...This essay is going to be about how Atticus is a hero. Atticus is a very nice guy. He help Scout read, and and he help defend Tom Robinson. Everyone in Maycomb Alabama didn’t want him to defend Tom Robinson. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the character of Atticus Finch represents Lee’s idea of social justice by demonstrating heroism, righteous. and compassion. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee present heroism, by teaching others to read even though the teacher condone it. For example the Novel says “Atticus has to been teaching Scout to read since she was little” (Lee, 25). Atticus still teaches Scout to read even though the teacher condone it. Lee show that Atticus does care about what the teacher says and does the...
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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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...“ To kill a mockingbird” by Harper Lee and “Antigone” by Sophocles are both dramas having to do with justice, the main characters in both dramas are struggling to bring justice to a society or situation that was lacking. In Sophocles’ drama, Antigone was trying to bring justice by burying her brother Polyneices against the kings, Creon’s, orders. While in “To kill a mocking bird” Atticus is an attorney in a case where race is a major issue and he is trying to save Tom Robinson from being convicted of a crime where there’s overwhelming evidence of his innocence. Both “Antigone” and “To kill a mockingbird’s” themes seem to revolve around justice which is proven when Antigone buries her brother and Atticus agrees to take on Tom Robinsons case. Another large theme in both dramas is the idea that women are somehow ‘lesser’ because of their femininity, a cause of this might be because of the era that the dramas are set in. Throughout “To kill a mockingbird” Scout does her best to avoid ‘girly’ things so that she can keep playing with her brother Jem, its only later in the novel that Scout begins to realize that being a girl is more about having positive traits than lacking them. This theme continues in “Antigone”, most pointedly when Ismene states “Bethink thee, sister, we are left alone; Shall we not perish wretchedness of all, If in defiance of the law we cross A monarch's will?--weak women, think of that, Not framed by nature to contend with men. Remember this too that the stronger...
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...To Kill A Mocking Bird BY HARPER LEE Novel Analysis I.BACKGROUND IN FORMATION ABOUT THE AUTHOR Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American author known for her 1960 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. 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...
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...and kindness towards other people. It is, arguably, our very human nature to feel compassion, courage, understanding, unity and empathy towards our fellow man. Unfortunately, prejudice and judgement also cling to the human condition like tumorous stains – traits which society still finds hard to surmount. Despite the efforts of governments, groups and individuals, humankind still finds it difficult to trust based on the soul of a person; we are more comfortable making judgements based on skin colour. Nelle Harper Lee through her 1960 novel, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ and Boaz Yakin through his 2000 film, ‘Remember the Titans,’ are text composers who tackle the ill-defined paradigms of ‘prejudice, courage and unity’ by painting a picture of the confronting face of racism. Prejudice, courage and unity are notions that are dealt with differently by both composers and, through their use of structural and linguistic features, each composer presents this concept in a manner which connects (or weakens a connection)...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird, by Nelle Haper Lee was published in 1960, after the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education and during a time of increasing civil rights unrest (Johnson). It was also a time of great social change in the United States, and a novel about the racial injustices of 1930s Alabama carried a powerful message to its readers. After the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, literature and literacy were used to expose and educate on racial injustice (Prendergrast 2). The dominant theme of the novel is prejudice and ultimately the courage needed to overcome prejudice. There are three main types of prejudice that are explored in the novel; racial prejudice, social prejudice and fear of the unknown. Racial prejudice is present throughout the novel in the people of Maycomb’s everyday life, as it is a novel set in the ‘deep south’ of America in the 1930’s. This period is not so long after the American civil war, so slavery’s abolishment had occurred not all that long ago, and the horror of slavery was still on the mind of many black people at the time (Brundage 86). Because of this, most people’s attitudes towards black people had not changed very much. The situation that shows the best examples of racial prejudice is the trial of Tom Robinson. In his trial, Tom Robinson is misjudged and mistreated because he is black. One of the clearest examples of this is the way in which Mr. Gilmer, Tom’s prosecutor, calls Tom “boy.” He uses a tone of voice towards...
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...I’d like to analyze the extract from a book which is entitled “To kill a mockingbird”. The author is Harper Lee, an American author known for her 1960-Pulitzer-Prize-winning and who is considered now by many to be a literary icon. Harper Lee was born in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. Her novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962. The story of “To kill a mockingbird” takes place during a tumultuous time in the South. At that time black people were treated as people of lower level than white people and racial tensions were running high in the South as a whole, especially in Alabama. People all over the US followed events like the Scottsboro incident, 1955 bus boycott and also Martin Luther King’s rise to leadership. Harper Lee is said to have been influenced by these events very much. Though many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical she has insisted that the novel is a work of fiction. The text under analysis belongs to the group of fictional texts. The literary trend is realism. The book is brilliant and powerful and it is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in...
