...Write about the ways that Harper Lee shows the significance of the title To Kill a Mockingbird The title of a novel is a significant asset for the writer to express his/her emotions and how they think the novel should be summed up. However Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” isn’t about “mockingbirds”. The word mockingbird is a metaphorical symbolization of the concept of innocence. This essay will be a critical analysis of the significance of the title “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Firstly Boo Radley is a character who exploits the true meaning of the title. Harper Lee presents Boo as a very controversial character due to him being locked in his house for 25 years, also because of his lack of speech and involvement throughout the whole novel. Through Lee’s vivid descriptions and Scouts narrations the reader firstly acknowledges Boo as a monster that is “six and a half feet tall”. Scout personifies Boo as a very intimidating individual through Lee’s vivid descriptions and linguistic imagery. The words “six and a half” are adjectives that describe the physical stature of Boo. The reader may feel Boo is the complete opposite of the titles reference however other readers may feel that Scout’s lack of education and maturity are the culprit of Boo’s false identifications. However throughout the novel the reader acknowledges the true qualities of Boo as does Scout as well. Lee establishes Boo as a peaceful individual whose love for children never stops. In modern society many individuals...
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...“How Does Harper Lee Present Her Ideas 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...
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...Robinson in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Harper Lee used real life stories as a guide to help her write her novel correctly and accurately. The novel is tied to a few stories such as, Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. One of the first connections to America’s history of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. To begin, Jim Crow was a racist system that promoted inequality between the races. A bountiful number of people believed the laws were necessary to keep black people in their place. In addition, they used the Jim Crow...
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...„As you grow older, you´ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don´t forget it – whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.” Good morning Mrs. Braun and fellow year 10 students. Today I present with this text three key themes – social class, prejudice and ignorance vs. cowardice – of Harper Lee´s novel “To kill a Mockingbird” (TKAMB). Social class is one of the key themes, which Harper Lee used in her novel and illustrates this with quotes like “You ain´t got no business bringin` white chillun here – they got their church, we got our´n.” This is said by a coloured women to Calpurnia, because she is bringing Scout and Jem, two white children, to the church for coloured people. This shows the reader the big differences between the social classes, because different coloured people have even separated services. Also a highlighted quote in the novel is “I don´t know, but they did it. They´ve done it before and they did it tonight and they´ll do it again and when they do it – seems that only children weep.” The court condemned the coloured man Tom Robinson for raping a white women, although they could not really condemn him, because of missing evidence. Nevertheless, he was condemned, because he is coloured and back then the words of white people were more credible than the words of coloured people. However, there are still people like...
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...‘It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived.’ (Chapter 11, p 111) ------------------------------------------------- Discuss the various ways in which Harper Lee explores the concept of courage in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the central issues in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is the idea of courage and the very different ways it can be displayed. As each character face their own journeys with courage, not only does the reader learn that even the smallest, most subtle acts of courage make a difference, but Scout and Jem’s idea of true courage is challenged as their minds mature and develop. Atticus and Mrs Dubose play a large part in this for Jem, as he distinguishes the difference between physical courage and emotional courage; while the court case of Tom Robinson teaches Scout how moral courage is sometimes hard to find in Maycomb, however it is the most important type of courage to have. Firstly, during the orientation of the novel Scout and Jem both have an attitude that the only form of courage is physical; as in being able to use a gun or win a fight. Jem believes that Atticus is less of other fathers as ‘He did not do the things our schoolmates’ fathers did: he never went hunting, he did not play poker or fish or drink or smoke. He sat in the livingroom and read’ – in short, believing Atticus was lacking courage. Atticus somewhat reaches his son’s expectations...
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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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...Maya Angelou once said, "Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible." Angelou warns about the negative affects of prejudice. The excerpt of Elizabeth Eckfords story, "She Walked Alone" and the novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" written by Harper Lee both share the common theme of prejudice, specifically racial prejudice. Throughout both texts the authors purposefully discuss the issues regarding racial prejudice. They share a similar over meaning and central idea. The central idea shared is that the color of someone skin can affect the mount of respect they receive and how the person is treated. Sadly, people would assume mostly negative things about a person if they were colored, and...
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...and Jem from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, and Jay Gatsby from The Great Gatsb by Scott Fitzgerald. Each of these characters encounters different processes of coming of age. When these characters process of maturation and coming of age are compared, the most relevant coming of age best exhibited by Holden from The Catcher in the Rye, following with Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird and Mr. Gatsby from The Great Gatsby; however, differences in coming of age are apparent in the different time periods of each novel setting, practicality, and present social issues. Holden Caulfield, the main character in The Catcher in the...
