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Racism in english literature
Major themes in to kill a mockingbird
Harper Lee and society
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To Kill a Mockingbird is seen as an important work of American Literature, and many different messages are conveyed in the story. One of the most important themes of the entire story is right in the title. “To kill a mockingbird” means to destroy innocence. Many different characters have their innocence ruined throughout the course of the book. One character that comes to mind is Tom Robinson. He is convicted of a crime that he didn’t commit, and he then ends up getting shot while in jail for a crime that he didn’t commit. However, he does not have the same innocence that characters such as the children and Boo Radley have. They have less knowledge of the world than he does. Boo is one of the most important “mockingbirds” in this story. He gives the children gifts and even protects them from Bob Ewell. They see him as someone who is …show more content…
very giving and loving. Boo is misjudged by society throughout the book. The other people in Maycomb see him as a violent man. When he kills Bob, his innocence is tarnished. He does not kill Bob out of malice, though. He does it to protect the children. Boo is one of the mockingbirds throughout the entire story, it is just not revealed until he leaves gifts for the children. It is also demonstrated when he carries Jem home. In chapter 10, Atticus says that “it is a sin to kill mockingbird”. After Boo kills Bob, it is said that turning him in would be like “shooting a mockingbird”. Jem could also be described as a mockingbird.
Jem takes part in the game with Boo Radley’s house. This demonstrates his lack of knowledge about many things in the world. He displays a strong sense of innocence throughout the story, but, unlike Boo Radley, he was not a mockingbird throughout the entire story. He developed into one later on. All of the children can be seen as mockingbirds, but I think that Jem and Dill have a stronger importance to the outcome of the story than Scout does. In some scenes, Scout is the strongest and most mature of the children, even though Jem is the oldest. She takes Dill out of the courtroom when he is uncontrollably crying, and she comforts him. I also see Jem and Scout as having a symbolic importance to the story because they have the last name “Finch”. A “Finch” is a type of bird. It is a songbird, just like a mockingbird. There is a lot of symbolism all throughout the book. I think that an overall recurring theme that I saw in the book is that of innocence, and how easily it can be destroyed. Mockingbirds are songbirds, and they just fly around singing, causing no
harm.
When the children were given toy guns for Christmas from their uncle, Atticus tells them that is a sin to kill a mockingbird, because mockingbirds are innocent creatures that only make pretty music and do not harm anything. Boo Radley is shown throughout the story as a gentile man when he covers Scout up with a blanket the night she was waiting on the sidewalk for the fire burning from Miss Maudie’s house to be put out. He also leaves the children presents in the knothole and saves their lives when Bob Ewell tries to kill them. His bad reputation comes from the idea that all people who isolate themselves from their communities are horrible, violent people who need to be shut off from everyone for their own safety, when in reality we are left to guess that he detaches himself from Maycomb because of some form of social anxiety or dislike of socializing. The comparison of him to a mockingbird is prominent at the end of the book, when Heck Tate is explaining to Atticus that it was Boo who killed Bob Ewell, and not Jem. He tells him that it would be best to pretend that Bob Ewell fell on his own knife because sharing the actual story would bring Boo into the spotlight, which Scout compares to being a sin as bad as killing a mockingbird. Tom Robinson also represents a Mockingbird because he is just as innocent as one. During the time when Mayella and Bob
A child’s journey to adulthood will corrupt their innocence. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the two main characters Jem and Scout are forced to grow up and face the realities of their world as their father prepared for one of the most controversial cases in his career. As the trial date gets closer and closer, Jem and Scout witnessed negative and positive things caused by the folks of Maycomb, they were not prepared for. Through all the commotion Jem and Scout learned the importance of benevolence and courage as it influenced their changing perspective on the world. The qualities Jem and Scout learn from benevolence and courage change how they see their world by showing them fairness, kindness and bravery.
...markings of an innocent childhood no longer. After Tom Robinson is shot, his murder is compared to “the senseless slaughter of songbirds”. Their hearts do nothing but sing out, making beautiful music for all to hear. This is why it is considered a sin to kill one. Jem Finch, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley can all be seen as “mockingbirds”. They never attempt to hurt anyone, yet Tom Robinson was framed for rape, Boo Radley was unlawfully labeled as a vague recluse and the innocence of Jem Fitch was unfairly stolen due to the evil nature of society.
Innocence evidently comes with birth and is kept through existence as time moves forward, but it soon becomes corrupted with specific life changing occurrences. In the film To Kill a Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan, which is based upon the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, there are three prominent characters in which innocence is rendered within. The three characters are Jem Finch, his sister Scout or Jean Louise Finch, and their neighbor Boo Radley or Arthur Radley. They each possess a different form of innocence because of the diverse personalities and consequently have their innocence obliterated in distinct ways. The
The novel that will be discussed in then next few paragraphs will be the well known To Kill A Mocking Bird written by Harper Lee. The shown theme of the essay is Scouts loss of innocence as the novel progresses. Scout, the main character of the novel is put in front of many obstacles in order to see the innocence slowly fade before her eyes in to a box of racial, prejudice, single story evils. This is clearly portrayed throughout the novel to show how many different events can contribute to these ideas. There are many factors that contribute to these ideas such as the results of the court case that made scout see the world differently. Even when Jem said the sentence "There's four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind, like us and the neighbors, there's the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negros."(302) Scout was influenced by this sentence because she looked up to her brother. That one sentence changed her point of view on her way of life. Instead of just seeing the world the way she had thought it up to be in her head, this single story implanted a new idea in to her head, affecting the way she thought. Scouts innocence though seemed to be attacked countless times by the evil that progresses in the book is not destroyed in the end because she is able to overcome the obstacles in her way to see the goodness in life and is able to overlook the single story told to her about Boo Radley when he finally reveals himself.