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...The text under consideration is taken from the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, an American author. The text belongs to the fiction. The peculiarity of this very extract is the inclination of oratory speech which is the feature of publicistic style. It is difficult to speak about genre, because we deal with only an extract from the book, but we know that it is novel. It is difficult to understand the function of the title from only an extract. But in my opinion the author wanted to stress on that fact that in the story they pretend to have equal court system, but it’s not equal. And the author tries to “kill a mockingbird” that means to show this unequalness. The text shows us a vivid picture of a court, the arid atmosphere of a trial on an example of one case. The theme of the story is relationship between people within the society. I believe that author’s message is to show us a good example of conformism, when the majority do the same things. The other message is that prejudice wins people’s common sense so they can even discriminate against innocent person. The events of the extract take place in the court of Maycomb County. Two small children secretly came to the trial and were sitting there the whole trial. A Negro, Tom Robison by name, was falsely accused in rapping a white woman. But Atticus, a defender and the two children’s father, was absolutely sure in his innocence and tried to give all necessary facts to persuade the jury. Actually it was...
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...1. Discuss Atticus’s parenting style. What is his relationship to his children like? How does he seek to instill conscience in them? Atticus is a wise man, committed to justice and equality, and his parenting style is based on fostering these virtues in his children—he even encourages Jem and Scout to call him “Atticus” so that they can interact on terms as equal as possible. Throughout the novel, Atticus works to develop Scout’s and Jem’s respective consciences, through both teaching, as when he tells Scout to put herself in a person’s shoes before she judges them, and example, as when he takes Tom Robinson’s case, living up to his own moral standards despite the harsh consequences he knows he will face. Atticus is a kind and loving father, reading to his children and offering them comfort when they need it, but he is also capable of teaching them harsh lessons, as when he allows Jem to come with him to tell Helen Robinson about Tom’s death. At the end of the novel, when Atticus believes that Jem killed Bob Ewell, he tries to talk Heck Tate, the sheriff, out of calling the death an accident—Atticus’s standards are firm, and he does not want his son to have unfair protection from the law. 2. Analyze the trial scene and its relationship to the rest of the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird explores the questions of innocence and harsh experience, good and evil, from several different angles. Tom Robinson’s trial explores these ideas by examining the evil of racial prejudice, its...
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...Book Report In English IV To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee This novel was written by Harper Lee. This was written in the mid 1950s in New York City and was first published in the year 1960. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is the narrator and lead character of the story. Her father is Atticus and her brother is Jem. She is intelligent; she learned to read at an early age which was taught by Atticus. She changed, with her perspectives about Boo and all the things about life as she experienced it, by means of Atticus, as Atticus explained it briefly. She also improved her personality as well; at the end. Atticus Finch is Scout and Jem’s father. He is also a lawyer. He defended Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping Mayella, a white woman. With his strong will and empathy, he fought for justice that made his family vulnerable of immoral hearsays and of seeing that justice doesn’t always prevail. He is a good teacher to his children. And he was able to put his self in the same situation, which makes him a great teacher. Jeremy Atticus “Jem” Finch is Scout’s brother. He is four years older than Scout and he remains as a close companion and protector of Scout throughout the story. Jem finds himself in an unstable situation with his traumatic experience at Tom Robinson’s trial. His disappointment upon seeing that justice does not always prevail led to his confusion, but what Atticus instilled in him dominates and guided him to the right path. Arthur “Boo”...
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...his murder. Tom's murder echoes Aimé Césaire sarcastic statement in his Et les chiens se taisent, that "in the whole world no poor devil is lynched, no wretch is tortured, in whom I too am not degraded and murdered" (qtd in Black Skin, White Masks 61). Darren Felty in "An Overview of To Kill a Mockingbird", states: "Lee wants to make explicit the consequences of racism. She accomplishes this goal by employing Tom Robinson's trial to allude to different historical events such as the famous 'Scottsboro Boys' trials of the 1930s". According to Felty, in these trials nine black men were accused of raping two white women. Despite a lack of evidence, the men were sentenced to death by the white jury. Unlike Tom, they finally escaped death after a long time (2). Tom Robinson's trial mirrors these historical events to illustrate the racial binarity and segregation that the black people suffered throughout the colonial history. Racial binarity is prevalent in the novel. The narrow-minded people of Maycomb are in favor of segregation in their society and they consider sexual relationship as a threat to their segregation. According to Adam Smykowski in "Symbolism and Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird", For example, "the red geraniums that Mayella Ewell kept in her yard" stand for "Southern white womanhood". Also "the fence that surrounds the Ewells' property", suggests "the fear and racism of the Southern whites that tries to protect this womanhood" (54). Although it is Mayella Ewell...
