Free Essays - Evil in To Kill A Mockingbird

Evil in To Kill A Mockingbird

"Our greatest evils flow from ourselves" (Tripp 192). This statement, by Rousseau, epitomizes many points of evil that are discussed in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. In our world today, we are stared in the face everyday with many facets of evil. These nefarious things come in several forms, including, but not limited to discrimination of sex, race, ethnicity, physical appearance, and popularity, alcoholism, drug abuse, irresponsibility, and even murder. The occurrences of evil and wrong-doing in To Kill A Mockingbird further along Scout's maturation into a young woman. Three of the most important instances of evil are those of racism, alcoholism, and gossip.

Dispersed within To Kill A Mockingbird are numerous illustrations of racism. Statements such as "You father's no better than the niggers and trash he works for" (Lee 108) seem to be common through the entire novel. This seemed to bother people of the common day, and this drove many people to deem Lee's book "banned" from their school. If we look back to the times when the book was written, we can understand the use of the "N-word." During the Great Depression, and at many times during the early twentieth century, the "N-word" was used as commonly as many people today use the word "work." It seems as though people either didn't think, or didn't care, about how demeaning "nigger" was. Eventually, some African-Americans came to accept this word. They became so used to hearing it, they heeded it no attention. Atticus Finch, Scout's father, however, had a different way of thinking. Although Atticus was Caucasian, he realized that the "N-word" (as commonly referred to in the recent trial of Orenthal James Simpson) was wrong to say. He instructed his children not to use that word either.

This courtesy did not catch on. People continued to refer to African-Americans as "niggers" and called anyone who was kind to "niggers" a "nigger-lover." Scout realized this, and as she grew older, she came to realize how wrong the use of the "N-word" actually was. She assumed, as a child, that because everyone else used it, that it was perfectly fine for her to use.