinds of people. A persons thoughts on another person can differ depending on a person's race, gender, or age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, racial equality is nonexistent. The African Americans were treated like they weren’t people, and were totally isolated from the Maycomb, Alabama society. America will never achieve true racial and social equality because people are ignorant, have a history of being prejudiced, and are unjust.
Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach, a contemporary novel, shares numerous characteristics with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written in the 1960's. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, McCorkle's novel documents the life of a young girl in a small southern town. The two narrators, Kate Burns and Scout Finch, endure difficult encounters. A study of these main characters reveals the parallels and differences of the two novels. Jill McCorkle duplicates character similarities and rape from Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to show the reader how young girls think and develop.
Entry 1: I feel as though the Lord only caters to white people. I’m really shaking and I just keep shaking but I am staying strong. There was an empty cell between me and all of the other prisoners. Ms. Emma came to see me but I was quiet and just starring at the ceiling. I didn’t care about anything, nothing mattered to me. I am going to die soon anyway so what’s the point. (“What it go’n feel like”(pg. 225).
One of the widely recognized controversies in American history is the 1930s, which housed the Great Depression and the post-civil war, the ruling of Plessy versus Ferguson and the Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. While textbooks detail the factual aspect of the time there is only one other literature that can exhibit the emotion experienced in the era. To Kill a Mockingbird is the acclaimed novel that displays the experiences of the South, through inequality and segregation, social class differences and the right to fairness. The novel’s experiences are narrated through a grown Scout, who appears as a little girl in the novel, offering her innocent views on the happenings in Maycomb County. The most observed aspect of the novel is race and racism; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the prime focus of the novel, the issue of race is bound to be discussed throughout the novel is race, racism and segregation; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the focus of the novel, the issue of race is heavily represented throughout the novel. With Mockingbird being a common book among English Language Arts and Literatures classrooms, the topic of race is bound to surface amid a young, twenty-first century group of student of students with the inevitability of this discussion, the question remains on how to approach the conversation as an educator. As an educator, one should seek to establish the context of the times, prepare the students for the conversation and examine the other characters and situations similarly to race. Educators must also be introspective before examining their students’ feelings, so that they are not surprised by their emotions and can also express their feelings to their students. The discussion should target a goal, one of examin...
o Kill a Mockingbird quotes are taken from a novel “To kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee. It is a beautiful work that leaves teaching us on equality, justice and racism.