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To kill a mockingbird a character study essay
Character analysis to kill a mockingbird
To kill a mockingbird a character study essay
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Harper Lee introduces many characters in, To Kill a Mockingbird that very often times get isolated from society. This book takes place in the 1930’s, which was a very difficult time period as, it was the Great Depression. In the book, we get introduced to Tom Robinson, who is a black man that is in a situation where he is accused of rape. Atticus a white man, decides to oppose segregation and help him because he is an innocent man. This later affects him because of the prejudice people in Maycomb don’t acquiesce to that. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a man that decides to stay away from society, in his preference. However, the children in Maycomb view this strangely, so he later gets “othered”. And lastly the Ewells are often times criticized by …show more content…
the people in Maycomb because of their environment and their unmannerly actions. The author Harper Lee, uses many phrases throughout the book to project how these characters are outcasts of Maycomb, owning to the fact that they are pushed to the edges of society. In the book we learn that, Atticus Finch begins to become an outcast because Atticus was a white man that was defending an African man in the court. During the 1930’s, there was a racial boundary that people “couldn’t” cross without becoming an outcast themselves. Society looked at Atticus Finch as if he committed a horrible crime when he decided to help Tom Robinson in his rape trial, who is another outcast in society. Atticus wasn’t an outcast, but his actions were seen unpleasantly, so he became one. For example, a few chapters into the book, Francis tells Scout Finch, “Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover, we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin.” (110) Aunt Alexandra and people in Maycomb make Atticus an outsider because he crosses a racial boundary by defending Tom in the rape trial against Mayella Ewell. Francis says that their grandmother claimed that Atticus was a disgrace to the Finch’s. They referred to Atticus as a “nigger-lover” because the people in Maycomb have difficulty accepting the fact that Atticus is opposing racial segregation. This was commonly used to insult Atticus by numerous people. In this situation, the prejudices of the people in Maycomb, like Aunt Alexandra, get in the way of Tom Robinson getting the justice he deserves. As has been noted, Atticus is now an outcast and is getting insulted by, his own family, and his neighbors like Ms. Dubose just because of his actions. Atticus isn’t view with the same respect as he used to be. Furthermore, Scout’s grandmother also says, “we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin”, because she believes that Atticus will ruin the family’s reputation, and the “Finch’s name”. Nevertheless, this incident is caused because the time period that the book takes place in, which is the Great Depression which is also why Atticus becomes an outcast. A few pages into the book the author, Harper Lee introduces a mysterious character named Arthur “Boo” Radley. This character suffers a lot of misunderstandings because it’s his preference to stay away from society. Especially the fact that the children talk about Arthur, that had developed the nickname, “Boo”. Later on in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem Finch begins to give a ridiculous description of Boo claiming, “ he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were blood stained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” (16) This description of Arthur Radley makes him seem as if he is a terrific creature that people should be afraid of. Specifically, when Jem says, “he dined on raw squirrels”, which makes him seem less than a human. The people in Maycomb, treat Arthur less than everyone because of his personal isolation. Throughout the book, the children believe the rumors about Boo without actually knowing the truth about how he looks, or why he stays inside his house. Furthermore, Boo is a ultimately a social outcast in the society of Maycomb because he is isolated in his home and rarely gets any visitors. Also because he doesn’t participate in any social activities in Maycomb which people view as strange. To summarize it up, Boo Radley is a discreet person that is pushed even further away from society, because he is perceived as a “monster” Lastly, a group that is often “othered” by the people in Maycomb, are the Ewells.
