...Block-2 Historical Paper Historical influences in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird In 1929 the stock market crashed and resulted in nationwide economic distress, called the Great Depression, and it was the setting for To Kill A Mockingbird. During the Great Depression about 1 in 4 people were unemployed in America. Millions of Americans were homeless and jobless (McCabe 12). There were multiple factual events that were significantly influential in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This novel references many historical events, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were cruel laws set up to put...
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...dress, talk, or the types of foods can identify someone’s culture. Popular culture is something that changes with the times. The way popular culture is today, is very different from who it may have been portrayed many years ago. This paper will not only talk about popular culture in general, but it will analyze a certain piece of work that signifies popular culture. The popular fiction novel that I choose to critique is a very well known book called To Kill a Mockingbird, published by author Harper Lee in 1960. This novel takes place in a small segregated fictional town in the south, called Maycomb, Alabama. Harper based this novel on her life experience growing up in the south as a young child and what it was like to be separated between the whites and the blacks. To Kill a Mockingbird, is about five characters, with Scout, a six year old little girl, and her brother Jem a ten year old boy, their father Atticus, who was a defense attorney for the local courts, and their neighbor Boo Radley. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the era of the Great Depression, and where segregation was a big thing. The book displays what it was like in the 1960’s to defend a African American person and stand up for their rights, whether you were right or wrong. The plot of this fiction novel takes place in the small town of Maycomb, Atticus is found on trial for defending a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping a local white woman. The accused is the towns local...
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...While the influence of society on an individual has become one of the paramount areas of study among various local as well as universal scholars and philosophers, this idea does not fail to become a real motif in some of the greatest discussed literature known to humanity. Moreover, among these exceptional classics, stands a prominent example of to kill a mockingbird, an “unforgettable novel of childhood in a sleepy southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it” (Lee 282). This “[c]ompassionate, dramatic and deeply moving” classic of American Literature by Harper Lee not only portrays society as a whole, however, it also accomplishes the task through the use of countless dynamic characters, symbols and allegories (Lee 282). Among...
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...Ethical Influence Paper September 18th, 2015 Brandon McConnell To Kill A Mockingbird If you were to ask me about a book or a hero that was an ethical influence on me, I would tell you that both come from the same book/movie. It would be Atticus Finch from To Kill A Mockingbird, it is a classic example of heroism and doing the right thing and there is many readers who would agree with that statement. I read this book at the young age of 14 in middle school when I was still developing my feel for the ethics of right and wrong so it made a lasting impact on me growing up and developing as a person. Summarize the book or hero’s life in a few paragraphs; Everyone should know the story of To Kill A Mockingbird but if you don’t, let me share it with you. It happens in a little town of Maycomb, Alabama in the heat of all the racism in the South. In this little town everyone knows each other and everyone knows what happens. The main characters are the Finch family with Atticus, Scout, and Jem in their small house in the middle of Maycomb. Scout is a young girl who grew up with a lot of boys and acts that way in the way she deals with conflict. Jem is the older brother who isn’t really isn’t in the picture a lot but is in a crucial incident of the story with Scout. Atticus is a very well known coveted lawyer; everyone in town knows him and looks up to him as a person and a professional. That was short lived when Atticus did something he knew was right but society said...
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...‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.’ (3: 85-87) To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAMB) written by Harper Lee focuses on the inequality of race throughout America in the early 1900’s. The building roman novel published in 1960 utilises literacy techniques including symbolism, first person and characterisation in order to explore key themes such as innocence, social inequality and gender stereotyping. The novel promotes an insightful, entertaining and morally educating perspective for all readers. Literacy techniques are a critical part of the storytelling. Symbolism is used in order to enhance the story; it expresses a deeper meaning towards...
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...THE GLENCOE LITERATURE LIBRARY Study Guide for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee i Meet Harper Lee at the same university. In 1949, however, she withdrew and moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a writer. While working at other jobs, Lee submitted stories and essays to publishers. All were rejected. An agent, however, took an interest in one of her short stories and suggested she expand it into a novel. By 1957 she had finished a draft 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...
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...In Harper Lee’s To Kill a 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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...“Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” (Margaret Mead) To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story told from the point of view of Scout Finch, a young tomboy. Her father, Atticus, is the judge for the trial of a young black man accused of raping a white girl. This trial reflects the Scottsboro Trials of the 1930s. Scout’s brother, Jem, grows up alongside her and is an influence on how she acts as she grows. Their Aunt, Alexandra, moves in to give their family a stronger “feminine influence”. Other people in Scout’s life help to develop her character over time including a old woman named Mrs. Dubose. Gender roles of society shape who we are and the development of character Scout Finch in To Kill A Mockingbird does not...
