Compare and contrast the education and upbringing of all the children in “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens and “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

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GCSE English and Literature Coursework

Task: Compare and contrast the education and upbringing of all the children in “Great Expectations” by Charles Dickens and “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. Consider carefully the moral and social issues of the time, concerning the education and upbringing of the children, brought to light by each writer.

I am going to compare two novels called “Great Expectations” and “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

Great Expectations was a best seller in its time and is one of the novels that Charles Dickens is most famous for. It is said that Great Expectations reflected on parts of his childhood but was denied as being autobiographical. At the age of twelve, Dickens had to leave his school because his father was sent to jail. He was made to work in a factory for a year. I feel that he has portrayed inept parents, prisons and ill-treated children into his novel.

Even though Harper lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” is set at a completely different time to “Great Expectations”, it is still the same genre, which is Buildingsroman. Buildingsroman is a novel that describes a characters childhood through to adulthood. Both books were written as if a person was looking back on their childhood.

Harper Lee studied law and her father was also a lawyer. Her mother suffered from a mental illness so she incorporated that into the novel by having Jem and Scout brought up without a mother. Scout and Jem have not really been affected by the absence of their mother and I think that Harper Lee is trying to get across the point that she hasn’t been affected either as long as you have a good and moral father.                 Harper Lee lived in Monroeville, South USA. This town could have been a model for which Maycombe County was set. What makes this book more realistic is that she grew up in the 1930s and that is when the book was set although it wasn’t written until the 1960s. Her father was a lawyer and grew up knowing about trials and cases of all sorts of crimes. She knew about the Scotsboro’ Trials and this is what the Tom Robinson trial could have been based on.

We first see in chapter 1, Dill introducing himself to Scout and Jem.

        

“I’m Charles Baker Harris…I can read.”

This may seem like an irrelevant thing to say when introducing your self but at the time that this was written, education was a very important part of everyday life. Dill sees it as important to let everyone know he can read because many people could not read. The people that usually couldn’t read were the ethnic minorities because they were seen as outcasts and not allowed in mainstream schools and either had to be taught at home or sent out to work to bring in money for the family.

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In “To Kill A Mockingbird” education is very important because you are not classed as much unless you are literate. The Ewell family are the lower than low in the community and each year the children only go to school for one day a year to get their names on the register. This is because the father feels that education isn’t important and he’d rather have them working at home on his land. Atticus feels that education is very important and started teaching Scout to read and write at home before she even started school.

In “Great Expectations” education ...

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