...“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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...before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what"- Atticus Finch. Also courage is a part of growing up but it's the type of courage that determine whether a person matures or evolved from once they once were. In addition, to this in novel To Kill a Mockingbird there are two children Scout and Jem, that experience things a child should never go through. However, by going through a time of Great Depression and dealing with a prejudice town they have evolved from the naive kids they used to be. Except, in this essay it's about who has evolved the most throughout the novel. Therefore, Jem has changed the more than Scout in "To Kill a Mockingbird" because he has proved more mature than Scout. Towards the middle of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem evolves by following Atticus as a role model.For example Jem shows maturing by stating 'I reckon if he'd wanted us to know it, he'da told...
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...in many stories, books, and magazines throughout literature. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and “Beautiful Brains” by David Dobbs are excellent examples of literature that contain the trait coming-of-age. Coming-of-age involves recognizing different perspectives....
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...In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the presence of courage is illustrated throughout the whole book. Courage, the ability to do something that frightens one. It takes a strong, vigorous and optimistic person to illustrate courage. In this case, the main character, Scout, displays perfect examples of courage throughout the entire novel. Scout does it while she herself does not notice. Like when stands up to an angry racist mob from lynching Tom Robinson, a “negro” accused of raping a white woman. Not everyone would have enough determination to walk up to a group of people who are about to kill someone. Before knowing why Scout stood up for Tom and have the guts to do so. The reader learns in the beginning of the story, how Atticus teaches Scout that doing the right thing doesn’t always mean going along with everyone else. Referencing of being your true self and have “pride” of yourself instead of being in “vain” (Austen)....
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...In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem characterizes himself along with his father as being true gentlemen. What makes up a gentleman? One might ask this question when trying to find out what the true definition of the word is. If one were to look up gentlemen in the dictionary the definition would be: a man from a good family; a well-bread male, but if Atticus Finch were to define the word the definition would be completely different. Atticus believes that to be a true gentleman...
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...book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the character Atticus Finch did exactly that. It is noble and worthy for Atticus to accept the challenge of Tom's case because he is righteous, honest, and he wants to instill integrity into Jem and Scout's minds. Atticus is a righteous man. In chapter 20 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus said "There is not a person in this court room who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire." Atticus Finch explained to the court that all men are created equal. He believed you can not judge a whole group of people, from a single persons example. Yes, there are black people who do immoral things, but so do white people. You can not say every black man is subject to being immoral, based off a few certain people. Tom is black and was...
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...fool,’” (Fitzgerald 17). Through this quote, Daisy shows an understanding to how women are viewed in the world, but she advocates conformity towards gender stereotypes. Unlike Daisy Buchanan, Jordan Baker is represented as a strong and independent woman; she presents herself as a confident, unmarried athlete, who can support herself and be content without a husband. At this time, Jordan rebels against the idea of only men being allowed to play sports. On the other hand, Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, is shown as the opportunist of the three, who is disloyal to her husband, George Wilson, and seeks money and fortune. Through the use of female characters, Fitzgerald is able to illustrate the different values of women in the 1920’s to later foreshadow these ideas into a modern...
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...very few admit it. There are also many people out there who tell others not to lie, but they too have lied many times themselves, which makes them hypocrites. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout witnesses many forms of hypocrisy in which the veil of hypocrisy is never revealed. Mrs. Merriweather, Miss Gates, Lula, and Aunt Alexandra are all blind to their prejudices, and those prejudices breed their hypocrisy. Mrs. Merriweather is the perfect example of hypocrisy in To Kill A Mockingbird. During the “missionary circle” that Aunt Alexandra hosts, Mrs. Merriweather says many absurd statements. While Scout sits at the table with all of the women, she deems it polite to ask Mrs. Merriweather what she studied this afternoon. Then Mrs....
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...way people act and think. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the small town of Maycomb faces the harsh circumstances of social inequality. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and leader of Maycomb, defends Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly accused of Rape. Social inequality will never change, though it can be a hardship it simply will not go away because minds aren’t easily swayed, the natural opinion that one is better than another, and the demand of one group to conform to the dominant group. To begin with, Civil discrimination starts in the mind; this mind does not have to be one of poor thoughts or strong thoughts, either can be tainted by prejudice. Atticus’s children, Jem and Scout, spoke to their Aunt Alexandra about their friend Walter Cunningham, Aunt Alexandra called him “trash”. Scout was confused about why she would call him...
