Discovery can encompass the experience of facing confronting and meaningful situations that have the potential to alter an individual’s perspective of the world around them. The texts Go Back To Where You Came From (2011), The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, adapted as a film by Brian Percival (2013), To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (1960) and I Have a Dream by Martin Luther King Jr. (1963) explore the universal experience of discovery through the outcome of emotional and intellectual discoveries conveyed through the audience, purpose and context of the texts. The documentary series, Go Back to Where You Came From explores the notion of discovery though its audience, purpose and context as the authentic refugee experience encourages the audience
Similar to The Book Thief, TKAM is written through the eyes of a young girl, Scout, the daughter of a lawyer, Atticus Finch who chooses to defend an innocent black man in court. The setting of TKAM is in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama where there is a social divide between black and white people and racism is extremely evident. The composer’s purpose was to write a semi-autobiographical story of her childhood in which she was exposed to racial prejudice. TKAM was published in 1960, a time where racial prejudice was still evident in the USA, and thus Lee hoped to expose and challenge these prejudices. The composer displays the notion of discovery through the character of Scout, as she sees firsthand the evil and prejudices of people in Maycomb as her father defends a black man in court. Scout learns many moral values from her father as he educates her to treat everyone equally. As Atticus quotes, “you never understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around.” Thus, as Scout is a young white girl, she does not understand the prejudices black people face, however as Atticus instils a social conscience into his children, Scout begins to understand the evil and racial prejudice of white people in Maycomb. Lee also uses symbolism of birds throughout TKAM to convey the notion of racial prejudice of the South through Atticus’s quote, “shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to kill innocence as mockingbirds make music and do no harm. The composer uses this quote to convey that it is a sin to kill someone who has done no harm, thus meaning the innocent black man Atticus is defending in court. Moreover, the notion of discovery can be understood through the composer’s
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is one of the best books, is filled with incredible connections and fantastic foreshadowing. Once you pick up this book, you will need the key of being able to dissect the book in order to unlock its full potential. Through the three-and-a-half year-long journey that is To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee takes Jeremy Atticus Finch and Jean Louise Finch through a never-ending pile of events. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about Jem and Scout Finch and their childhood in Maycomb, Alabama. Their lives consist of a never-ending-chain-of-events, many interesting and unique people, and life’s lessons that give Jem, Scout, and Atticus a fresh view of the world. Not many people have actually seen and experienced Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley, and this leads to incorrect thoughts about each character. Tom and Boo have a lot of good in them. They are both like Mockingbirds because they are both innocent humans harmed by the evil of mankind. In Harper Lee’s novel, both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are innocent characters, but Boo’s kindness is hidden by rumors and Tom’s generosity is hidden by stereotypes.
Each character’s personality in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is intricately described, therefore giving the reader an image or idea of the kind of person he or she is. A picture of the character is formed in the mind with maybe rough edges but a soft heart on the inside. A character’s personality may be oversimplified by drawing shapes in symbolism, but the shapes may be helpful in perceiving the general extent of the characteristics. With a little help from Lee’s descriptions, I have been able to form images in my mind (and draw them on paper) of the personalities of Scout, Jem, Atticus, Dil, Calpurnia, Boo Radley, and Bob Ewell.
'' You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view''; (30). Atticus Finch, a popular lawyer, and the father of the main character in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, teaches this lesson to his children. This idea does not just apply to Maycomb County in the 1930s, but to everyone everywhere. This story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the great depression. Most whites are very prejudiced and don't care to hear a Negro's opinions or thoughts on anything. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explains that a person has to try to see a situation from the other person's point of view before they make a judgement.
Atticus Finch was a character from a small town called Maycomb in a time that we come to know is shortly following FDR’s first inaugural address. Times are hard in small town America and ethics as well as morals are shaped by the way people interact with one another. Atticus has many admirable character traits; tranquility, honesty, humility, and a strong sense of civic duty.
Often times, literature reflects the problems within a society. An author finds their character’s struggles and triumphs in the people of each era. Inspirations from real life events fuel not only great literature but also books that become remarkable social pieces. A perfect example is Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This novel is reflective of the 1930’s era. In the story racism runs rampant through society with only a noble few trying to stop it. The racism that is apparent and a focal point for the novel is, although fiction, closely matched to that of a racist era in America. Racism represents fear of the unknown in many themes in the book as well as in the daily aspect of life.
Harper Lee grew up in Alabama in a time when racism was rampant and the people were merely sustaining an adequate life due to the Great Depression. The story is set in the rural town of Maycomb, which is a place where, “there was no hurry, for there was no place to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with...” Maycomb is a slow paced, hot, poverty-stricken Alabaman town with outdated infrastructures where people had old-fashioned values and traditional views. These factors then spread an outbreak of fear, which dramatically steers the course of the novel.
