...roles in the city of Maycomb. Among the many characters, are Jem Finch, brother of Jean Louise Finch daughter of Atticus, and Arthur Radley a relative of Nathan Radley. All of the characters in the book demonstrate one-dimensional and three-dimensional tendencies but Jem and Arthur are those that provide the greatest insight to the latter. Jem Finch is a three-dimensional character with symbols of success, virtue and an adverse personality in To Kill a Mockingbird. For example, in the beginning of the book, Jem was aggravated by the then taunting Dill Harris (a young visitor to Maycomb) so that Jem would touch the house of Radley. By touching the Radley house, he proved that he was not afraid and could take on any challenge. When such predicaments come Jem's way he will usually be able to make the best of them successfully. In addition, Jem will lash out in complete contempt for a wrong against his moral conscience, such as Mrs. Dubose slinging blasphemy at Jem's father. A good character must have a sense of morality to defend what is believed to be right, and Jem has this emblematic realism. But, a life-like character must have their weaknesses; and he displayed that on account of Mrs. Dubose's harsh words. Furthermore, in chapter eleven of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem has to repent his wrongdoing by reading to Mrs. Dubose. Jem's moral obligation takes precedence over his failure, revealing that Jem is a strong character and allows himself to be punished. While...
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...Mockingbird‘s Faded Childhood Innocence Irish poet William Butler Yeats once said, “The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time.” There is no truer an example in literature than in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. In the novel the author uses the perspective of the novel’s storyteller, Miss Jean Louise Finch, more commonly known as Scout, and her brother Jeremy, nicknamed Jem, to highlight the blind innocence that comes as a byproduct of childhood. It is this innocence that also disappears from the children’s perspective in the novel. At least at first the two, blinded by their innocence, are unaware of the more mature and even sometimes ominous events and actions that eventually occur in the novel’s unveiling plot. It is because of their unwearied characters that Lee is able to best show how the events that occur in the lives of young characters causes blind innocence to disappear over time. Throughout the novel, there is a constant turn of events that ultimately leaves the children disillusioned with all their preconceived notions of all that is morally just and good. As Yeats said, time indeed proves to be the enemy for the children’s innocence, and by the novel’s end their worldly perspective is irreversibly changed. In the opening of the novel, Jean Louise Finch is revealed to be a grown woman looking back on her youth. The focal point of the narrative in particular is an innocent period from her childhood when she is six years old, just...
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...Is Atticus Finch a hero in the novel “To kill a Mockingbird? Atticus Finch is a heroic character in the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. Atticus is known for many qualities that make him heroic, qualities that he displays throughout the novel. His qualities and his actions is what makes him a hero. Atticus Finch is a hero because he proves his intelligence and abilities, he defends a Negro in court and cared for everyone equally. The time the book is set in the 1930’s, a time when black African-Americans were considered a lower status then white Americans. In the book Atticus defends a Negro in court, saying to his children “I’m simply defending a Negro, his name’s Tom Robinson,” (Pg75). Atticus shows bravery to defend Tom Robinson, and they...
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...About Childhood in the Novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’?” In the novel ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ written by Harper Lee, childhood is expressed throughout the story. The narrator of ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ is Scout, an adult when the book was written, but a child when the story was lived, with this narration Harper Lee, uses Scout to portray the events which, normally would have had a biased review by adults at the time, but because it is written by a child it has non-judgemental views. Therefore, because of the child narrator, and the other main characters being children, this shows that childhood in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’ is important and crucial. In the chapters 1 to 12, childhood is presented by friendship, gullibility, pride, questioning and fear. The fear element, is a major part through ‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’, because at different stages of the novel at least one of the main characters is scared. The Finch children first experience real friendship in ‘‘‘To Kill a Mockingbird’’’, when they meet Charles Baker Harris – Dill. Before Dill has passed the ‘Jem test’, Dill boasts to Scout and Jem that he can read. Which was not usually common in Maycomb at the time, but Jem and Scout could both read, which meant that they thought Dill was showing off and they wouldn’t want to be friends with him. Also what makes Dill become an issue about friendship, is how he introduces himself. He recites his entire name, and makes fun of Jem’s name (Jeremy Atticus Finch), which...
