To Kill A Mocking Bird Quote Analysis

Things Are Not What They Seem
In the novel To Kill A Mocking Bird, Harper Lee uses characters to show that not all things are what they seem to be. The characters Mrs. Dubose, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond, Mr. Underwood, and Atticus were important in showing it.
Mrs.Dubose was always seen as mean and “Jem and I hated her. If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing” (Lee 132). From this it seems to Jem and Scout that Mrs. Dubose had it out for them, but until she had died, they didn’t know why. After not seeing her for over a month and finding out

that she had died, Atticus explained her fits. “ ‘Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict,’ said Atticus. ‘She took it as a pain-killer for years’ ’’(Lee 147). To Jem and Scout, things weren’t as they seemed because her morphine addiction gave her a short temper towards them.
Boo Radley was also not as he seemed.

At the beginning of the story, he was viewed as creepy and mysterious due to him never being seen, eating domesticated animals, and stalking people at night. As the novel comes to an end, Jem and Scout were attacked while coming home from her play and after they were separated Scout turned to a streetlight. “A man was passing under it. The man was walking the staccato stepson someone carrying a load to heavy for him… He was carrying Jem” (Lee 352). This shows that not everyone is who they seem. Boo had revealed himself to the outside world to save the lives of both Jem and Scout, thus showing others that he was not as what they made him out to

be.

Another thing that wasn’t as it seemed was Mr.

Raymond’s drinking. Although his “drinking” is only coke in a paper bag, Mr. Raymond knows “When I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey—that’s why he wont change his ways’ ’’(Lee 268). The reasoning for his drinking was a way to explain the things that he’s done such as marrying a colored woman and having mixed children. From this, Jem, Scout, and Dill have seen that Dolphus’s “drinking” problem wasn’t as it seemed and the reason why he had kept it secret from Maycomb County.
Atticus knew that it was very strange for Mr. Underwood to defend a negro. After the night when Braxton protected Tom and Atticus with a shotgun, Atticus looked to his kids and said, “You know, it’s a funny thing about Braxton…He despises Negros, won’t have one near him” (Lee 209). From this and also defending Tom’s right to a fair trial shows that he has changed his view on the blacks. Most whites despised the Negros and to have a man who had not wanted to be near them suddenly change their view to protect them and show them respect was not

normal.
Finally, the despite between Tom Robinson and Maywell was not as it seemed. Atticus used all of his power to try to prove Tom innocent and both Jem and Scout realized that. After proving that Mr. Ewell was left handed, Scout felt that her father was trying to show “that Mr. Ewell could of beaten up Mayella…If her right eye was blackened and she was beaten mostly on the right side of the face, it would tend to show that a left hand person did it” (Lee 238).” Because Tom’s left hand was crippled, there was no way that he could of beat her, proving that her father was the culprit. This shows that not only that Tom was innocent, but that the only reason he is on trial is because he is black.