To Kill A Mockingbird
"To Kill A Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a novel, which deals with many social issues. The most prominent of these is prejudice. The main incident in the novel, which focuses on prejudice, is the trial in which a black man is wrongly accused, charged and convicted. Other themes, which are identified, are, class division in society, which is shown both with the black community and also by the way the Ewells are treated. Poverty is also shown, with the Ewells as well as the Cunninghams, most of the coloured community and even in some ways,
Scout and her family. One way that poverty is shown is when Mr Cunningham has to pay Atticus for his work by giving them wood and the produce of his hunting trips.
Another theme brought into the novel was loneliness, which is shown mostly by Mayella Ewell. Courage is shown by Atticus when he shoots the "mad dog" and this courage is also show by Mrs Dubose when she makes herself stop the medication to prove something to herself. Ignorance is shown by most of the townspeople, as it seems to be firmly in place that anything different should be feared and no attempt to understand anything new should be made, especially when it comes to prejudice.
One of the main reasons for this closed mindedness is the place that Maycomb is situated in. The town is set in Alabama in Southern America; this alone almost guarantees that the people in this town will harbour prejudice, as even today there are still traces of coloured people being treated badly just because of the colour of their skin. A quotation to express the all round view of the black community would be "Niger always comes out in em" This will relate back to the large slave trade that had previously been prominent in this area. We ...
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One of the main reasons for this closed mindedness is the place that Maycomb is situated in. The town is set in Alabama in Southern America; this alone almost guarantees that the people in this town will harbour prejudice, as even today there are still traces of coloured people being treated badly just because of the colour of their skin. A quotation to express the all round view of the black community would be "Niger always comes out in em" This will relate back to the large slave trade that had previously been prominent in this area. We can see a strong sense of inbreeding as the novel progresses; this is shown by the attitude to and the treatment of the black people. Also we see the class segregation system which is highlighted by the set out of the town in that, the more respected live nearer the centre of the town, which slowly spirals out towards the Ewells who live at the site of the town tip, then after them there is the settlement of the black community, this basically outlines where everyone stands in the eyes of the class division. The town of Maycomb was very closed in and stuck in its ways, it had remained relatively unchanged for many years. We can see very clearly that the children have a very coloured view compared to the people who surround them, they are innocent to the prejudice that is apparent all around. This is largely due to the way that Atticus has tried to bring them up, he believes in trying to make them good people, also due to Atticus, Calpurnia has a large input into the upbringing of the children, this was very unusual for this period of time, as usually the coloured maids had absolutely no say as to the discipline of the children in their charge, but Atticus trusted Calpurnia and allowed her to stand in as a surrogate mother to the children after the death of their mother.
There are many strong and prominent characters in this story. Scout, our narrator throughout the novel is one of these, as is her brother Jem. We watch as these two children mature and slowly begin to understand the world around them, more so with Jem, we begin to see great maturity, he also begins to show strength in character, this is apparent in the Mrs Dubose story, and also when he realises the error in their ways with Boo Radely,later, we also see Scout discovering this. Atticus is the wise teacher in the novel, he has very strong morals and strictly lives by them, we see him try to bring up his children to be good fair people, we can see a great strength in his character when he decides to take on the Tom Robinson case, even though he can foresee the trouble it would bring to him.
Symbolism is widely used in this novel; it is after all how the novel gets its name. The one main symbol that repeatedly appears is of course the mockingbird, people are compared with the idea that it is "a sin to kill a mocking bird" as they cause no harm but only provide pleasure through their beautiful song, so therefore it is a sin to kill it.
The main mockingbird is Tom Robinson, as he is an innocent man who dies after having done nothing wrong. Another mocking bird is Boo Radely, we see that he has been badly treated and is trapped into a life of loneliness. The children also realise this about Boo Radley and feel badly about the games that they played and realise that they were almost victimising him. Another less obvious mockingbird is Mayell Ewell, she too is trapped by her loneliness, to such an extent she is willing to break a time honoured code of that area and time, and attempt relations with a coloured man, another deeply sad part of her life that is touched upon during the trial was the fact that her father abused her. Yet another less obvious mockingbird is Mrs Dubose, who battles with her addiction to prove something to herself, this makes it difficult for those around her to understand her, and most of the town either fears or dislikes her.
There is a very effective narrative technique used
I think that the initial statement of prejudice being a main theme throughout has been proved. We have seen that if something is different and so not understood people use this as an excuse to alienate and cause hurt. This as we can see has been done on a large scale with the coloured people but also on a smaller scale with the Ewells and Boo Radely. The theme of prejudice is basically what the whole novel is based around. It deals with it in many different forms, with the most prominent being Racism, which is shown to a great extent by the treatment of Tom Robinson.
