To Kill A Mockingbird Good And Evil Essay

“For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing”
(Simon Wiesenthal). This could be applied to Scout and Jem because they both experienced the good and evil in the folks of Maycomb. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she conveys the theme of good and evil when Scout and Jem encountered complicated events and reveals that when there’s good there’s evil. This can be seen through Jem’s point of view, Atticus’s formal diction and the characterization of Boo Radley.

Firstly, through Jem’s point of view, the theme of good and evil can be seen from the beginning of the novel. Jem formed a simple understanding of the world that all the folks in Maycomb were good except Boo Radley because of the said rumors. However, during the Tom Robinson case and after, he saw through an adult’s perspective of racism and prejudice,

Atticus is one of the most educated people in the county of Maycomb and he seems to carefully choose his words since he’s a lawyer. He doesn’t speak down to his children but, rather uses it to educate them. For instance, “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man… He just has blind spots along with the rest of us” (Lee 210). Atticus used neutral diction to inform Jem and Scout that although Mr. Cunningham’s intention was to commit something evil, he was still a good man and that he knows he shouldn’t commit something bad in front of innocent children. Additionally, the author states, “The older you grow the more of it you’ll see. The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into the jury box. As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life” (Lee 295). He interprets a serious tone while teaching Jem how the court rules and that white men will try to win their way in life, even if it’s imposing false accusations towards black