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To kill a mockingbird summary 1-12
To kill a mockingbird summary 1-12
To kill a mockingbird summary 1-20
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‘“Hitler is the government,”’ said Miss Gates, and seizing the opportunity to make education dynamic… ”(328). The class discussion about Hitler is a peculiar moment in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Yet Harper Lee would never add this to the story without a purpose. Setting, diction, syntax, static characters and irony used in this passage creates Scout’s coming of age moment in realizing the prejudicial conception towards black people in Maycomb. Setting: The time period, culture, and values of the story. The settings role is to present why Scout has never noticed the irregularities between white and black people. For instance, when Cecil speaks of the Jews, “...but that ain’t no cause to persecute them. They’re white, ain’t they?” (329). The mention of white stereotypes is essential here because Scout has indirectly followed the white superior stereotype. Therefore, Scout doesn’t note this herself in the passage, but she will soon realize the problem of this stereotype later in the passage.
The use of diction and syntax sets a serious tone in this passage. In order
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By creating a static character known as Miss Gates. Miss Gates explains to the class the difference between America and Germany. “We are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship...Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice” (329). Harper Lee creates a parallelism between “persecuting anybody” and Tom Robinson. Miss Gates doesn’t believe in persecuting innocent lives. However, she supported Tom’s execution. Claiming that “it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson” (331). Scout is bothered by this irony. “Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home-” (331). Scout finally notices the negative preconception towards black people. Which she has indirectly followed since the beginning of the
Childhood is a continuous time of learning, and of seeing mistakes and using them to change your perspectives. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates how two children learn from people and their actions to respect everyone no matter what they might look like on the outside. To Kill A Mockingbird tells a story about two young kids named Scout and her older brother Jem Finch growing up in their small, racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the years go by they learn how their town and a lot of the people in it aren’t as perfect as they may have seemed before. When Jem and Scout’s father Atticus defends a black man in court, the town’s imperfections begin to show. A sour, little man named Bob Ewell even tries to kill Jem and Scout all because of the help Atticus gave to the black man named Tom Robinson. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee illustrates the central theme that it is wrong to judge someone by their appearance on the outside, or belittle someone because they are different.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper lee in 1960. The novel tells the story of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer, and Tom Robinson, a black servant, accused of raping a white female. Finch defends Robinson in court arguing lack of evidence as his main point. However, the judge and jury still believe the woman’s testimony and orders Robinson to be killed. The novel has been praised for its outstanding literature since its publication. However, it remains a banned book by the American Library Association for its use of racial slurs and profanity. Due to it being banned, many high schools have reconsidered the notion of teaching it to their students. Two prominent authors wrote articles pertaining to this piece of literature: Angela Shaw-Thornburg wrote an article on her re-reading of the novel and her opinions on it; while Malcom Gladwell wrote an article comparing Atticus Finch to a state governor liberalist, James Folsom, and the restraints of liberalism in the south. In addition, Rebecca Best contributes her thought on how the novel should be taught by introducing the idea of “the other.” Regardless of the modern day political arguments surrounding this piece of literature, this novel contains a large insight into the time period of the 1960s which is an influential topic that should be taught to young high school students.
Examples included Mrs. Dubose, Bob Ewell, and Miss Gates, all of whom were vicious, spiteful, venomous, and intolerant. Miss Gates said she hated Hitler, but was then unkind to black people. Bob Ewell spit in Atticus’ face because Atticus destroyed his credibility at the trial. Mrs. Dubose was taking her pain out on Jem and Scout, two young children, by yelling at them and insulting their father. Maycomb was an atrocious person, antagonistic and racist. Today, there are still places and people like Maycomb. Our society must attempt to be more thoughtful and help others. We can all make an effort to be like Atticus, Boo Radley, Miss Maudie, Jem, and Scout- kindhearted characters. This novel shows that there can be moral people in a cruel place, good in evil, but it also proves the opposite. All of humanity has a wicked and villainous side, with no exceptions. Life is full of love and compassion, corruption and hate, and there will always be another side of the spectrum- another version of the
Growing up in a prejudiced environment can cause individuals to develop biased views in regard to both gender and class. This is true in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, where such prejudices are prevalent in the way of life of 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The novel is centered around the trial of a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. The narrator, a young girl named Scout, is able to get a close up view of the trial because her father is defending Tom Robinson, the defendant. The aura of the town divided by the trial reveals certain people's’ prejudices to Scout, giving her a better perspective of her world. Throughout the story, Aunt Alexandra’s behaviors indirectly teach Scout that prejudice is a disease with deep and far reaching roots.
Throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird Lee discusses the effects of ignorance and the toll it takes on people such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout herself, and many more. Through her examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the populist of poverty stricken Southerners, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of ignorance are the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story. A good example of this injustice is the trial of Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white girl and is found guilty. The book is from the point of view Scout, a child, who has an advantage over most kids due to her having a lawyer as a dad, to see the other side of the story. Her father tells her in the story, “you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” (Lee 200).