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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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...we are years from now. Growing up is a challenging but exciting experience that we all go through. It takes making mistakes for us to realize who we want to be and to understand the meaning of our childhood. On our short journey in the world we meet many people and are around others that have a place in the adult we are going to be. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the author suggests that when we are children, we are exposed to many situations too large for our understanding but that it takes experiences to comprehend the meaning of such situations. This is revealed through the narration of Jean Louise Finch and her take on events in the novel. When children are young they view things from a very innocent and naive point of view, yet they are very set in their ways. Scout Finch is presented throughout the novel as a young tom boy living with her older brother and father. In the novel Scout approaches things in a rebellious way, she acts very quickly on her emotions and doesn’t think before she says things. Scout has a history of fighting, wearing overalls and not caring about the way she looks or how she presents herself. She is not doesn’t like being something that she isn’t and in Scout’s case she doesn’t like being a lady. “There was no doubt about it, I must soon enter this world, where on its surface fragrant ladies rocked slowly, fanned gently, and drank cool water. But I was more at home in my father's world” (313). Scout’s curious mind carries her through...
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...In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, racism is an issue and black people are discriminated just because of their skin color. Prejudice is used to show how society is in To Kill A Mockingbird. Prejudice is used from a child’s point of view so people can see what it’s like for innocent children to get brainwashed by the judgmental people around them. In the 1800’s, most people in Alabama didn’t have much money. “Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard game me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt, Jem came by and told me to stop.” Scout picks on Walter because the Cunninghams don’t have much and since Walter is a Cunningham, Scout thinks that Walter and his family are lower than Scout and that she can do whatever she wants to Walter, like treating him badly. Prejudice is easily shown from Scout’s point of view because Scout doesn’t know much, Scout is barely in first grade and Scout doesn’t understand why Walter’s family doesn’t have much. Most people have that one cranky and old lady in their neighborhood. In the story,” Mrs. Dubose lived two doors up the the street from us; neighborhood opinion was unanimous that Mrs. Dubose was the meanest old woman who ever lived.” Most of the...
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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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...Faisal Amjad 11/01/15 Film Appreciation The Film and novel I decided to do on is the classic To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), which had a legendary cast starring Gregory Peck as Atticus and Mary Badham as Scout, this adaption of the book is as much a classic as the novel itself in my opinion which can be backed up by any person who is in American theater. The film received eight Academy Awards nominations and netted awards for Best Actor, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, and Best Art Direction — Set Decoration, Black and White. This film was a critical adaption of the book. Fans and critiques alike rank this among the best movies of all time, it is ranked #84 top rated movie of all time on IMDB.com, (rated by the people and critiques alike) the production was very extensive and expensive for its time, the budget for the film was about 2 million dollars and made well over $15 million at the box office and it was filmed on 35mm role of film. It was directed by Robert Mulligan, Written by Harper Lee (based on her novel "To Kill a Mockingbird"), and Horton Foote (screenplay) the movie was produced by universal international pictures....
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...Notre Dame High School English 10-1 RESEARCH PRESENTATION Your group’s task is to become the “class experts” regarding one of the topics below. Note that topics will be determined by draw. * No more than three (3) groups may be assigned to each topic. * You must present your findings in a digital form onto D2L (this must include both the visual and audio portion) * In your presentation, you must reference or cite at least two research sources. * You may work alone or with a partner You will prepare a presentation on the topic and present it to the class during our study of the play, “Romeo and Juliet” by William Shakespeare. Presentations will be made as we conclude our study of each Act. For example, Topics No. 1 to No. 3 will be made at the same time, after we finish reading Act One. Each group must complete a one-page report in your own words on the selected topic, which must have references to at least three (3) sources of information. The references must be properly cited. All of the written reports are due on February 21, 2014 in D2L dropbox. Note that you will be expected to share your presentation with your classmates using the Discussion Forum on the Desire 2Learn website. Failure to share your work via D2L will result in a failing mark for this presentation. This Research Presentation will be assessed on the following basis: CONTENT: * Understanding the topic /5 * Support provided by the selection of details...
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...way out. You realize that you'll have to jump out a window. You eventually find one. You're hesitant, but you think that a two story fall shouldn't be too bad. Besides, you've got to get the baby and yourself out of this burning inferno. You take a running start and leap out of the window. When you land, the wind is knocked out of you. As you get up, a news van that came to film the fire decides they should get the story of the baby's rescue. You appear on the news and become a hero in your neighborhood. Then you wake up. You've been daydreaming. Dreaming that you were a great hero who accomplished an amazing feat; a Champion who has completed what most others would fear to have done. Most everyone longs for an opportunity to prove how courageous they are. They long to receive fame and glory for their...
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