Hypocrisy In To Kill A Mockingbird

TKAM PAPER

Everybody is familiar with the Pulitzer Prize winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This groundbreaking and heart wrenching piece of literature is famous worldwide for its realistic and historic story that is read in schools all over the United States. To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates the gruesome truths of worldwide subjects such as: racism, religion, and domestic violence. In addition, this book establishes a variety of important messages to take away after reading. These important themes can relate to the lives of anybody that can identify them. One of the many influential themes that one can take away from the novel is the hypocrisy in judgement. Racism plays a major role in To Kill a Mockingbird; whites and

In one particular scene, Miss Gates (Scout’s teacher) explains that Adolf Hitler is horrible because he was seizing and killing people simply for being Jewish. Scout explains to Jem later that she had overheard this same teacher, outside the courthouse after Tom Robinson (an African American) was wrongly accused of raping a white woman, explaining that African Americans were getting ahead of themselves and offends their rights. Miss Gates states that the black community was “getting above themselves” and would soon find it acceptable to marry white women. This statement is a clear example of hypocritical judgement being that Miss Gates declared Hitler to be a disgusting waste of breath because he was persecuting people for being Jewish; meanwhile, she stood outside the courthouse and supported an innocent man being imprisoned and talking low of others like him for being black. Another example of hypocritical judgement occurs during one of Aunt Alexandra’s tea parties. Scout is asked to participate in a tea party sponsored by Alexandra’s prayer group. This particular group of women gather every week to discuss the missions trip they helped fund across the world. A conversation breaks

A prime example of virtuous morals is Atticus Finch. Atticus is a premium example of someone with virtuous morals because of the way in which he handled the Tom Robinson case. When this particular court case was first introduced, everybody who spoke about it claimed that Atticus would lose. Even Atticus acknowledged that his odds of saving Tom Robinson were inferior. Atticus was initially placed on the case of Tom Robinson for the purpose of Tom being convicted, in the event that Atticus placed no effort into defending him. However, Atticus worked day and night working for the months leading up to the trial. Atticus was verbally persecuted and frowned upon all throughout Maycomb because of his willingness to aid an African American. Jem and Scout were also seen catching the consequences of Atticus’ actions in their schools. Children would ridicule Scout especially and claim that her father (Atticus) was a “nigger lover”. When Scout is finally forced to demand more insight on the why Atticus was insisting on defending an African American. Atticus responds by telling her that even if one knows the outcome of an action, they should still pursue it in the event that it was the right thing to do. This statement, followed by the effortful defense of Tom Robinson, proves that Atticus is an exceptional example of noble and virtuous