Introduction
Historical context comparison
‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ (TKAM) is a book that explores multiple social issues at the time the story takes place in. It was published in 1960 and set in 1936. The story took place when the author, Harper Lee, was 10 years old. This was an age close to that of both Jem and Scout throughout the novel. This allowed the author to really capture the themes portrayed in the book, as they would have been at the time but through the eyes of a child. Despite TKAM being a work of fiction many of the acts of prejudice and racism did really occur in those times. Not only did black men have less rights and were seen lower than the lowest white man. If a black man did something wrong, like in the book, mobs would
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form and do whatever necessary to carry out “justice” as they saw fit. Some groups, such as the Klu Klux Klan, did not need reason behind ‘lynching’ and would often kill if not torture black people solely on there colour of skin. In contrast to that ’The Book Thief’ (TBT) is set in During the Holocaust in 1939 Nazi Germany yet published 46 years later in 2005. Despite this age gap the author Marcus Zusak drew inspiration from real experiences. When interviewed about his inspiration Markus talked about two stories from his parents he would always remember “One was about a burning sky when the city was bombed. The other was about a boy being whipped on the street for giving a starving Jewish man a piece of bread. The man sank to his knees and thanked the boy, but the bread was stripped away and both the taker of the bread and the giver were punished.” These descriptions from his parents enabled him to see a different side to Nazi Germany that he wished to capture in paper. Racism/prejudice Prejudice plagues both TKAM and TBT.
In TKAM many times the quote “It is a sin to kill a mockingbird” comes up and many of the characters have been identified as mockingbirds since it was first released. The main mockingbirds being Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley these characters like mockingbirds “Don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." To paraphrase it is wrong to put harm towards someone who has done no wrong himself. Despite no wrong being performed by either Tom or Arthur, due to circumstance both of them are treated unequally to the ret of the population. Despite the concept of the mockingbird originating in TKAM, TBT also contains characters sharing the trait of the mockingbirds. Being set in Nazi Germany during the holocaust entire groups of people, especially Jews, could be seen as Mockingbirds however the story focuses on the character of Liesel, a little girl with communist parents who steals literature banned by the Nazi party. As well as Liesel, Max, a Jew hiding in her foster home from the Nazi’s could also be considered a Mockingbird. Both are either mocked, or in Max’s case hunted down due to what ‘category’ they were born into or what they do and/or believe in. Even Rudy is pushed down for making himself black to be more like Jesse Owens, a black American who won four gold medals in the 1936 Olympics held in Germany. Hitler was not pleased with Owens' triumph, but Rudy definitely was. To Rudy, black was beautiful, seeing past the propaganda surrounding him even at a young
age. Acceptance and empathy for others From the very beginning of TBT we know that the story is narrated by death. Despite his lack of connection to the living he does from time to time take interest in the ones who as he puts “Left behind”. A character as grim as death shows empathy towards the character Liesel whom he meets when he takes the lives of people close to her and in the end herself. Due to the suffering and resilience that Liesel showed, death took great fascination in her story. At the end of the film adaption death tells the viewers “I wanted to tell the book thief that she was one of the few souls that made me wonder what it was like to live” This concept of this empathy is covered throughout TKAM. When Atticus tells scout “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” Scout does not understand this until the end of the book where she sees things from Arthur’s point of view. Scout finally sees past all the rumours and stories about the mysterious Boo Radley and accepts him for the normal human who has shown a great deal of Empathy towards her as well. Throughout the book Arthur is shown caring and looking out for her. Simple deeds such as placing gifts within a tree and putting a blanket upon Scouts shivering body to murdering Bob Ewell not in self-defence but in defence of someone who would not be able fight back. This is a lot like the relationship between Tom and Atticus; the main event of the book is Tom Robinson being convicted of rape and abuse. Being a black man facing white prosecutors Tom is in a circumstance where he is completely defenceless. Like Arthur Atticus must defend him against, coincidently enough, Bob Ewell. Conclusion
In this scene, a Mad Rabid dog, named Tim Johnson, comes through the streets of a the town of Maycomb.
The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place in the 1930s during the depression. It is narrated by a young girl named Scout. Some of the main characters are Jem, Scout's brother, and Atticus, Scout and Jem's father. Throughout the novel the theme of racism is displayed through the book. Jem ,Scout, and their friend Dill are fascinated about a character named Boo Radley or Arthur Radley.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is based during the era of racism and prejudice. This era is commonly referred to as The Great Depression and is during the mid-late 30’s. The novel is set in a small town and county called Maycomb, Alabama. The novel follows the story of the Finch’s and their struggle before, during, and after a rape trial that is set against an African American by a white woman and her father.
