To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

“To kill A mockingbird” by Harper Lee, set in the United States, explores a range of universal concepts of the 1930s as well as today which enhances our learning enabling readers to become better global citizens. The book was set during a time when racial tension of black versus white was popular. Racism was very common during this difficult time and Harper Lee emphasises this issue through the young Innocent eyes of Scout. In Maycomb, a small, old country town in the south of USA, an elevation of the racist widespread tears the small community orientated town apart, the themes expressed are Innocence, Racism, stereotypes and coming of age within this classic American novel written in the 1960s, a time of protesting of civil rights and a nation declining to let go of its discriminative antiquity. The use of first person perspective and descriptive language enables the reader to understand the world in the period during which the book was set as well as today.

Innocence is one key idea that helps us understand society and become better global citizens and is explored effectively in “To Kill A Mockingbird” through the characters of Maycomb. Lee uses this theme in various forms implying the transformation from Innocence towards a grown up moral perspective. The narrative rational voice in the book, Scout a six-year-old girl does not understand the full implication of the circumstances surrounding her, making her an objective observer and a reporter in the truest sense. The use of first person also confines the account to events as seen from a child’s point of view. We as readers understand what Scout doesn’t as a child, which is an effective use of dramatic irony. She gives an account of the tragic events of the book penetrating levels of morbidity in a non-prejudice and pristine perspective. Using a young innocent character, Lee allows the responder to see how she learns about life and the negativity of discrimination of her childhood years. Being Atticus Finch’s daughter we have a closer insight on the action and can give us an eyewitness account of the Tom Robinson trial.

Scout being the innocent character does not fully understand the significance of what she’s speaking about. Atticus had told scout when talking to people it was polite to talk to about what they were interested in, not about what you were interested in however Mr. Cunningham displayed no interest in his son.
The use of effective dialogue is used when Scouts speaks referring to Mr. Cunningham in regard to his son Walter. She says, "He's in my grade, and he does right well. He's a good boy. A real nice boy. We brought him home for dinner one time. Maybe he told you about me, I beat him up one time but he was real nice about it. Tell him hey for me, won't you?”. It is evident that scout is innocent and shows a sense of maturity when she changes the subject, noticing Mr. Cunningham’s lack of interest towards his son.

Innocence is continued through the character of Boo Radley. In the judgmental society of Maycomb, Boo, a boy that never left his house was thought to have stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors. The scenery of his home, The Radley Place, reflected his dark, secretive character. Lee uses epithets to describes his home as “…. a “swept” land that was never swept- where Johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance”. However no one knew his real story. He was really an intelligent child ruined by his father. As the novel progresses, the children’s attitude towards Boo Radley genuinely proves he is one of the books most important “mockingbirds”. Later in the text, the two moral voices, Atticus (Scouts father) and Miss Maudie (her neighbor) explain the title “To Kill A Mockingbird”. They both extensively highlight that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird Miss Maudie states, “ Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy, they don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing

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Essay To Kill A Mockingbird