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...“Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing,” Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird highlights her childhood, showing the racism in her home and mirrors her family life. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the innocence of children and growing up. Harper Lee’s Maycomb mirrors her childhood home of Monroeville, Alabama and the white supremacy. Scout is the child of a lawyer taking on a job of defending a black man in front of the town. Characterization is how an author portrays a character in their piece. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a masculine young child who is learning about the world with her curiousity. She is adventurous because she of the way she treats the mysterious Radley house. Scout Finch is more interested in playing rather being the “typical girl”. When Scout caught Walter Cunningham she rubbed his nose in dirt. This specific piece shows Scout’s aggressiveness and her “masculinity” towards everyone. She also stomped at him to scare him off after she rubbed his nose in dirt. This specific piece shows more aggression and “bravery”. “ He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham,” Scout says this to Calpurnia the family...
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...Mockingbird, the public heavily influences the development of some character’s personalities. Characters such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch are judged by the public purely by their associated stereotypes and outward appearance. Although the public’s opinion contributed to the interpretation of each man, the misjudgement the characters face daily impacts their lives internally, socially and emotionally. Due to family playing a paramount role throughout the novel, influencing the internal workings of the family dynamic, it begins destroying the Finch’s family mentality. This is heavily noted as Jem progresses through puberty. Illustrated clearly when Scout begins seeing her and Jem’s relationship slowly...
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...when such narrow-mindedness was considered acceptable and apart of every day life in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Narrated and based around Scout (Jean Louise) Finch and the many ordeals she and her brother (Jem) face in the years of their growing up; out of the childhood innocence they once possessed to realise the true evils of their community and shed false pretences surrounding the innocence of two such characters as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson for which the community of Maycomb had long labelled and ridiculed for either their colour or peculiar behavioural patterns. Lee incorporates several different symbols within the text that assist in developing the ideas and beliefs held by both Scout and Jem such as; the Mockingbird, Mrs Dubose’ Camellias and Mayella Ewell’s red Geraniums all of which pl... ... middle of paper ... ... weather that be the counties resident Mockingbirds Boo Radley and Tom Robinson who continue to sing their songs of purity and innocence even in death (in Tom’s case), Mrs Dubose who’s underlying courage was able to shine through her Camellias and rub of on Jem or Mayella Ewell who’s backyard is proven to be populated by beautiful Geraniums; symbolism has played huge role on their ideas and beliefs and those of the people around them most notably the narrator Scout Finch who’s entire outlook on life is changed through the use of such...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is a critically acclaimed novel narrated by Scout FInch, following an important three years in her life. This novel became an instant best seller, an Academy Award-winning film, and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize. This book in some states are part of the English curriculum to be taught in high schools, while in other states it is banned from school libraries. This book arises much controversy because it is based around white supremacy in the South, and how African Americans were harshly treated. It reveals the ugly truth on how society handled cases in the court and the biased verdicts as the result. It also reveals the existence of good and evil in a small town, and how some adults...
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...of To Kill a Mockingbird. A publisher to whom she sent the novel saw its potential but thought it needed reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a half more years revising the manuscript. By 1960 the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with Newsweek magazine, Lee commented: Writing is the hardest thing in the world, . . . but writing is the only thing that has made me completely happy. To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate and widespread success. Within a year, the novel sold half a million copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Within two years, it was turned into a highly acclaimed film. Readers admire the novel’s sensitive and probing treatment of race relations. But, equally, they enjoy its vivid account of childhood in a small rural town. Summing up the novel’s enduring impact in a 1974 review, R. A. Dave called To Kill a Mockingbird . . . a movingly human drama of the jostling worlds—of children and adults, of innocence and experience, of kindness and cruelty, of love and hatred, of humor and pathos, and above all of appearance and reality—all taking the reader to the root of human behavior. For almost four decades, Harper Lee has declined to comment on her popular—and only—novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, preferring instead to let the novel speak for itself. Today, the novel continues to delight and inspire millions of readers. [A writer] should write about what he knows and...
