An Analysis of To Kill a Mockingbird
To Kill a Mockingbird is a narrative written by Harper Lee. By definition T.K.A.M is a mediated presentation of a causally connected series of actions involving characters in conflict. Harper Lee uses mediation to create a theme that illustrates the injustices of prejudice, intolerance, and quick judgments of others.
Harper Lee choose the setting as an imaginary (Maycomb) county in Alabama during the 1930's. She set the story during this time because it was a time of social turbulence , and a time when Americans began to start thinking about more modern social issues.
Harper Lee chose to tell the book from the eyes of Scout, because Scout's innocence and young age allow her to have a pure, untainted view on any event that takes place. In general, Scout observes, but has no preconception of the events that develop. Scout's point of view was also chosen because as a child, she can find the smallest bit of goodness that exists in anyone. For a child, it is easier to see the shades of gray of someone's character. A child cannot cite someone's age or gender etc... as a cause for their problems or shortcomings. After examining every character in the book through the eyes of Scout, not one character has made a conscious decision to be evil.
The first character to be judged swiftly and wrongly is the Finch's neighbor Boo Radley. Boo is introduced as a hermit that lives shut up in his house, completely isolated from the outside world. Dill, Jem, and Scout spend most of their free time either ridiculing Boo or trying to lure him out of his house. By using the children's innocent fear of the unknown, Harper Lee succeeds in demonstrating the basis of all prejudice.In the end, the Finch's bizarre neighbor becomes a hero and saves the children from almost certain death. While the children imagined and concluded Boo was a monster of some sort, he ends up saving the children of whom he knows almost nothing about. This part also brings about a decision where abiding by the law would be an injustice.
Harper Lee introduces and portrays Bob Ewell as a villainous and evil man, but she creates Bob in this way to illustrate how judgment is too quickly made. Harper Lee begins to unfolds the root of Bob's anger.
Mullin, Robert. A Short World History of Christianity. Louisiville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2008. http://books.google.com/books?id=2nWP0_6gkiYC&pg=PA54&dq=constantine's conversion to christianity&hl=en&sa=X&ei=gNgCU8_BFqXC0gHZ6oD4DQ&ved=0CDQQ6AEwAg
First impressions of people are often lasting impressions, especially in the minds of children. Many times these impressions, aided by misunderstanding and prejudgment, cause unjust discrimination against an individual. To kill a Mockingbird depicts the themes of misunderstanding and prejudice that portray Arthur (Boo) Radley as a villain. Through the progressive revelation of Radley's character, the children realize that their negative impressions and fear of him were unfounded. Through gradual stages of change, from total misunderstanding of Boo, to a realization of an error in judgment, to a reevaluation followed by a change of heart, to a growing trust and acceptance of Boo, and finally to an appreciation of his true character, Jem's, Scout's, and Dill's impressions of Radley are dramatically altered.
Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior, to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, and the struggle between blacks and whites. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and single parent in a small southern town in the 1930's, is appointed by the local judge to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, who is accused of raping a white woman. Friends and neighbors object when Atticus puts up a strong and spirited defense on behalf of the accused black man. Atticus renounces violence but stands up for what he believes in. He decides to defend Tom Robinson because if he did not, he would not only lose the respect of his children and the townspeople, but himself as well.
Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, or Constantine, is commonly referred to as the fist Christian emperor of the Roman Empire and as the defender of Christianity. Such grand titles are not necessarily due for the reasons that people commonly think of them today.
To kill a mockingbird generates a unique sense of reading. Harper Lee’s style of writing brings a different and an unideal way of reading, the context in which to kill a mocking is written with the two narrators (Jean Louise and Scout) brings fourth many perceptions of the book. This unusual style of reading can become complex, struggling to telling which narrator at that point in the book is telling the story as each have different emotions, inputs and influences. As Scout is a very bright and intelligent person for her age is was tough at times to understand who the telling the story at that time, scout or the older version of scout Jean Louise for her language was far beyond her age.
The popularity of To Kill a Mockingbird has many different explanations from a diverse mixture of opinions. As stated earlier, this book is read for the first time by many high school students and sometimes younger. It uncovers concepts and realities that many young people are not used to or have never really understood. The main theme for a young person is that you should not judge a person without first seeing the world through their eyes. This is a start for developing the young person into seeing more than themselves.
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.