Without a doubt, Atticus is one of the few people that lives in Maycomb, that is usually very accepting and understanding about the outcasts of Maycomb basically, tolerable. However, he makes many comments about the Ewells throughout the book, surprisingly. For example, after Scout’s first day of school she notices that the Ewells are treated very differently from the rest of Maycomb. She decides to speak to Atticus about it and ask about the Ewells. And later, Scout explains, “Atticus said that Ewells had been a disgrace to Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day of work in his recollection… they were people but they lived like animals…” (40) The Ewells get separated from the rest of society and are seen as outsiders. Atticus explains, “they lived like animals”. Basically, this comment demeans them and where they stand in society. Also the comment shows that they are even looked like animals instead of people. In addition, the Ewells live right next to the town’s dump, and they are very rarely seen, in fact, the Ewell’s usually only go to school for the first day. Apparently, the Ewells were even given “privileges” or “special treatment” by the government. An example of this is that, for the Ewells, it isn’t mandatory to participate in school, and they are allowed to hunt regardless of the law that forbids it. As I have said, these actions are what cause people to look at them as “others” and just another group of outcasts. To sum this up, the Ewells aren’t included in society hence, making them “others” and Atticus even proves how they are viewed in the society of
Maycomb. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, the characters, Boo Radley, Atticus Finch, and the Ewells suffer from a lot of misconceptions, and are often criticized by everyone else. Even if it was in the 1930’s, people were pushed to the edges of society just because of the color. This type of criticism still occurs today. Because, of people’s actions, their race or religion, and their appearance. The time that the book took place was very important because, it decided Tom Robinson's fate. If this were to take place in modern society, it would have been more equal. And his trial would require real evidence, instead of the unrealistic evidence they gave in the trial. The consequences of characters being “othered” is that Tom Robinson was brutally killed and shot 17 unnecessary times because Atticus was over-looked at. This comes to prove that, it is indeed dangerous to push people to the edges of society for their own benefit. The people in Maycomb lack complying with people that don’t look like them or don’t act like them. To conclude everything, these characters are usually perceived as others, compared to the society of Maycomb. They are usually criticized and they aren’t accepted in Maycomb.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a perfect example of how people like Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are pushed to the bottom of the ‘social hierarchy’ while others that may be less deserving are put higher. It shows that simply things you encounter in your everyday life can steal your innocence, and that moral laws that have been created are both fulfilled and neglected.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, by author Harper Lee, several of the characters in the book share a similar character trait. Atticus Finch, Mrs. Dubose and Boo Radley all show courage throughout the book in their own individual ways. In different events, all three characters were faced with a challenge that they could either turn away from and accept or try to defeat. In Lee’s novel, a few of the main events that occur in the book include Atticus Finch defending a black man, Mrs. Dubose is challenged with overcoming an addiction, and Boo Radley must brave the outdoors to save the Radley children. Throughout the book, the characters change and one begins to understand what life in the small town of Maycomb is like, as the Finch family and friends grow and mature throughout the events happening while encountering social prejudice, courage, and the mockingbirds of life.
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.
This unfair prejudice was widespread throughout the south. " Maycomb" didn't actually exist but was meant to be the embodiment of a typical town in the south at that time. In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, she has created characters who seem a little different and thus, isolated from the rest of Maycomb's. mainstream society. Prime examples of this isolation are Atticus and the Ewells; particularly Bob Ewell.
Even Scout’s first-grade class knows that none of the Ewell children go to school for more than a day. This is shown on page 26, when a member of the class says: “‘Whole school’s full of ‘em. They come first day every year and then leave.’” Even Atticus, who is very open-minded throughout the book, has a certain disdain towards the family: “…the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day’s work in his recollection.” Since Atticus has been proven to be against stereotypes and judging others such as the black community, him saying these things shows how bad the Ewell family seemed to be. Because she is hated by most of her town, Mayella becomes extremely lonely and
Ewell. Towards the end of Chapter 3 after Atticus is done explaining to Scout that the Ewells are a part of an exclusive society and had privileges that they didn’t, Scout explains how she believes that is bad. With that, Atticus replies, “It’s against the law, all right, and it’s certainly bad, and when a man spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains. I don’t know of any landowner around here who begrudges those children any game their father can hit.” This analysis by Atticus helps demonstrate how Mr. Ewell doesn’t care much for his kids and may be characterized as selfish. When Mr. Ewell takes the stand in court, it is revealed that he is very stubborn, violent and rude. He describes Mayella as a “stuck pig” and even deems it appropriate to joke and say that he might not even be her real father. Later, at the beginning of Chapter 23, Miss Stephanie describes a confrontation that occurred between Mr. Ewell and Atticus. While Atticus stands his ground and stays respectful towards him, Mr. Ewell continues to spit and curse at him, yelling at him for defending an African American in court. This event helps characterize Mr. Ewell as disrespectful and rude, even when out in public surrounded by
The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a simplistic view of life in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. An innocent but humorous stance in the story is through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch. Scout is a young adolescent who is growing up with the controversy that surrounds her fathers lawsuit. Her father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, with the charge of raping a white girl. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that develops during the course of the narrative.