Loss of Innocence in Killing a Mockingbird Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather, the streets turned red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. " (Lee 9). This environment, as Scout Finch accurately describes, is not conducive to young children, loud noises, and games. But, the Finch children and Dill must occupy themselves in order to avoid boredom.
Innocence is defined as the state of being not guilty of a crime or other wrong act. The definition does not have any exceptions depending on race, age, gender or other physical characteristics. Yet in the south, the innocence of a guilty white man, is more important than the innocence of an innocent black man. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is about a young girl named Scout who lives in Maycomb County, Alabama. The novel is separated into two parts, the first part is about the adventures of Boo Radley. While the second part is about the trial of Tom Robinson. In the first part of the novel, Scout along with her brother Jem and her friend Dill investigate the mysterious life of their neighbor, Boo Radley. Boo has not left
Who would want to kill a mockingbird that sings and keeps people at peace? Only mean and cruel people for example Bob Ewell, a drunk and abusive father. This symbol of mockingbird appears in the story many times. According to Merriam-Webster’s Middle School Dictionary a mockingbird is a songbird of the southern U.S. that is noted for the sweetness of its song and for imitations of the notes of other birds (482). The symbol of killing a blameless bird is repeated through out the story when Harper Lee describes Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Calpurnia. The following words of Atticus to his children explain it “…but I know you’ll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee 90). To Kill a Mockingbird, is the expression of the mocking bird and some people as innocent victims.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee tells the story of coming-of-age and the loss of innocence through the character Jem. Through recurring events, Jem is faced with the realization of society’s injustice, and is left questioning the world he lives in. During a time of rampant racial discrimination and prejudice in the south, Jem transforms from naivety to maturity.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Theme of Innocence & nbsp; & nbsp; Innocence is a time when a person has never done something, it is the first step in the theme of innocence to experience. The second step in the movement from innocence to experience, is experience. This step is what is achieved after a person or thing has done something they have never done before or learns something they have never known before. The theme of growth from innocence to experience occurs many times in the first part of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. This process is one of the central themes in the first eleven chapters of this book, because it shows how Scout and Jem change and mature. & nbsp;
The mocking bird was important enough to be in the title of the book, giving it extra meaning and extra importance. The title To Kill a Mockingbird carries the same meaning that you should never harm something that is innocent even it is easy, and it carries throughout the story and into the trial. Although Tom Robinson was innocent but still got convicted, it shows that it was wrong to do so. In the trial, Tom Robinson would be the mockingbird and the jury would be the wielder of the gun.
In this world, everyone has an equal right; however, many people are getting falsely accused of acts they did not commit even though they are innocent. Mockingbirds, one of the most innocent birds, sing their heart out for people to enjoy, however, they getting killed every day. In this novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many racial prejudices going on. Finches stand near the top of the social hierarchy, with Cunningham and Ewells underneath. Black community in Maycomb is even below the Ewells, even if they were a hard worker; they were not treated equally. The “mockingbirds” represents the idea of innocence, so killing a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Throughout the book, many characters are considered a mockingbird. Three examples are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Those three characters are innocent; they are kind and were never harmful to others. However, they were destroyed through contact of evil. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the mockingbirds symbolizes the idea of innocence, and Tom, Boo, and Mr. Raymond are considered one of it.
Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: The Significance of a Mockingbird In a society surrounded by corruption, racism, and cruelty it is rare to find purity. Innocence is constantly being destroyed. For this reason, the harmless citizens need to be treasured and protected. Harper Lee’s classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird portrays the injustices of the 1930’s that expose the innocent to the malice of the society’s intentions. Some characters in the novel are characterized as harmless and pure and are symbolized by mockingbirds.
In a novel, using young characters is an effective strategy to show a theme because these characters show the most growth. Three young main characters provides a very strong base to explain these themes. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the characters Jem, Scout, and Dill to reveal a loss of innocence through the experiences of racism and gender expectations, which leads to a sense of maturity. Dill’s experiences in the courthouse change his views on the people of Maycomb because of the way they treated Tom Robinson during the court investigation. When Mr. Gilmer is questioning Tom harshly, Dill begins to cry explaining that “It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ’em that way.
Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corn cribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This conveys the loss of innocence in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and thus killing a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. A number of characters (Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond) can be identified as Mockingbirds who have been injured or destroyed through their contact with evil.