To Kill A Mockingbird took place in the 1930’s, a time that was enormously charged with racial tension. One example of this is the existence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Even though the KKK was in a time of decline in the 1930’s, it had been very prominent in the 1920’s and had still not completely died out. The KKK had rallies and marches. They even marched in Washington D.C. several times. They burned crosses on the lawns of any white person who would show favor towards blacks in an effort to scare them away from helping black folks. The KKK was an extremely violent group. “While African-Americans still bore the brunt of much Klan violence, Jews and Catholics topped the enemy’s list, followed by immigrants and those who transgressed Klan’s vision of morality” (“History”). The KKK showed their violence in several ways. Lynchings occurred very frequently as did raids of people’s homes.
The context of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is in Alabama, USA during the 1930s, a time of racial prejudice and the Great Depression. Similar to The Book Thief, TKAM is written through the eyes of a young girl, Scout, the daughter of a lawyer, Atticus Finch who chooses to defend an innocent black man in court. The setting of TKAM is in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama where there is a social divide between black and white people and racism is extremely evident. The composer’s purpose was to write a semi-autobiographical story of her childhood in which she was exposed to racial prejudice. TKAM was published in 1960, a time where racial prejudice was still evident in the USA, and thus Lee hoped to expose and challenge these prejudices.
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).
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 book, To Kill a Mockingbird, takes place in the early 1930’s. The 1930’s was a decade of racism, pain and struggle. However, this decade soon became the new beginning. To escape the horrendous reality of being unemployed and unable to provide for their families, many turned to entertainment to escape the hardships and realities that they were going through. Many families went to church regularly to ask for forgiveness and to hope that things would change for the better.
The book to ‘To kill a mocking-bird’ was written in the 1930’s and explores prejudice against black people. The book is portrayed through the eyes of two innocent children and shows the “irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South [of America] in the thirties. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one mans struggle for justice.”
A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird both have a number of similarities to be compared and contrasted. Both stories can be compared in their themes about justice and racial prejudice. However, this is where the similarities end. The themes and ideas in both novels are vastly different in shape and scope. In A Time to Kill justice is the main theme and most of the ideas are focused on justice and the gray in between the lines of black and white set by the law, racial prejudice is also touched upon very frequently in the comparisons between Jake Brigance and Carl Lee Hailey and how he wouldn't even have had to face trial if he was a white man. In To Kill a Mockingbird justice is a theme which is not expanded upon or explained in nearly as much detail as it is in A Time to Kill. To Kill a Mockingbird also has a much larger variety in it's themes, ranging from the themes of justice to the exploration of a child's way of perceiving right and wrong as well as the idea of coming of age. These stories are honestly and objectively far more different than they are alike.
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.
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and oppressive events that actually took place in the south during the time period in which the novel is based. In addition to actual historical events, events and examples from the book that clearly illustrate the overpoweringly high levels of prejudice that were intertwined in the everyday thinking of the majority of the characters in the book supports the fact that Tom Robinson never stood a chance of getting a fair trial.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (p.90) Miss. Maudie, one of the main protagonists in To Kill a Mockingbird, warns the young girl Scout that mockingbirds should not to be killed or hunted down because they represent those who are kind and innocent. So, on a broader spectrum, the term “to kill a mockingbird” symbolizes cruel and improper behavior towards people with good hearts and intentions. In the town of Maycomb, unethical behaviors, such as prejudice and gossip, are most commonly used against the “mockingbirds”. Three of those “mockingbirds” that are featured in this novel are Arthur “Boo” Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Due to the depiction of the mockingbird symbol in the novel, the reader understands the consequences that immoral attitudes have towards those who are innocent and kindhearted.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It is set in the 1930s, a time when racism was very prominent. Harper Lee emphasizes the themes of prejudice and tolerance in her novel through the use of her characters and their interactions within the Maycomb community. The narrator of the story, Scout, comes across many people and situations with prejudice and tolerance, as her father defends a black man.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been challenged/banned countless times since it’s original publication in 1960. The reasoning people could have behind banning it is that they feel that the racism, language and subject matter in the book is offensive, inappropriate, immoral and that it encourages and condones such things. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the depression from 1935-1937, and is told from the perspective of a little girl named Scout. In the book Scout’s father Atticus teaches her and her brother Jem many valuable lessons. The things Atticus teaches Scout and Jem are things we all need to know. To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspirational book that teaches valuable moral values, and should not be banned.