...In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is a well known lawyer, father to Scout and Jem Finch, and citizen in Maycomb County. His predominant characteristic is integrity. The definition of integrity is, “adherence to moral and ethical principles; soundness of moral character; honesty” (Dictionary.com). Atticus Finch shows this in the court and in his home. Most people only play by the rules and keep people’s wellbeing in mind when it can affect their own reputation or they are out in public. Atticus not only shows his integrity in town, but also in his own home and to his children as well. Scout and Jem have absorbed the genuineness of their father, through many daily lessons to life-threatening troubles. Mr. Finch is very unique...
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...A person uses integrity, honesty, and conscience in everyday life and even in books the characters also show these traits. In the book, “How To Kill A Mockingbird” Harper Lee uses many conversations through characters to show how they use integrity, honesty, and conscience. Integrity is based on the honesty and the moral concepts of a certain person. In this book, Atticus uses integrity more than anyone throughout the whole book, he uses certain clues to say everyone is equal and how everyone should be treated the same. Harper Lee describes Atticus’ thoughts as equally when she says, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything.” (Lee 124). Atticus uses his integrity to show that mean words that other people use to describe...
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...In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, justice is demonstrated throughout Atticus’ actions. His strive for equality can be represented by the scales of justice. Atticus believes that everyone should be treated fairly regardless of race, socio-economic or familial background. Having such an honorable and just character, propels Atticus to defend the wronged individual, Tom Robinson. Atticus believes that Tom Robinson is innocent of the crime accused against him and he believes Robinson should not receive the death penalty. Atticus knows Tom might lose this case due to the racial attitudes and prejudices prevalent in the community. When an African-American is accused of a crime, the person is undoubtedly presumed guilty. Atticus still persists in...
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...Atticus Finch, Two men who were counter opposites. But were alike in the fact that they were both the mockingbirds of the world. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the story is told of true character and honest integrity. The story being told by author Harper Lee, tells of a black man by the name of Tom Robinson. Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Mayella is the daughter of the Bob Ewell, the trashiest man in Maycomb. Atticus Finch, an average lawyer and single father of two is assigned the case. Atticus knows that due to Tom´s skin color and the common sickness of Maycomb (racism), they are going to lose the case, but he knows that Tom is innocent therefore he goes on with the case. It has been questioned if it made sense for Atticus to defend Tom, but it did make sense for Atticus to defend Tom, because he was selfless and because he was optimistic. The first reason it makes sense for Atticus to defend Tom Robinson is because he is...
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...Atticus. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during 1930’s, a period known as the Great Depression. Harper Lee creates the setting in the little town of Maycomb, Alabama.One of the main conflicts that takes place revolves around a racial issue. Atticus, a father, and a lawyer, ponders the question whether he should defend a trial. The trial includes an 18 year old girl by the name of, Mayella, who comes from a family of poverty and has an abusive father. Mayella falsely states a black man by the name...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird and Macbeth In 1623 William Shakespeare wrote his play Macbeth, 337 years later Harper Lee wrote her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Although the texts were written in entirely different eras and settings, both texts are similar in the theme of guilt. Guilt is a self-critical emotion that humans feel that compromises their sense of moral integrity. Guilt allows whoever is feeling this emotion to know that they have wronged another person or themselves and gone against their sense of responsibility or moral standards. In both Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird and Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the lead villains follow parallel paths with regard to their guilt, undertaking ill advised courses of actions which result not only in the undoing of the women in their lives, but also ultimately their own demise. Early on in William Shakespeare’s play Macbeth the lead character Macbeth is at war with himself over what the correct course of action is, burdened by the Weird Sisters’ stating “All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be king hereafter!” (I.iii.51), which leaves Shakespeare with the choice of taking Macbeth down the path of letting life play it’s course or taking matters into his own hands. Macbeth ultimately chooses to take matters into his own hands and kills King Duncan. This allows the play to follow the action plan of Macbeth instantly becoming king of Scotland, causing him to spend the rest of the play covering up his tracks. Similarly, in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird...