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...This paper is about the debate whether the Finch kids ever did give back to Boo Radley like he gave to them through hollowed out tree hole. Scout was partially right with her statement that they never gave him anything in return. They never gave him any materialistic things but they did give Boo Radley attention like nobody else in Maycomb did. It wasn’t always good attention but sometimes it was. They also got other people on town to think about him, sense they were always asking questions about him. In a way they also gave him adventure when he went out to save them. “I made my way along in what I thought was the road. I was not sure, because I had been turned around so many times. But I found it and looked down to the street light. A man was passing under it. The man was walking with staccato steps of someone carrying a load too heavy for him. He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him” (Lee 352). Boo gave the French children more than they could ever give him. He gave Jem and Scout their lives. He also gave them material items, something to think about over their summers, and even gave them some emotion. “His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears. “Hey Boo,” I said” (Lee 362). Scout was always the most open hearted and excepting one out of her and Jem towards Boo. The comment “… neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of...
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the 1930s. It portrays the story of a young girl, Scout Finch, and the obstacles, prejudice, and findings she encounters during her early childhood. Her older brother, Jem Finch, is a usual companion and joins her in most of her wanderings. Their father, Atticus Finch, is a defense attorney and works in the state’s legislature. During the course of the novel, Atticus encounters a difficult case he needs to defend. Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman. This case gains lots of attention. Atticus and his children soon becomes the victims of strong hatred and harassment from whites of the town because many believe Atticus should not be defending this case. The family also has a housekeeper, Calpurnia. Calpurnia is black, yet still very educated. Calpurnia is seen not only as their...
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...Despite being Lee's only published book, it led to Lee being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom of the United States for her contribution to literature in 2007.Lee has also been the recipient of numerous honorary degrees, but has always declined to make a speech. Other significant contributions of Lee include assisting her close friend, Truman Capote, in his research for the book In Cold Blood. II.INFORMATION ABOUT THE NOVEL Classification- To Kill a Mockingbird is embodied by Atticus Finch, who is virtually unique in the novel in that he has experienced and understood evil without losing his faith in the human capacity for goodness. Atticus understands that, rather than being simply creatures of good or creatures of evil, most people have both good and bad qualities. The important thing is to appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and trying to see life from their perspective. He tries to teach this ultimate moral lesson to Jem and Scout to show them that it is possible to live with conscience without losing hope or becoming cynical. In this way, Atticus is able to admire Mrs. Dubose’s courage even while deploring her racism. Scout’s progress as a character in the novel is defined by her gradual development toward understanding Atticus’s lessons, culminating when, in the final chapters, Scout at last sees Boo Radley as a human being. Her newfound ability to view the world from his perspective ensures that she will...
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...In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout Finch Lives in Maycomb County, an imaginary town in southern Alabama during the 1930’s. She lives with her father Atticus and her brother Jem. The story is set in the great depression which affects the lives of the all the characters throughout the story. Scout has many teaches throughout the book which include Atticus, Calpurnia, and Miss Caroline. All of these character play a huge and effective role in Scout’s life. Atticus Finch is a lawyer for Maycomb County and is a widower due to the death of Scout's mother. He is a teacher to Scout not only because he is her father, but because of the lessons he teaches her. For example, Lee writes, “... do you think I could face my children otherwise?... I just hope that Jem and Scout come to me for their answers instead of listening to the town. I hope they trust me enough." (pg. 117) Later in this scene, we find out that Scout was standing hidden listening to the whole thing, and Atticus wanted that. This shows that Atticus is teaching Scout how to deal with people who dislike her dad due to him defending a black man in court. He wants his kids to do the right thing all of the time even though society disagrees....
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...Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the protagonist Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout Finch, is described as maturing greatly throughout the novel, physically and mentally. With the help of three essential people, she learns to release the bonds of childhood, and to think of the world around her in a different way, to fight with her head and not her fists, and to meet the demands of society and become a true lady as she grows up and matures, instead of her current tom-boy self. There are many...
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...the course of the novel, as Jem and Scout Finch grow and lose innocence, the town of Maycomb does too. Although the loss of purity, especially in children, can break one’s heart, it is human nature and sooner or later, everyone will surrender their sinlessness. To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story about how the main characters move from a state of innocence to a mature one after suffering from, but surviving many misadventures. Lee compares many of the characters to a mockingbird, a symbol of pure chastity. Scout and Jem, the main characters of...
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