How Does Maudie Show Optimism In To Kill A Mockingbird

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The racism during the 1930’s brought a wave of pessimism and negativity across the United States. So a tale of the old, poor, and racist town of Maycomb may sound pessimistic. Especially since in Maycomb, a black man by the name of Tom Robinson is sent to jail, and ultimately loses his life over a false rape accusation from a racist jury. However, despite these points of sadness and despair, Harper Lee uses To Kill A Mockingbird in order to illustrate having optimism to positively impact others, motivate people to do their best, and show that people can end any challenge with a positive outcome. In the novel, Mrs. Dubose positively influences Scout and her brother Jem by breaking her morphine addiction. Mrs. Dubose breaks her morphine addiction when Jem and Scout are forced read to her everyday because of the damage they caused to her …show more content…

Maudie. This occurs when she says that while she “thought, Atticus Finch won’t win, he can’t win, but he’s the only man… that can keep a jury out so long… I thought to myself, well, we’re making a step-it’s just a baby-step, but it’s a step” (289). The optimyism exhibited by Miss. Maudie shows that while Atticus couldn’t win the case for Tom, his defense helps the progress towards racial equality, even if it wasn’t a huge step towards it, which is better than nothing.
Even though To Kill A Mockingbird would appear as a pessimistic tale about racial inequality, Harper Lee uses the challenges the characters face in order to support the theme of having optimism in bad situations. Without this optimism, Mrs. Dubose would die with her morphine addiction, Atticus would not defend Tom to the best of his abilities, and there would be less progress towards racial equality. Through this, Harper Lee teaches that people should have optimism in challenging situations, because being pessimistic won’t help them towards a positive

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