Compare and Contrast The Two Novels, 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'The Withered Arm' and Show How the Language Conveys a Sense of Time and Place.

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Kirsty Ellison

22nd May 2001

Havering Upminster Gaynes 12847

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Compare and Contrast The Two Novels, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Withered Arm’ and Show How the Language Conveys a Sense of Time and Place

        At first, the two texts, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and ‘The Withered Arm’, didn’t seem to have much in common, but after close study, the similarities became clearer.  ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ was written by Harper Lee and is set in 1930’s Alabama.  ‘The Withered Arm’ was written by Thomas Hardy and was set in 19th Century rural England.  It was part of a book of short stories called ‘The Wessex Tales.’

        The two stories both deal with the issue of prejudice.  ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Tom Robinson suffers attacks of racism from the court when he is convicted of raping Mayella Ewell.  The story is told through the eyes of a young girl, Scout, growing up in a small county called Maycomb.  Their father, a lawyer, has the job of defending a black man, Tom Robinson, when he is charged with raping Mayella Ewell, a 19 year old white girl.  To the reader it is obvious that Tom is innocent but, as Atticus says:

“In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins.”

The story shows the racism in society at this period in history and by telling it through a child’s perspective it shows just how wrong the attitude towards the black people was.  The fact that Scout can see that their views were extremely prejudice and unfair shows how narrow minded and intolerant the white people were at that time.

        Also in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, we can see that people held prejudice views towards women.  They were seen as inferior and people thought that they should stay at home and look after the family.  Aunt Alexandra tries to teach scout how to be a ‘lady’ and she dresses her in women’s clothes.  Women at that time would have thought it improper for a girl to dress in ‘men’s’ clothes.  For example, in chapter 24, we see how Aunt Alexandra tells Scout to put on her pink Sunday dress and a petticoat.  This was, of course, how women at that time would have dressed.  When Scout tells the women:

“I just want to be a lady.”

Miss Stephanie replies, “Well you wont get very far until you start wearing dresses more often.”

This shows us that at that time, both men and women felt that appearances were very important and that women should dress in feminine, dainty clothes.  Also, women were thought to be afraid of the men:  

“Ladies seem to live in faint horror of men.”

However, Scout does not feel this way.  This is another technique by which Harper Lee has used a child’s perspective to show us that sexist views were wrong, and Scout cannot understand why all people could not be treated equally.  She says:

“But I liked them.”

        ‘The Withered Arm’ tells the story of Rhoda Brooks, a single mother to an illegitimate child, who befriends the new wife of her child’s father, Gertrude Lodge.  The two women are from very different backgrounds.  Rhoda is very poor and she works as a milkmaid, whereas Gertrude is wealthy and young.  She could possibly be called a trophy wife.  At that time men treated women as their possessions and they were thought to be inferior.  The story shows the different attitudes towards women in the 19th century and it also shows how people believed in witchcraft and superstition at that time.

        There are many differences between ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ and ‘The Withered Arm.’  The first main difference is the setting.  ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is set in 1930’s Alabama during the depression when racism was simply accepted in society.  Also, some people did not like the fact that Atticus was defending a black man, especially Bob Ewell who says:

“Too proud to fight, you nigger-lovin’ bastard?”

On the other hand, ‘The Withered Arm’ is set in late 19th century Victorian rural England when sexism was a major issue and women were treated as inferior.  There was no racial discrimination in this novel, but the people were socially divided.  It was also not seen as natural for Farmer Lodge to be married to someone as young as Gertrude.  The villagers talk about this age gap:

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“Years younger than he, they say.”

        Another major difference between the two novels is the perspective through which they are written.  ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ is written in first person narrative.  It is a thinly veiled autobiography and this means that the author probably lived through these conditions.  It is told from a young child’s point of view, which helps us understand how wrong some attitudes at that time were.  Also, writing in this way is very effective because it means that we can almost get inside the readers head and find out their innermost feelings.  For example, at ...

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