Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, presents a depiction of 1930s America, exploring several themes including the blatant racism which was considered normal in that time. Throughout the novel, racism and the corresponding inequality is a key concept that is developed. The novel was inspired by Lee's real life as the authors’ mother had bipolar disorder and rarely left the house, while her father, a lawyer, owned a share of the local newspaper. Lee would have grown up hearing about lynching’s and injustices surrounding the treatment of people who were not considered equal at the time, black people and mentally and physically disabled people like Lee’s mother. Lee successfully demonstrates how the system was corrupted by societal prejudices …show more content…
Maycomb was a town divided by race and social status, for example the educated middle income Finch family of narrator Scout, the poor white family Mayella Ewell (accuser character) and poor black man Tom Robinson (the accused character). Lee uses this setting to highlight the ways societal prejudice are reinforced. Lee’s use of language devices such as symbolism and social justice metaphors. This emphasises the social and cultural divisions that exist within the town. “The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord’s kindness am I.” (Chapter 24, pp261). This statement is a powerful message of equality as at the time only Black Americans where automatically considered ‘bad’ solely on race and regardless of actual character. Considering the time and place expectations of 1930s southern America, this behaviour upholds the expectations of society. This is a direct result of Lee’s positioning to show that some people use choice to work around contextually appropriate values and …show more content…
There is irony demonstrated in Lee’s development of Atticus’s character who would shoot a dog (personification of a helpless person) to put it out of its misery as Atticus did, but would defend the right of a man marked for death to live, as Atticus again did in taking the case of Tom Robinson. The symbolism in both these events are reflective of the overall symbolic theme in Lee’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Chapter 10, pp100). Lee highlights Tom Robinson’s death through symbolism, the death of any innocent is a sin. The symbolism is reflected in the apt title with the destruction of innocence, due to racism, as the main theme of this
In the classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird, author Harper Lee takes on the malignant impact of racism, a deeply rooted problem, from a different perspective and teaches readers what it truly means to be a good person as she brings to life one of the most virtuous characters in American literature-Atticus Finch. Told through the eyes of a young child, readers learn about the heavy prejudice embedded in the people of Maycomb County and the loss of innocence that is brought upon the kids as a racial conflict spurs a series of significant events in their quiet town. Taken place during the early years of the Great Depression, Maycomb must face its biggest problem-racism. Atticus Finch is the lawyer who defends this case and ultimately brings a
The ever present distaste from whites in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows the issues that blacks had to deal with constantly. Lee was able to portray this hatred by putting and important character, Tom Robinson a black man, on an unjust trial for the alleged rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell. This classic story reveals the awful conditions and intense racism during this time in the southern Unites States. Some of the many African Americans affected by southern white racists in court or otherwise include the Scottsboro
This helps advance her purpose as it invokes sympathy from the reader toward the injustice that Tom Robinson is experiencing. Lee uses the words pity and guilt to highlight and advance the emotions Atticus is experiencing, emotions that the reader can also experience. Within Lee's writing, the use of pathos demonstrates the racial injustice the African American community faced in her
In the 1940s, many that were innocent people would end up being hurt because of their difference from others. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, an African American who gets accused of a crime he didn’t commit, gets hurt because of his difference from others. The central idea of the book is that people should not hurt those who are innocent, there are several examples throughout the book that help represent this main idea such as symbolism, similes, and characters. To Kill a Mockingbird shows many examples of symbolism that supports the main idea of the book. An example of this, is the character Tom Robinson.
Has one ever wondered if racism will ever end because it seems no matter how many years go by, it will live on forever? Luckily there are people in this world who are willing to fight for what is right just like Atticus Finch. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage, in which Atticus ends the court case with a powerful statement where he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man in the southern state of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, Author Harper Lee uses irony and imagery to help develop the theme that the color of people’s skin does not define them as a person and does not automatically make them an awful and guilty person. To commence, Lee uses irony to establish the theme that one can not automatically be guilty because of the color of their
One of the key themes of the novel is the idea of prejudice. Throughout the book, we see how people are judged based on their race or social status, rather than on their character. This is particularly evident in the case of Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white woman. Despite the overwhelming evidence in his favor, he is still found guilty because of the color of his skin. This is a powerful reminder of the ways that prejudice can affect people's lives.
Intro: The historical fiction book “To Kill a mockingbird” is a story of a lawyer, Atticus, and his two children growing up in the south in the 1930s. In this, Atticus takes a case wherein he has to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. This man is not guilty, but because of the town’s unfounded prejudice and racism, he is sentenced as guilty anyway and ends up dying. In this book, the theme of courage is shown in many ways, using the diction that Harper Lee uses to describe Atticus, the symbolism of Tim Johnson, and the details of Mrs. Dubose’s situation.
As children, innocence is the very basis of life; however, one thing lead to another, and that innocence is lost and replaced with a new outlook, a new sense of maturity. Harper Lee’s novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird,’ takes place during the Great Depression in a small southern town called Maycomb. Starting from the beginning, the symbolism of mockingbirds and their innocence is revealed. As the story progresses, we get to see through the eyes of Scout Finch, the racial injustices the town bears through a court case involving a false accusation from Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and Tom Robinson, a black man. Though, as the trial progresses to an end and the verdict of Tom Robinson is decided by the all-white jury whilst disregarding the very
The group of men wanted to lynch Tom Robinson because of the accusation of him raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The court case had not yet happened so nobody had heard Tom’s side of the story and they automatically assumed he had committed the crime because
Tom Robinson is a vulnerable member of society, sent to his death by men privileged because of the whiteness of their skin, and a perfect example of a “mockingbird”: innocence tarnished by
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 is to destroy innocence. Mockingbirds do not cause harm or trouble; in fact their only purpose is to convince others with beautiful music. Tom Robinson’s death can easily be compared to that of a mockingbird; it did no good but also prevented no evil. Mr. Underwood chooses to write an article that basically every citizen of Maycomb can understand, and this proves to the reader the obvious connection between Tom Robinson and the symbol of a mockingbird. Mr. Underwood chooses to ignore the prominent racial barrier that separated Tom Robinson from justice, and chooses to focus on his disability instead.
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.
Jan Lopez Mrs. Herrick English 2 Honors Pd 4 16 January 2018 To Kill a Mockingbird: Essay #1 Throughout history, an individual’s status in society would have been determined by one’s affluence. Discrimination based on one’s level of wealth are one of the fundamental values acknowledged in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel resides amidst the prevalence of segregation and economic declination of the American Great Depression, thus instituting a difficulty in one’s survivability.
Essay In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County. The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.