Mood helps in creating an atmosphere in a literary work by means of setting, theme, diction and tone. Throughout the book To kill a mockingbird the author wanted the mood to be sorrowful or vexed or just fret about how the people are acting because seeing how things were being treated or how people acted would be enough to make you feel angry or sad or worried for the people who were in the book. You always wanted to know what was going to come next or how something would end. Vex was a very prominent mood in this story and is definitely the most relevant.
In the opening chapters of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee introduces several subtle instances of racism. However, when Jem and Scout are welcomed into Cal’s Church in chapter 12, the reader really gets to travel behind the false disguise of Maycomb County’s white society to see the harsh realities of the injustices suffered by the blacks. The black community is completely separate from the whites -- in fact, Cal lives in a totally different part of town!
Nelle Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird has been considered one of the classic works of American literature. To Kill A Mockingbird is the work ever published by Nelle Harper Lee, and it brought her great fame. However, Nelle Harper Lee has published several other articles in popular magazines. Nelle Harper Lee is not an individual who desires to be in the light and little is known about her personal life. At the time it is believed she is possible working on her memoirs. The fictional work of To Kill A Mockingbird plots many elements close to real events in America’s struggle over civil rights.
While watching Atticus during the trial, Scout learned a lot about her father. She learned that he was more than just an ordinary man to the Negroes. He was defending Tom Robinson, which meant a lot to them, because not many white people in the county would do a thing like that. Very few, if any, white men would defend a black man in a trial in a segregated county during the 1930’s. Because of what Atticus did more people, both white and black, gained respect for him. Scout saw that to the neighborhood people, Atticus was a very wise man, and a very good man, also. While Scout was watching from he balcony, she saw her father do something she had never seen. He told Bob Ewell to write his name on a sheet of paper. Scout saw that Bob was left handed, so he couldn’t have beaten up Mayella, because her black eye was on the right side of her face.
Most would argue that Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird is an uplifting story about hope and youth. In reality, it is a sad story about two children, Jem and Scout, losing their innocence through treacherous life experience. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age story about childhood in the deep south during the great depression. It speaks about the concepts of racism, innocence and justice as the protagonists, Scout and Jem, struggle with coming of age. The Finch children lose their innocence throughout the book in many ways, such as being involved with the trial, the lynch mob, and Bob Ewell's death. At it’s core, TKAM is a story about youth, and the loss thereof. When Scout and Jem are involved in the lynch mob, they lose their
Brown believes that if a person does not open up himself, then he will not connect with other people on level passed the surface. As I have learned through my Ethnographic Research course, vulnerability has the power to transform an embodied text and to knock at people’s perception of themselves. I have continued to notice when an ethnographer is distant from their text and hesitant to connect on a deeper level. As a result, the ethnographic text lacks the ability to evoke response or limits the influence of the journey on the audience. While there a lot of risk and even pain with exposing one’s emotions through vulnerability, there is even more rewards. Brene Brown is inspiring as a speaker because in addition to developing a strong argument on the power of vulnerability; she has the unique quality of perfectly models her message. Brown expressed in her Ted Talk that she spent a whole year struggling with vulnerability. Speaking about her journey Brown openly admitted, “vulnerability pushed, I pushed back. I lost the fight but probably won my life back… What are we doing with vulnerability?” If she was talking about vulnerability, but was unable to show something of herself, her message would have fallen short. However, Brene Brown not only shows us with her words and her research how influential authenticity is, but she demonstrates it to us on a human level. While I was already aware that vulnerability is an important characteristic to tap into, Brene Brown is an inspiration for how anyone can challenge himself or herself to become even more
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee contain a very engaging family who are the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams are very poor; they are people who live in the woods. They are a family who depend highly on crops. Walter Cunningham, the 'father' of the family has to work hard on the cultivation of crops because crops is the only form of wages for them. The Cunninghams have no money. Their only way to survive is through paying others with their crops. The Cunninghams are not main characters in the book, but they are characters who 'brought out' other characters' personality. Harper Lee displays that there is a lot of prejudice going on in Maycomb by putting the Cunninghams in the book. "The Cunninghams [were] country folks, farmers"(21) who are very honest people in Maycomb, they "never took anything they [could not] pay back"(23), but they are unfairly mistreated by part of the society in Maycomb.
A physical journey occurs as a direct result of travelling from one place to another over land, sea or even space. The physical journey can occur individually or collectively, but always involves more than mere movement. Instead physical journeys are accompanied by inner growth and development, catalysed by the experiences and the decisions that impact the outcome of the journey. These journey concepts and the interrelationship between physical and emotional journeys is exemplified in the text; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, the children’s book Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers and the film Stand By Me directed by Rob Reiner.
Scout Finch is not the stereotypical girl from the 1930’s. Agents the wishes of everyone around her, she grows up in overalls instead of dresses. Scout plays in the dirt and sand, instead of in the kitchen. In the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Scout is the wild spirited narrator, growing up in the small town of Maycomb. As she gets older, she learns mostly from her father Atticus how to interact with people. Scout learns to show dignity and respect to everyone, under any circumstances.