Just because someone is not the same as everybody else, does not mean that they should get picked on. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, I believe love is the central theme. Acts of love is showed throughout the story in many different ways. The ways Lee shows this is by showing love has no color, love someone even though they are not blood, and love someone even if they are different. Just because someone is a different color does not mean that they shouldn't be loved the same. Lee shows this by defending an African American, Tom Robinson. Robinson was falsely accused of raping a white girl. In those times, whites were thought to have been always right and other white should never side with blacks. "I certainly am. I …show more content…
Lee shows this in many ways. This is showed by Jem and Scout meet Boo Radley. “Right pretty spell we're having, isn't it, Mr. Arthur?”(Lee). This shows showing respect to Boo by her calling him his proper name, Mr. Arthur. Scout were afraid of Mr. Arthur but now she is more comfortable around. This shows Scout love and affection towards him. However, many people believe the novel is not about love. Although I'm a firm believer that To Kill A Mockingbird is about love, some people believe that it's more about racism and its effect. The trial portrays racism because all the people in town do not believe what Tom Robinson says. The effects of racism is shown when Robinson was shot seventeen times. All these things show racism but love overpowers it all. People question if To Kill A Mockingbird central theme is love or racism. I personally believe that Harper Lee shows love is the key to her novel. She does this by showing love is blind and has no color. Some people might have imperfections or might not look like the “normal” but Lee shows through her characters that you have to love those not “normal” people
This cruelty was presented to the reader conspicuously throughout different instances. However, Lee utilized the character Atticus to try and combat the racism and to be an exemplary man of empathy. One situation that shows this would be Atticus's final statement at the end of the Tom Robinson trial. “I am confident that you gentlemen will review without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision, and restore this defendant to his family. In the name of God, do your duty” (Lee 275).
In our courts, when it's a white man's statement against a dark man's, the white man dependably wins. They're revolting, however those are the unavoidable issues facing everyone." (Lee 220). This quote is from a discussion amongst Jem and Atticus, however with Scout listening intently. To her dislike, Scout discovers that no matter what, whites will dependably stay better than blacks.
To Kill a Mockingbird can relate to this because Tom Robinson’s trial was very racist because of the time period that it took place. In eighteen sixty six the Ku Klux Klan was born. Its main goal was to bring back white supremacy and to scare african american people. The years 1929-1947 were filled with horrifying lynches and other racially triggered violence especially in the south from the KKK.
In “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee a girl named Jean Louise Finch learns the truths of her town when her father, Atticus Finch, is appointed to defend a Black man. Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, and her brother Jem make many friends and uncover the importance of many things through her father defending a Black man named Tom Robinson. One of these friends being Charles Baker Harris, nicknamed Dill, who is immensely infatuated with the town’s so-called lunatic, Boo Radley. Her brother and herself learn most of the important things from Atticus and Calpurnia, their caretaker. Everything else that they learn about is most likely from and situations they’ve found themselves in throughout the novel.
Lee uses Miss Gates’s ironic views of Hitler and Tom’s trial to show how racial prejudice causes crimes against African Americans to be considered less than crimes committed against white people. A mockingbird is then used to symbolize Tom Robinson as an innocent person wrongly convicted of a crime because of his skin color. The misunderstood characterization of Arthur Radley shows how society will let prejudice guide their imaginated view on the lives of people they don't understand. All three characters provide examples of how a preconceived opinion of one person or a whole race can cause drastic misunderstandings and
To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Racial equality and discrimination is a founding issue that has been spread throughout every part of the world, To Kill A Mockingbird was written and published by Harper Lee in 1960, this time was dominated by civil rights protests and some of the first hippie movements following the crushing reality of the Vietnam War, the 60s also saw the struggle against segregation and racial equality. It is no surprise that the extreme political conflict affecting her life and world would greatly impact her writing and influence how she perceived the world during the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. the influence of the fight for racial inequality is shown greatly in her book as she depicts the everyday life
Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.
The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism.
Harper Lee’s purpose was to show that race doesn’t define anything. In the novel, Miss Maudie says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (90).
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells a story of racial prejudice during the Depression and how it is combated. The main development in the novel is that a Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella. Many people in the town of Maycomb, particularly people involved with the case of Tom, have a negative attitude towards African Americans. Prejudice was a terrible issue in the South during the Depression, but Atticus Finch shows that racial injustice can be combated in two main ways, each having different levels of effectiveness.
Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, the readers can see how Scout changes her view about Boo Radley. Because of their nosiness, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to drag Boo out his house and to the outside world. Their innocent actions combined with Boo’s actions changed the image of Boo, in their minds, from “a malevolent phantom” (10), a person who kills cats and eats squirrels to a neighbor they can trust, who saves them from Bob Ewell. Scout says at the end, “Boo was our neighbor” (373). The readers can see a great change in their relationship.
In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.
As can be seen, Lee’s usage of Tom Robinson’s trial and the racial discrimination and prejudice seen throughout it helps reinforce the theme of social injustice throughout To Kill A Mockingbird. Another encounter that the
Scout looks up to Jem, greatly values his opinion on many different topics and trusts him completely. She follows his lead on may things such as when Atticus enquire about the nature of a game they are playing which depicts Boo Radley , “ Jems evasion told me our game was a secret so I kept quiet.” (Page 45) Jem in turn enjoys spending time with her and adores her.
Boo Radley taught them, in the sense, that you can’t Judge a book by its cover. At the beginning of the novel, Jem and Scout pictured Boo to be this “...malevolent Phantom (Lee 10).” that went out at night and looked through people’s windows. But after leaving them gifts in the tree and putting a blanket on Scout while she was standing out in the cold, Jem’s and Scout’s Perception of him began to evolve from a monster to a person.