To Kill A Mockingbird Movie Review Essay

524 Words2 Pages

In the past, I have done reviews on John Adams, Rudy, Grease, and The Butler. For my fourth quarter movie review, I decided to watch To Kill A Mockingbird because I have already read the book and wanted to see the film adaptation of it. This movie focuses on the Finch family in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama around the time of the Great Depression. It is based off of the book of the same name by Harper Lee. Both focus on Scout and Jem Finch growing up in the deep South and struggling to figure out how to act in the world around them. To Kill A Mockingbird is set in the 1930's and early 1940's. Right before the movie begins, President FDR was elected. At the beginning of the movie, Scout mentions this, saying they had recently been told that they, "have nothing to fear but fear itself." Throughout the movie, Scout learns how to act in life, how to act with other people, and how to understand things from their point of view. A major point in the novel is that Scout's father Atticus decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man. This is very important because it shows that Atticus is not as racist as the majority of the people that were in the film. It also shows that he cares for his kids because he wants them to learn to be capable of distinguishing when they do or do not need to defend themselves. …show more content…

The mockingbird represents an innocent figure. Near the beginning of the film, Atticus gives Jem and Scout guns and tells them not to shoot mockingbirds because they do anything but sing for others. There are multiple mockingbird figures in the movie, the most significant of which is Tom Robinson. He was falsely accused of raping one of the Ewells. Because the Ewells are a white family, everyone immediately assumed it was true, but Atticus and a few others decided to do what is right and defend

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Figurative Language In To Kill A Mockingbird

    509 Words  | 2 Pages

    The symbolism of the mockingbird plays a huge role in the development of the theme in the novel. The mockingbird symbolizes innocence. In the book, it is believed that it is a sin to kill a man mockingbird because they bring about no harm, only beautiful music to enjoy. In the same sense, killing a mockingbird would be the equivalent of evil defeating good. This is represented multiple times in the novel through characters like Atticus Finch, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson. All of whom try to bring about the good in people rather than focus on the evil in the community.

    Read More

  • Decoding Symbolism and Prejudice in 'To Kill a Mockingbird'

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mockingbirds do no harm to anything they just sing. The two characters in this book that represents this symbol is Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. Tom Robinson is a “mockingbird” because he is wrongfully accused of raping a white girl. Through the prejudice of the people in Macomb he later convicted and killed, even when he never did anything to Mayella Ewell. Boo Radley is also another great example of a “mockingbird” because no accepts him throughout the town which forces him to hide in his home. He had rumors spread about him how that he was a bad guy. But he was nothing but kind to the children and even saved their lives (Dave).

    Read More

  • Growing Up in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up is hard, but when you add in nosey neighbors, scary houses, a stuck up aunt, and taunting children, it becomes more difficult. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee that was published in 1960. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Scout Finch is a six year old narrator. She lives with her father, her brother, and Calpurnia, their black cook. Scout spends her summers playing with her brother, Jem, and her friend, Dill Harrison. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is a lawyer and he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. The story is an account of the next three years of Scout’s life in Maycomb. Throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it takes a couple years for Scout Finch to grow and mature into an understanding, empathetic, polite, young lady.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    Francis tells Scout, “Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he’s turned out to be a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruinin‘ the family, that’s what he’s doin’.” (110) Atticus knows that his children will endure harsh treatment, but he always tells his them, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." Atticus, without a doubt, symbolizes honorable morals and logical thinking. While the Mockingbird evidently depicts innocence and justice, there are several characters used to represent the Mockingbird.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Analysis Essay

    2045 Words  | 5 Pages

    Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place during the 1930’s in the fictional and quiet town of Maycomb, located in Maycomb County, Alabama. The town of Maycomb is described as a tired old town that moves very slowly and its residents have nothing to fear but fear itself. Being in set in the South during the 1930’s the story does tackle racism and inequality for African Americans as racism was becoming more and more prominent in the 1930’s. The fact that the story takes place in a backwater county in Alabama makes the the injustice even more prevalent. The story goes through the early years of the main characters Jem and Scout so the exact time is always changing, however, the more important and intense parts of the story takes place

    Read More

  • Equality In Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

    932 Words  | 2 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about equality. In the setting of this book (Maycomb, Alabama) the inequality of races is completely normal to people’s everyday lives. The disrespect of African-Americans in this book is an ordinary occurrence that most people have grown up accustomed to, but there are some who don’t wish to be a part of this discrimination. One of these people being Atticus Finch, the father of Jem and Scout. Atticus uses the world around him to teach his children how to give all people respect no matter what their race or social class is. Atticus Finch is a good-hearted, moral lawyer in the discriminatory town of Maycomb Alabama. Amongst the blabbermouths and discriminatory townspeople of Maycomb, Atticus wants his children to be different from them, and to learn how to respect the dignity of everyone using the changes in their lives to teach them.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay: Parallels and Differences