Constantine succeeded Diocletian as ruler of both empires after going to war with the Western Empire’s ruler Maximian due to the fact that they both wanted to be the ruler of the entirety of the Roman Empire. As the ruler of both the Western and Eastern empires, Constantine set out to make the Eastern Empire the dominant one. One aspect of the plan was to give it a stronger capital, so he recreated Byzantium, turning it into Constantinople. The new capital was easier to defend because of its location in a little peninsula surrounded by water . Constantine’s new capital flourished rapidly, becoming richer than Rome itself. With the flourishing of Constantinople came the flourishing of the Eastern Empire itself. From Constantine, to Justinian I, the Eastern Empire managed to keep itself on its feet. This is due in part to the fact that they were so strong enough that invaders went to the Western Empir...
Constantine I (February 27, 280 C.E.- May 22, 337 C.E.), also known as Constantine the Great, was the first Roman emperor to not only abolish persecution of Christians, but he was also the first to convert to Christianity in 312 A.D. Around 200 years later, in 496 A.D. Clovis I (466 C.E.- 511 C.E.), the King of the Franks, converted to Christianity, in which he was called a “new Constantine” . Constantine and Clovis’ reign through Christianity were alike in the way that they decided to convert. However, the two emperors were different in their commitment to God and their impacts on the church and state.
First of all, Scout allows the reader to focus more on the exterior of situations. Children tend to experience things differently from others. Events that take place in society may be of great importance to adults and mean nothing to children. Things of importance differ between children and adults. But sometimes, a child’s perspective may be the best way to look at things. In To Kill A Mockingbird, the whole town was talking about Tom Robinson’s trial, especially since he was African American and Atticus, a white man, was to be his lawyer. According to reviewer Edwin Bruell in Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, “[To Kill A] Mockingbird, he tells us, is about the townspeople, not about Robinson” (Mancini 101)....
...accepted Roman religion. Constantine was converted to Christianity by his mother, but did not call himself a Christian until he was in his forties. He did not get baptized until shortly before he died. If it was not for Constantine, it is hard telling where Christianity would be at today. He affected all of the people talked about in this paper, plus a lot of others.
Throughout the book innocent victims are wrongly accused and targeted. Starting out in the novel Harper Lee writes about the children who play around each summer with the Boo Radley game.It is a game the kids play each summer, and thier mission is to make Boo Radley come out of his house. Boo Radley is isolated from society because the people of Maycomb believe he is a maniac. Harper Lee writes,” Boo Radley was inside that house, but I couldn’t prove it, and felt it best to keep my mouth shut or I would be accused of believing in Hot Steams,phenomena I was immune to in the daytime.” (39) Jem, Scout and Dill do not know what to expect from Boo Radley, they are not very aware of their surroundings because they are naive and try to please the curiosity of their young minds.They make up absurd accusations about him and do not acknowledge the fact that he is just a human being. In reality, he is ...
At the beginning of the Roman Empire, Christianity did not exist and the majority of Romans were Pagans. It wasn’t until a few hundred years after the execution of Jesus that his followers started gaining support and soon Christian leaders became very influential and started gaining power over the Roman Emperor. “This came in the early 4th century, with Constantine, who was actively involved in Christian policy-making.” (About.com, 2014) For a long time people for persecuted for believing in Christianity but Constantine put a stop to the persecutions. Constantine became Rome’s first Christian Emperor making Rome a Christian Empire and the Christian beliefs clashed with the working of the Empire. The introduction of Christianity into the Roman Empire directly undermined the states previous pagan religion. The Christian belief in only one God “weakened the authority and credibility of the Emperor” (ushistory.org, 2008-2014). Now that the Roman Empire was a Christian Empire, under Constantine’s rule he contributed to another factor for fall of Rome. He split the Roman Empire into the Western Empire and the Eastern Empire and he moved the capital of the Em...
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that explores many aspects of a community in the 1920’s. Set in the fictional town of Maycomb, shown to be a peaceful town on the outside while harbouring unseen conflicts within. Disagreements within the novel are started when society's moral laws are taken to the limit or broken, resulting in an outcome of a victor and a victim. These titles are given according to a person’s social status and not on basis of competition. The motif of victors and victims present throughout the novel is represented by characters of varying status and is enhanced by characterization, setting, and literary devices.
Harper Lee is most famous for her class, American-literature novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created a story that reflects compassion, loss of innocence, and the courage to break barriers in the midst of adversity. By creating this novel, she built one of the most model, male figures in all works of writing: Atticus Finch. Today, Atticus Finch is seen as a literary hero, and a role model for many people. From his wise council, to his unprejudiced love and care for others, Atticus Finch lives up to the strong title of being a hero.