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...English H. Period 8 Scout’s Personality Essay There are many components to literature, however, one of the most important are the characters. Throughout a story, readers become submerged in a characters’ life and learn about what type of person they are and watch as the characters develop overtime. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout is one of the main characters that readers become familiar with, since the story is told from her perspective. Everything, from her actions to her speech, shows us a fragment of who she really is. Each fragment eventually pieced together to form Scout’s personality. In part one, readers get a good grasp on what kind of person Scout is; her character traits are illustrated on countless occasions. There are numerous traits that Scout demonstrates and within the story, certain traits are more strongly exposed than others. In particular, Scout is portrayed as very innocent and also reveals to be protective in the first part of the book. Scout is depicted as innocent throughout the first part of the book because she doesn’t understand certain consequences for her actions. For instance, when Scout revealed she is able to read “most of My First Reader and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register” (17), her teacher “looked at [Scout] with more than faint distaste” (17). Her teacher, Miss Caroline, then proceeded to order Scout to tell her father to stop teaching her, but Scout denies the claim that Atticus’s teaches her and tries...
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...versus Ethics ......................................................................................................................... 5 Responsibility and Culpability ............................................................................................................. 6 Atonement .......................................................................................................................................... 9 Law and Legality .................................................................................................................................... 10 Race and Ethnicity................................................................................................................................. 11 To Kill a Mockingbird...
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...Coming of age comes with an inevitable end of childhood innocence, without which graduation into maturity cannot truly take place. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jem, a ten-year-old boy, and Scout, a six-year-old girl, two children who live in the southern town Maycomb, Alabama, are shown in their adventures that help them mature. During the years of the Great Depression - the years when this novel is set - racism had been an attitude many southerners followed. Atticus, Jem and Scout's father and also a respected lawyer, is appointed to take part in a controversial trial: he is to defend Tom Robinson, a poor negro laborer charged with raping Mayella Ewell, the nineteen year old daughter of the impoverished Bob Ewell. Jem and Scout are shown going through a tremendous amount of growing up in this novel - not only physically, but also emotionally, mentally, and morally. The children learn more about the real world in brushes with the outside world, such as at school. They are also intrigued by their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley, who had been locked up in his house for a petty crime as a teenager, as he had not been outside his house for decades. Arthur "Boo" Radley is an object of great wonder and speculation for the children, who imagine him to be a savage. They have many opportunities for life lessons in observations of their neighbors like the kindly Miss Maudie, a confidante for the children, and the mean old Mrs. Dubose, imagined to be the meanest person...
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...Teacher and Author: Teaching Middle and High School Using Literature Sandra Coleman Grand Canyon University RGD 545 Professor Karen Foster February 27, 2008 Teaching Middle and High School Student Using Literature Outline: I. Short Stories a) Activating Prior Knowledge b) Responding to the Selection c) Short Story Selections 1. Suggested Activities to use with Various Groups II. Oral Tradition Literature – Tall Tales and Folktales a) Analyze characteristics and plots of Folktales and Tall Tales b) Understanding Hyperbole c) Writing a Tall Tale d) Selections of Oral Tradition Literature III. Novel Studies a) Previewing the novel b) Defining and Understanding Elements of c) Character Analysis d) Problems and Solutions of the story IV. Historical Fiction a) Activating background/prior knowledge b) Setting a purpose for reading c) Writing about historical fiction V. Realistic Fiction a) Evaluating Realistic Fiction b) Responding to the selection c) Distinguishing between Fact and Opinion d) Summarizing the Story Chapter 1 – Short Stories: A short story is, like the name...
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...others. In the English dictionary Influence is defined as the capacity to have an effect on the character, development, or behavior of someone or something, or the effect itself. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Atticus Finch plays an important role in influencing Scouts education, Morals, and her overall development. He does so through his words and actions. Atticus Finch plays an important role in educating Scout through out the book. He teaches her many subjects such as the importance of education. Atticus told Scout, “If you'll concede the necessity of going to school, we'll go on reading every night like we always have. Is that a bargain?” (P.41) Atticus comprehends that education is extremely important consequently leading him to bargain with her although he could be in trouble by doing so. Scout then learns the importance of education because although she knows he'll get into trouble, he'll do anything so she'll continue to attend school. He also thought her indirectly how to read. Scout says, “I never deliberately learned to read... I could not remember when the lines above Atticus's moving finger separated into words... everything Atticus happened to be reading when I crawled into his lap every night.” (P.23) Scout never directly learned from Atticus how to read, “ I never deliberately learned to read” but he indirectly thought her to read by always having her while he read. As she said that the “words above Atticus's fingers separated into words...
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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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