To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

In Harper Lee's spellbindingly classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the two main characters, Jem and Scout Finch experience racism and the haunting experience of the loss of innocence. Their lives are changed when their Father, Atticus Finch, is forcibly placed on the rape trial of a black man named Tom Robinson, opposing the character Mayella Ewell, daughter of Bob Ewell. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces seemingly similar characters, in the fathers Bob Ewell and Atticus Finch, who slowly unveil stark contrasts demonstrated through their mindsets, upbringings, and parenting skills. The mindsets of the two father figures are quite dissimilar. Atticus Finch, first of all, has to deal with people who clearly hate him.

Atticus accepts people of the black race and does not see why people are prejudice towards them. Bob Ewell, on the other hand, is extremely racist. His main belief is that black people are scum and he dehumanizes them constantly. One of the many times the reader sees this is in the quote, “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!” (page 175). Even further, Bob Ewell has spoken about "my Mayella", his daughter, as if it was his property, which is when the idea of Bob Ewell abusing his daughter comes into play. A primary example of this happening is when Scout Finch realizes that "If [Mayella's] right eye was blacked and she was beaten mostly on the right side of the face, it would tend to show that a left-handed person did it." (page 180). This important court case scene is when the reader and the characters in the courtroom very well realize that Bob Ewell abuses his daughter. While Bob hurts his children, Atticus time and time again tries to protect his children. This is seen on page 101, when Atticus shoots the stray dog and the children learn that "Atticus Finch was the deadest shot in Maycomb County in his time". For his career, Atticus still