The story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee portrays many different scenarios of racial discrimination. Discrimination occurs in the book and many people are affected by the racial slurs and other occurrences. In the story, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson are all people that are discriminated against or are affected by discrimination. Racial discrimination is a major part of Kill a Mockingbird. Scout is a young, elementary school girl and she is the main character and narrator of the story.
Although the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has over thirty million copies in print since its publication in 1960, it is one of the most commonly banned novels from high school reading lists. Set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, the novel follows the adventures of Jean Louise Finch, affectionately known as Scout, and her older brother Jem as they encounter the social injustices in Maycomb when their father, Atticus, is appointed as a lawyer for the defendant in a controversial case. One might ask why it is often banned and most professionals will agree that the novel contains racism and offensive language; though, all books have flaws – wouldn’t one agree? However, some individuals challenge the flawed characters of the novel rather than the language and the racism. Take Atticus Finch for example, the father of Scout and Jem, a highly regarded lawyer, and an active citizen of Maycomb; what would the world be like without men like Atticus? Many consider Atticus to be a moral hero to readers and a model of integrity for lawyers. Although Atticus Finch is a highly respectable and kind-hearted man, he has several flaws as a character which diminish him as a true hero of the novel.
There is no doubt that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a famous novel known for its themes, most of them containing wise life lessons, racial inequality being an obvious and important one. Firstly, racism illustrates the lack of justice and people’s views on prejudice in Tom Robinson’s case. Secondly, the novel touches base on diction notably the racial slurs used. Finally, with racism being a theme of the novel, it affects the characters’ personalities. Harper Lee uses life lessons, diction and characters throughout the novel because it develops the main theme of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Many people say the depravity of telling children about the heavy topics of the world, such as war, gives children biased and stereotyped views of the world and how it works. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, she uses many characters such as Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and an eccentric man named Arthur “Boo” Radley to show how the stereotypes of people can crush innocence. Harper Lee uses the first person point of view of Scout, a young mischievous girl, and the anomaly of Boo Radley, to convey the idea of the heavy topic of bias and stereotypes to address the harms of destroying the innocence of a person. Through Scout’s and Boo’s experiences, Lee is able to suggest that society has an obligation to look past stereotypes and judge a person not based on things such as appearance.
This shows that scout has heard the word used at school and assumed that because other people use it, it is not wrong. This demonstrates how racism can be spread across generations. People with racist ideas might not realise that their beliefs are offensive because it is what they have been brought up with. The most obvious example of racism in the book is the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white girl. After hearing the evidence from both sides it is quite obvious that Tom Robinson is not guilty of th... ...
One of the widely recognized controversies in American history is the 1930s, which housed the Great Depression and the post-civil war, the ruling of Plessy versus Ferguson and the Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. While textbooks detail the factual aspect of the time there is only one other literature that can exhibit the emotion experienced in the era. To Kill a Mockingbird is the acclaimed novel that displays the experiences of the South, through inequality and segregation, social class differences and the right to fairness. The novel’s experiences are narrated through a grown Scout, who appears as a little girl in the novel, offering her innocent views on the happenings in Maycomb County. The most observed aspect of the novel is race and racism; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the prime focus of the novel, the issue of race is bound to be discussed throughout the novel is race, racism and segregation; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the focus of the novel, the issue of race is heavily represented throughout the novel. With Mockingbird being a common book among English Language Arts and Literatures classrooms, the topic of race is bound to surface amid a young, twenty-first century group of student of students with the inevitability of this discussion, the question remains on how to approach the conversation as an educator. As an educator, one should seek to establish the context of the times, prepare the students for the conversation and examine the other characters and situations similarly to race. Educators must also be introspective before examining their students’ feelings, so that they are not surprised by their emotions and can also express their feelings to their students. The discussion should target a goal, one of examin...
By writing this event into the story, Harper Lee shows how racial discrimination can affect anyone of any race. “The society that imprisons Tom Robinson is the same one that imprisons Scout…” (Durst Johnson 301). Although their reasons for being confined are different, the same society caused it.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
Scout?s journey towards racial acceptance and understanding is a treacherous one barricaded by influence. Disguised by innocence Scout is influenced easily at the beginning of the novel. Eventually, Scout learns to reveal her awareness and understanding of prejudicial conception by developing her own perspective on the issue. She discovers that race has no importance when determining someone?s status or personal well-being. Harper Lee develops Scout mentally, emotionally, and socially throughout the novel contributing to a perspective based on racial balance and admission.
Paul Simon, the musician, once said, “If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, you've created a special little thing, and that's what I'm looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything” (Simon 1). Racism in the 1930s and until the 1960s was a very serious issue. As stated, authors have taken this serious issue and turned it into great pieces of literature. Many of them have truly shown the seriousness of racism in society. Even though, criticism continues. Some critics have argued that Scout, in To Kill A Mockingbird, is an unreliable narrator. This is simply because Scout is a child. They suspect she is too innocent, naïve, and has an unbiased view. However, Scout as the narrator is a reliable choice because she allows the reader to concentrate more on the exterior of situations, she allows the reader to make his/her opinion, and she gives the reader direction of how to cover events and certain actions in the novel. Scout, as a child narrator, helps the reader ‘read between the lines’.