To Kill A Mockingbird Themes
“‘You never really understand a person until you consider his point of view… until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’” (Lee 39). This quote from the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee includes many characters who suffer from the Great Depression and other conflicts that break out in the town of Maycomb. Racism, poverty, and domestic violence attend in the book and continue their way through to create rising conflict between the people of Maycomb county. Atticus Finch is a lawyer of Maycomb and a father of two children, Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout, and Jem Finch. Atticus, a white man, fights to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, in a case consisting of domestic violence. Throughout
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The Cunningham’s have nothing to offer and the majority of their lives they refuse to take anything that they can’t pay back. “‘Atticus’... ‘Are we as poor as the Cunningham’s?’” (Lee 27). This shows that people don’t think that they are actually poor until they are “Cunningham” poor. The family who has to use their money scarcely, will not take money or “donations” from anyone without knowing for sure that they can pay them back. Another example of the theme poverty in the novel is the Ewell family. The Ewell family is the opposite of the Cunningham family. The Ewells are known for being “poor white trash” and do not follow morals or have manners of any kind. On Scout’s first day of school, Burris Ewell makes Miss Caroline cry. When his teacher tells him to go to the principal’s office, he responds with, “‘Ain’t no snot-nosed slut of a schoolteacher ever born c’n make me do nothin’!’” (Lee 37). Burris continues to insult her until she is crying as he storms out of her classroom leaving everyone in astonishment. In To Kill A Mockingbird the Cunninghams and the Ewells are perfect examples of
Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a novel that takes place in a small town, called Maycomb, in Alabama, narrated by Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Scout learns how to deal with many things in everyday life, including racism and criticism. While learning about these things, she finds that courage is being shown by not only herself, but by other role models around her, including her father, Atticus Finch. The theme of courage is very significant in the novel.
The Ewells and Cunningham families in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee or complete opposites of eachother. The first way they vary is in their appearance. The Ewells don 't care what they look like so their “necks are dark grey, backs of hands are rusty, and fingernails black deep into the quick” (27). However, the Cunninghams look as best the can with a “clean shirt and neatly pressed overalls” (19). Another way they differ is their education.
The Ewell’s were the kind of people in the county that should never be trusted, but once they were put in a situation regarding a black man, suddenly they were the truthful ones. Furthermore, during a conversation with Calpurnia on page 164, Scout thought about how believable the Ewells were, “‘It’s because of what folks say Tom’s done,” she said… ‘Old Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of rapin’ his girl an’ had him arrested an’ put in jail…’ ‘Why, Atticus said they were absolute trash - I never heard Atticus talk about folks the way he talked about the Ewells…’” The Ewell family had the reputation of being terrible people, and even Atticus said that. However, a majority of people in town still thought Bob Ewell to be speaking the truth because he was accusing an African American, and they are always below everyone
Tom Robinson is a black man who is falsely accused of raping a white girl, and Atticus defends him rightfully and justly, even though nobody would ever believe the black man. The community of Negros who live in and around Maycomb thank the Finches with a copious amount of food. “The kitchen table was loaded with enough food to bury the family: hunks of salt pork, tomatoes, beans, even scuppernongs. … Calpurnia said, “This was all ‘round the back steps when I got here this morning.
“We are indeed.” Jem’s nose wrinkled. “Are we as poor as the Cunninghams?” “Not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, the crash hit them the hardest” (21).
Hayden Lambeth Mrs. Vickers Period # 2 15 December 2015 To Kill a Mockingbird Themes “You can 't delete racism. It 's like a cigarette. You can 't stop smoking if you don 't want to, and you can 't stop racism if people don 't want to. But I 'll do everything I can to help” ( Mario Balotelli).
By analyzing the struggle of these individuals throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader observes that the prejudiced society hurts the mockingbirds; this is important because the author demonstrates it is a sin to harm an innocent being. To start, Mayella Ewell symbolizes a mockingbird that the discriminatory society misjudges as a result of her low social class. When Scout is in first grade, readers see that the Ewells are poor and struggle to survive. Atticus tells Scout, “the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations” (Lee 40).
In To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many chapters that involve racism, poverty, and or violence. This book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The Finches, Jem, Scout, and Atticus which are the rich white people, the Cunninghams, the poor humble people, the Ewells, the dirt poor white trash people, and the colored folks all are involved in either racism, poverty, and or violence. Many examples of poverty are stated in To Kill A Mockingbird. An example of poverty is the Ewells because the Ewells have nearly nothing.
Imagine you live in a tiny old divided southern town during the Great Depression. The people in that town will stand up for what they believe in and not back down for nobody and nothing. That town is called Maycomb and is the setting of the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”(TKaM) written by Harper Lee. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a realistic fiction novel that is told through a young girl named Scout, eyes. Scout has a father named Atticus and a brother she calls Jem.
The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" describes different classes of people as been rich and poor. People classify themselves differently because some people are in poverty, while some are wealthy. Most wealthy people help the poor, but the main people they help are the Cunningham 's family. They help the Cunningham 's family because they are willing to work and they are hard working. People never help the Ewell 's family because they are rude, lazy, and they waste their money on alcohol.
There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes” (302). This statement clearly shows how much social class prejudice was around at this time. A ten year old is talking about social class prejudice and demeaning people that were not like him and his family. Social class prejudice was such a present theme during these times that it affected people of all ages. The third type of prejudice in this novel is gender prejudice.
But, even though they are poor, the Cunninghams “get along on what they have”. They do not ever take the pity gifts that society gives them because they want to earn everything honestly. They deserve the benefits of society because they do not have the opportunity that other families would have based on their social class. These respectable people are entitled to more than what they have because they are more honorable than the privileged of the
In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.
In the early and middle 1900’s of American history, it was a very common and ordinary thing to have prejudice and discrimination amongst the community. Most southern states had bathrooms, drinking fountains, restaurants, churches and schools were segregated by color. A lot of the prejudice was aimed towards African Americans, but there were many incidents where families of low income were ridiculed and mocked. Discrimination within “To Kill a Mockingbird” emphasized the true definition of prejudice during this time period of America. The most evident appearance of discrimination in this novel is racism; however, amongst this there is moral development with characters Scout and Jem.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A MockingBird portrays many differences between the Ewells and Cunninghams. Cleanliness is one contrast between the two families. For example, the Ewells are dirty because Burris’ “neck was dark gray, the back of his hands were rusty” (27). Their appearances are unkempt because it isn’t their top priority; however, the Cunninghams choose to take pride in their appearance.