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...In a time where social prejudice and racism is eminent, people's minds can be easily swayed depending on their influences. In the selections, A Lesson Before Dying and To Kill a Mockingbird, we witness the characters face challenges and reach new heights against the time period. While these works share similar attributes in their primary conflicts, how the characters approach and solve them differ. To begin with, in both Harper Lee and Earnest Gaines present similar conflicts and resolutions about racism and prejudice. First of all, Jefferson and Tom Robinson were convicted of a crime they didn't commit because of racial discrimination. For example, after the long awaited day, Judge Taylor came to a verdict, "Guilty... guilty... guilty......
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...Every individual matures throughout his or her life, some much quicker than others. Maturity greatly relies on the environment children are raised in and the people around them, every aspect affecting their development. As children mature they typically learn about negative traits and how to develop good ones. They learn from others and create a pathway for their own individuality in order to become an adult. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, Scout begins as an innocent child protected from the evils of society, but later matures and develops to become an understanding individual. Innocence from the world’s evils is usually interpreted as a positive trait, however, the opposite occurs in To Kill a Mockingbird because...
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...“To Kill a Mocking Bird”: Teaching Tolerance Through Empathy Mary Ellyn Fogarty December 8, 2012 America in the mid 1950’s and 1960’s was undergoing a profound social metamorphosis. Events such as, in 1954, the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, with the Supreme Court ruling public school segregation illegal, which many believe sparked the civil rights era, in 1956 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, “precipitating the Montgomery bus boycott, led by Martin Luther King Jr.” (To Kill a Mockingbird: Civil Rights Era, 2012), in 1957 federal troops were sent to Little rock Arkansas to protect nine African American students who were going white high school, per the court ordered desegregation of school, were challenging and for some forcing the way in which Americans lived, their beliefs and their treatment of African Americans that had been indoctrinated into their consciousness from the time they were born and many did not understand why this treatment was inappropriate, prejudice and unconstitutional. For some these changes were viewed as not an intrusion or criticism of their way of life but as...
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...Society’s Impact On Growth And Understanding In her novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates how society shapes our understandings of others, but that this can be mitigated by strong role models. Scout Finch is strongly impacted by the “old traditions of the south” during her growth into womanhood and when she pushes against the stereotypes placed on her as a southerner and a young lady to find her gender identity. The beliefs of Atticus Finch and his involvement in the courtroom have had a big impact on Scout’s growth. Atticus’ beliefs were different than the beliefs of most people of Maycomb and he “bestowed a benevolent order on the Finch household by his example” which slowly shifted Scout’s views on their society’s division....
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...even caught doing the wrong thing, if your white you will get away with it. Mayella Ewell caught doing the wrong thing but gets away free. Ruby Bates young and caught hanging out with the wrong person but gets away free as well. Mayella from a fiction book “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Ruby Bates from a non-fiction event can be compare just because of the way society shaped and influenced them. The two girls get away because back in the day “1931” whites got away with everything. Mayella Ewell from the fictional book “To Kill a Mockingbird” can be compared to Ruby Bates from a non-fiction event to show how the whites...
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...texts such as Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, and the film, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, directed by Mark Herman, undergo various changes and transformations, not only physically, emotionally and intellectually, but also in their understanding and perspectives of the world around them. Studying texts such as these provides the audience with valuable insight into the aspects of changing worlds, perspectives, relationships and selves, which they are then able to relate to their own lives. Characters in both To Kill A Mockingbird and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (hereafter referred to as Mockingbird and Pyjamas respectively) change their attitude to society’s notions of the superiority of certain races and religions over others, creating a valuable moral imperative through the historical nature of the texts. Harper Lee’s Mockingbird is set in the small American town of Maycomb amidst the 1930s civil rights movement, and is centred on Scout’s moral struggle when questioning the racism and discrimination present. At the start of the novel, Scout blindly follows the discriminatory beliefs of society, although as she experiences more of the world for herself, she begins to question the hypocrisy of society, “How can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home?” Through the use of colloquial language, the author demonstrates Scout’s criticism and confusion concerning the hypocritical nature of society, and how she’s developed into a free-thinking...
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...amazing writer and portrayed this in her writing. One of her novels, To Kill a Mockingbird, was remarkably well written and expressed itself in a way some novels can’t. Among the many characters found in To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is my favorite. She is the narrator of the novel, and her point of view can be amusing, but she also shifts your own point of view to consider things from hers. Scout is a young girl who ages from eight to nearly ten throughout the story, and embarks on a journey of adventure and discovery. Scout is a young tomboy who is bursting with curiosity, and always learning something new. Her naivety is amusing and childish and she expresses it frequently. “Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham.” (Scout 20). She expects everyone to know everything, often landing herself in awkward situations and receiving punishments for her efforts. Scout unintentionally wraps herself in trouble and always has to find a way out of it...or learn a lesson. This habit of hers is amusing and entertaining to...
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