Writing To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee has chosen to make a description of the Deep South during the Great Depression of the 30's through the eyes of a young girl, leaving us uncertain about the qualification of this novel. Indeed, reading the biography of the author, the reader realizes that To kill a mockingbird could be a fictional way to describe her own childhood, both having a lot of common points: is it the beginning of an autobiography or simply a novel describing social conflicts in a small town in the south of the United States? Even if trying to qualify the novel would be an interesting exercise, we are more interested in this essay by the fact that the novel is actually told by a young girl who discovers the conflicts of life through naïve eyes. Indeed, her first experience with evils of the world is going to be racial prejudice , with her father defending in courts an African American from trumped-up rape charges.
[...] Reading what Chris Jones thinks about To kill a mockingbird[6], we are told that this novel has several main themes. Indeed, it deals with personal responsibility, paternal obligation, alienation, importance of empathy and racial conflict, which all appear to be as much important as the others. The fact that Scout is ‘used' as the narrator let the author to emphasise most of the first themes later quoted than the last one. Indeed, through the young girl eyes the reader is given a view of the society which is not objective at all: lacking the perspectives of an adult she does not see Maycomb's society with its main features: racist and narrow minded[7]. [...]
[...] As R A Dave says: universality of To kill a mockingbird is essential”[11]. As a matter of fact this book deals with racism in a very strong way, putting a black man at the centre of an injustice. The fact that Tom Robinson is judged by a jury which is supposed to represent the people for a crime that everybody know he has not committed is relevant: the majority of the persons in the trial know that Bob Ewell is a bad man who beats his daughter and could easily have invented the rape by Tom Robinson to hide his own sin. [...]
[...] Isaac Saney case against to kill a mockingbird'. Claude Johnson secret courts of men's hearts: Code and law in Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird'. Jones, Chris, American 'MOCKINGBIRD' RISES LIKE A PHOENIX , Theatre Feb95, Vol Issue 2Database: Academic Search Elite http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/ accessed on the 29th of November. Analysis of major characters http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/ Dianne L. Baecker, ‘Telling It in Black and White: the importance of the Africanist presence in To Kill a Mockingbird'. R.A. Dave, Kill a Mockingbird : Harper Lee's tragic version'. Johnson, The [...]
[...] If the treatment of racism in To kill a mockingbird has this purpose to Scout, it aims above all at denunciating it through an original point of view which obliges the reader to make his own opinion: the subjective point of view used by the author makes the plea against racism much stronger. Bibliography Diann L. Baecker. ‘Telling it in black and White: the importance of the africanist presence in To Kill a Mockingbird'. R.A. Dave kill a mockingbird: Harper Lee's tragic version'. Claudia Durst Johnson kill a mockingbird: threatening boundaries'. Carolyn Jones ‘Atticus Finch and the mad dog: Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird'. [...]
[...] Furthermore, when some men try to take Tom Robinson from the jail, they are ‘expulsed' by the naivety of Scout who does not seem to realize their intention: to her racism is not a real problem about which one should worry. As a matter of fact, to Scout the major event of the last summer is more Boo's appearance than the trial and the death of Tom Robinson[8]. The novel starts and finishes with Boo Radley who appears to be the most important mockingbird in the novel. [...]
APA Style reference
For your bibliographyOnline reading
with our online readerContent validated
by our reading committee
