Ms. Scott
AP Lit
02 April 2013
To Kill A Mocking Bird
When you first read the title, “To Kill A Mocking Bird”, one may think it is about killing animals or abusing them. This story is about knowledge, courage and how you should view life. In this novel are talks about racism in the society and show how tedious it was to go against racism. When reading this book, it will open your eyes and show you, how bad society was back then and open up your eyes to reality. The Radley were discriminated along with the “colored people” even though they were white. This family was different from all the rest. Closed mind people say that they were different just because they didn’t follow everybody else. When Boo Radley was described they described him as a monster. “ He is about six and a half feet tall, judging from is tracks: he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that is why his hand were blood stained”. This description was developed because the Radley chose to live differently from everybody else. One sees that in today’s society. People are looked down upon because they don’t have the latest car or clothes. Sometimes it is best to be different and stand your own ground. In Maycomb, the racism is very high and isn’t to be played with. There were different churches, picnic areas and schools. Racism came was started because of different life styles and different appearances. It just so happen that the blacks were looked upon as being different because of their skin color and lifestyle. If you helped the blacks or didn’t have a problem with them, you were labeled as “nigger-lover”. This is a very derogatory term and was used to hurt and label “different” white people. There was such a dislike between the two societies that racism was created. Racism is really the other race not understanding. No one is the same and everyone will be different, but that doesn’t call for you to be treated differently.
The main parts of this book were courage and maturity. Harper Lee was courageous by writing this book. To write about something such as racism takes boldness and being different. Jem, Scout, and Dill through out there childhood had courage. At a young age they had to face racism and understand it. As a young child, question is often formed that no one can answer. Young children have innocence in their heart and could not fathom racism, but those three did. By living in Maycomb and watching the trial they