...proached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him (Lee, 1960, p.359)" implies how rude the Ewells are to Atticus and other people in Maycomb who opposed them. Despite the poverty situations in both families, the Ewells behave differently from the Cunninghams. Lee wants to emphasize this by illustrating how there is even a social inequality within the white society and how characters behave differently towards eache others in Maycomb.
Harper Lee has a number of characters that contribute to the novel and violent scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, some that have meaning and some that do not. Some characters that appear often and some that have a minimal role in being seen in the novel, but the characters that do not appear often seem to have the biggest impact on the novel. There are three characters that are looked down on by society around them, one because of race and two because of their morals. Society disregarded these people simply because they were afraid that they could be like them and the unknown. Lee uses violence and alienation to help depict the things that are wrong within the small society.
Poor, ignorant, and outcasts of society. They have no respect for others nor do they care about anyone besides them. Although they are the spitting image of white trash, are all the Ewells deserving of the hatred of readers and people within the town of Maycomb? The simple answer is no. Mayella has been called a plethora of names, and not many good. But one thing is for sure, the habits she has learned and the way she was raised shouldn’t define her. “‘She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her. She is white.’” (Lee 272). In this quote, Atticus even states during his final testament that she is not the one responsible for acting as she did. She had an abusive father who forced her into the plan after beating her, she had no education and was left to care for her siblings, and she has little to no connections to the outside world. Was what she did wrong? Yes. She tempted a negro in Atticus’ words. But she did it because she was lonely. However, she is much more deserving of compassion than her father; Bob Ewell, who is, for lack of better words, the absolute scum of the Earth. He was the man responsible for the unjust imprisonment and death of Tom, he was a drunkard who beat his children, and even went out of his way to attack Scout and Jem as a form of payback. There are hundreds of examples throughout the book that can
In the mid 1930’s, racism, slavery and segregation was legal. Whites had domination over the Blacks and were treated with more respect. The Whites were also favoured in their decisions whether they were true or not. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel, in the mid 1950’s, written by Harper Lee. It was narrated by the main character, Scout, who reflects back to her childhood life (sparknotes). Two important characters mentioned in the novel are, Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. They are both portrayed as mockingbird figures that share many similarities. These include the community’s false perspective on them and their kind gestures toward the people of Maycomb.
People are excluded from society simply because of their ethnicity or their actions. While exclusion may be a result of a wrongful crime, many exclusions stem from a lack of understanding or a narrow mindset. Harper Lee demonstrates this isolation in her novel where a child named Scout slowly learns of the difference between seclusion and exclusion. As her father defends an innocent black man in a trial that he cannot win, she begins to understand how seclusion and exclusion plays a role in Maycomb County, her hometown. In To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, Scout learns how both seclusion and exclusion involve the “removal” of one from society; in addition, such isolation is represented by several characters who are wrongfully accused as
In J. D. Salinger’s novel The Catcher in the Rye a teenage boy, Holden Caulfield, lost between childhood and adulthood, navigates through his boarding school, Pencey, the streets of New York and finally back to his house. During that time Holden uses "can" to change his outward appearance to match those of the social norm. When Holden attempts to fit in by looking good to impress the people around him, he pushes himself further away, and into isolation. Holden stuck in his own isolation chooses to judge the adults, teenagers, and kids around him; he calls them "phony" because they act unoriginal and use their physical and mental gifts to win people over. Holden perturbs over this "phoniness" because his
Typically, one will feel isolation from those around them, either emotionally or physically, at some point in their lives. One’s feeling of separation can largely impact their quality of life. In J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye, Holdenś emotional isolation leads to a decreased sense of belonging. In Andrew Niccol’s The Truman Show, this leads to a loss of love. Both characters isolate themselves both physically and mentally, holding them back from reaching happiness through either this sense of belonging or love. By overcoming this detachment, they are each able to achieve freedom from their constraints in order to provide support for those around them.
Are individuals' early introduction frequently the correct one? In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, creator Harper Lee, forms the fundamental character Scout and her sibling, Jem as two youthful children that develop in the wake of encountering extraordinary occasions. This novel situated in 1930, is about Scout and Jem who live in the residential area of Maycomb County with their dad Atticus. Scout, Jem, and their mid year companion, Dill go on numerous undertakings all through the book, these enterprises, which frequently get them stuck in an unfortunate situation, drives the kids to perceive the low reality of the world. The story starts with their dad Atticus, a lawyer, spoke to an African American man named Tom Robinson.