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...better understand To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee uses symbolism to reveal an overall theme of human dignity. Maycomb County is a typical sleepy southern town that is blinded by the disease of racism. An innocent black man becomes a victim of the disease when he is accused of rapeing a white woman. Firstly the symbols Jem’s pants and the rolly-polly show the important theme of maturation. Furthermore the symbols Tim Johnson and the snowman highlight a theme of destroying racism. Lastly one-shot Finch and the perfect white waxy camellia symbolize true courage. Harper Lee uses Jem’s pants and the rolly-polly as symbols to convey a theme of maturation. Jem and Scout where in the Radley’s backyard trying to get a look at Boo Radley when Jem see’s a shadow the children immediately flee form the house. As the children were running through the collards as they hear the roar of a shotgun. As Jem and Scout are fleeing the scene Jem’s pants gets caught in the fence and he has to leave it in their backyard if he wants to survive. Later that night he says how he needs to go back and retrieve his pants not for him but for Atticus, “‘Atticus ain’t never whipped me ever since I can remember, and I wanta keep it that way.’” (Lee 75). He goes back to get his pants to keep his relation shit with Atticus. There is a evident theme maturation in Jem at this point, from when he thought turtles could not feel, too now when he is showing integrity and tremendous courage...
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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...
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...Rough Draft In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird there are various key themes that Harper Lee includes, ranging from the importance of family all the way to innocence. One of the most recurring themes in the book is moral development.In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys the theme that self control reveals a person’s higher moral development when Scout refuses to fight the boy that is bullying her, when Atticus compliments the woman that was screaming insults at his children, and when Atticus walks away after Robert Ewell spit in his face. One scene in To Kill A Mockingbird where Harper Lee displays the integrity needed to execute self control is when Scout is being antagonized by a boy at her school about how her father is defending Tom Robinson, and when asked to fight, she decides, instead, to walk away. She was tempted to attain revenge, but then she, “drew a bead on him, remembered what Atticus had said, then dropped [her] fists and walked away” (Lee 102). She was mentally strong, and instead of listening to the angry voices inside of her, she followed the advice of her elders. It was a major milestone for her, as it was, “...first time [she] had ever walked away from a fight” (Lee 102)....
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...Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel centered around a few years in Jean Louise “Scout” Finch’s childhood, featuring her experiences and the lessons that she learns growing up in the 1930s. Scout and her brother, Jeremy “Jem” Finch, mature in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, in a one-parent home. Their father and aunt, Atticus and Alexandra, raise them with help from Calpurnia, their African American maid. Harper Lee weaves several different themes throughout the novel, but some are more prominent than others. Lee develops the main themes of growth, protection of innocence, and perception throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, disguised in the form of lessons learned during the narrator’s childhood. Harper Lee reveals her theme of growth...
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...people think that change is wrong and that everything should stay how it has been. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout is the protagonist and her dad is Atticus Finch. He is a lawyer in the small town of Maycomb, located in the south around the 1930’s. He is an influential character in the book because he shows integrity and Atticus makes his own decisions throughout the book. His family, the Finches, are at the top of the social pyramid of Maycomb. When he takes on a case in which an african american man is accused of raping...
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...If you knew you would not win the battle, would you still fight? In the 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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..."To kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence". In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout narrates the story in first person point of view. The novel shows how growing up in times of depression, racism, and poverty can change an individual or even a society. The story takes places in Maycomb County. The time is set in the early 1930s where poverty and racism plays a major roll in the United States. The tone of the story is very serious and shows the reader a piece of reality. The mood is very sympathetic but the reader may also feel humor from Dill, Scout, and Jim, three of the main characters. The setting plays a major roll in the plot because the racism during that time contributes to the conflicting opinions of...
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...Change is both a vital and inevitable part of our lives, and has a powerful effect on people, their perspectives, and the world around them. Through their experiences, many characters in 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...
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...and unity… TEXT COMPARISON Are we always champions of tolerance, courage and receptiveness to others? By the very definition of humanity, we must be. Humanity: benevolence, understanding 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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