    1759 Words  | 4 Pages

    Jill McCorkle's Ferris Beach, a contemporary novel, shares numerous characteristics with Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written in the 1960's. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, McCorkle's novel documents the life of a young girl in a small southern town. The two narrators, Kate Burns and Scout Finch, endure difficult encounters. A study of these main characters reveals the parallels and differences of the two novels. Jill McCorkle duplicates character similarities and rape from Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird to show the reader how young girls think and develop.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Democracy In To Kill A Mockingbird

    535 Words  | 2 Pages

    The mockingbird represents innocence because it causes no harm to others and therefore it is “a sin to kill a mockingbird”. The innocence from the bird is parallel to the innocence of Tom Robinson. The bird and Tom both did not cause harm to anyone. However, Tom never hurt Mayella, but he was still being punished for a crime he did not commit. The birds could also symbolize for a deeper meaning. Maybe back in time it was okay to kill a mockingbird even though it never harmed anyone because people did not view the bird of having any value. This could foreshadow that when this book was written whites felt superior to blacks and they saw black of having little to no value. Therefore, the bird could also represent hope in the fact that maybe it will just take some time before white people realized they are no different than black people. The book was written as the civil right movement was taken

    Read More

  • the mockingbirds

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...birds are one of the main symbols. Mockingbirds are innocent they do not harm anyone but makes beautiful music. However, they get killed by people every day. There are many innocent person present in this novel; three main characters that are Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond, and they symbolize the Mockingbirds. Tom was a wrongly accused of rape, and he was brutally killed because he was black. Boo Radley did not do any harm to anyone, he was innocent, but people in the Maycomb County were thinking him as a monster which hurt him mentally. Lastly, Mr. Raymond symbolized the Mockingbird because he was innocent, however only because he thought different than others, he was looked down by the people in Maycomb County. Mockingbirds in this novel symbolized the innocent people who are getting wrongly accused and their innocence getting destroyed by evil.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    In previous eras, anti-Black sentiment was widely acknowledged and sometimes encouraged in the United States. Black litigants have endured a long history of racist attitudes and inequality in the criminal justice system To this day, it is impossible to determine if jurors present an unbiased trial for the defendants regardless of their racial background. Although the undercurrent of racism may continue to be present in modern juries, racial prejudice in the modern legal system is certainly less flagrant as many.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And Tkam

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    ‘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

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Comparison Essay

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Part A: The book, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has a movie adaptation, which skips parts, but follows the plot. While most of what it excludes are side stories, many of these had an impact, and changed the story later in the movie. A great example of this is the story of Mrs. Dubose, an old cranky woman who sits on her deck, insulting all who pass. Although first seen as an evil in the book, it is later revealed that she also had a morphine addiction she wanted to rid herself of before she died. She tried her hardest and succeeded with the help of Jem, who read to her every day for a bit over a month. Atticus, their father, explained that the reason the son read to her was to show him what “true courage” was, fighting an uphill battle, This

    Read More

  • What Does Boo Radley Symbolize In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although the title To Kill a Mockingbird is almost entirely unrelated to the plot, the mockingbird it holds a lot of symbolic weight in the novel as it is one of the most prominent symbols used in the novel. In this story of innocent people broken by evil, the “mockingbird” represents the idea of innocence and defencelessness. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, many characters such as Arthur (Boo) Radley, Jem Finch, and Tom Robinson, could be considered “mockingbirds”.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Film Analysis

    1050 Words  | 3 Pages

    For this assignment, I decided to do my film review on To Kill a Mockingbird (Mulligan, R., & Pakula, A. (Directors). (1962). To Kill a Mockingbird[Motion picture on VHS]. United States of America.) I have a personal connection to this film because it is one of my most beloved novels by Harper Lee. I have never watched the film so it was a nice experience to see the characters I have loved for years come to life just before my eyes. The film particularly focuses on a white family living in the South of the United States in the 1930s. The two siblings, Jem and Scout Finch, undergo major changes while experiencing evil and injustice in their small town of Maycomb. Jem and Scout’s father is named Atticus and he is a well-respected man in the town as well as being a lawyer.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Film Analysis Essay

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many times in Hollywood, a movie that intends to portray a novel can leave out key scenes that alter the novel’s message. Leaving out scenes from the novel is mainly do to time limits, however doing so can distort the author’s true purpose of the story. In history, Movies were directed to intentionally leave out scenes that could alter the public’s opinion. This frequently let novel 's main points be swept under the rug. There were times of this at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, where white Americans were the only ones making movies. Not many African Americans had the opportunity to be involved in the process of major productions. Because racism in To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is underplayed in the film, it shows

    Read More

More about To Kill A Mockingbird Movie Review Essay

Open Document