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...Petrina Chan Hr. 2 To Kill a Mockingbird Summer Work Characters Scout Jean Louise Finch, also called Scout, is the narrator and protagonist of the story. She is the sister of Jeremy (Jem) Finch and the daughter of Atticus Finch. She lives with her brother, father, and their black cook, Calpurnia, in Maycomb County. Being the main character, she is involved with all of the major events that happen during the course of the novel, including the Tom Robinson trial. While the story progresses, Scout’s views about life mature. Scout is different than most little girls at the time. She wears overalls instead of dresses and learns to climb trees with Jem and Dill rather than learning manners.She starts to understand how to look at things from someone else’s point of view, instead of only her own, and, “step into their skin,” as Atticus tells her, in order to understand people’s feelings. She progresses from a short-tempered tom boy to an empathetic young girl. Although she is still young, her understanding of the world is progressing rapidly. Jem Jeremy (Jem) Finch is the brother of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, and the son of Atticus finch. He is four years older than Scout. He is Scout’s playmate and protector throughout the novel. Although he slowly weans himself from Scout’s little games, he remains her closest companion and guardian. He and his views on life are deeply affected by the Tom Robinson trial because of the amount of sheer prejudice and cruelty of the trial. Jem learns...
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...finest example of oratorical style. The extract is taken from the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The author of the novel is Harper Lee. She is an American writer. She was born in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. “To Kill a Mockingbird” is her first novel. It received almost unanimous critical acclaim and the Pulitzer Prize. In this book the author paints a true and lively picture of a quiet Southern town in Alabama rocked by a young girl’s accusation of criminal assault. The main character of the novel is Atticus Fintch, an experienced smart lawyer. He was asked to defend Tom Robinson, a Negro, who was charged with raping a white girl. Her name is Mayella Ewell and she is old Bob Ewell’s daughter. Atticus has got two children. Their names are Jem, who is thirteen and Jean Louise, nicknamed Scout, aged seven. The extract under consideration contains the scene in the court. Both children were present at the trail and it is Jean Louise who describes it. So, it’s the first point narration. Jean’s observations make the story vivid, convincing and emotional because she “saw something only lawyer’s child could be expected to see, could be expected to watch for”. Also her observations after her father help the reader to understand how Atticus was excited and nervous in the court. The atmosphere at the trail is strained. The tension is growing. Atticus begins with the evidence. His voice is calm; he speaks with the kind of detachment...
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...scale. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, racism is developed through the actions of the characters against the negro race. Maycomb is a town with many different personalities with the majority hating the negro race due to their economic status and their family background. Throughout the novel, Jem and Scout go through various events that give them more insight on Maycomb’s usual disease, racism. An example would be Tom Robinson’s court case and its outcome which play a major role in helping the reader understand Maycomb’s feelings against negroes and to the level where almost the...
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...In “The Courthouse Ring: Atticus Finch and the Limits of Southern Liberalism,” Malcolm Gladwell criticizes former governor of Alabama, James “Big Jim” Folsom. He compares him to literary hero Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Most people believe that both were noble people for taking the stance against racism that they did, but Gladwell presents them both in a different, less heroic image. Though I do not personally agree with Gladwell, I do understand why he believes the way that he does. In the article, Gladwell introduces the reader to “Big Jim” Folsom by providing a brief description of the man himself. He notes that Folsom was a charismatic man who believed in racial equality in time where Jim Crow laws were in full effect. Also, most politicians would not have dared to venture into the deep-south on such a platform, but Folsom made “a proud and lonely stand for racial justice” in many ways such as not segregating the audience who attended his speeches. In Alabama, politics generally had a “friends and neighbors” effect, meaning that people generally voted based on personality rather than political issues and the state was divided into smaller island communities that were each run by a “courthouse ring.” Though he was considered something of a radical for his stance on racism, Folsom was not actually looking for a drastic change—he simply wanted privileged whites to be more amiable to black people. In spite of public disapproval, Folsom invited black...
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