Good And Evil In To Kill A Mockingbird
Through a closed study of harper lees “to kill a mockingbird” we are encouraged to explore and reflect upon our world. To contemplate such themes as racial prejudice, stereotypes, social injustices and growing up. This is achieved via the narration of scout who was a 6 year old girl caught in the middle of the chaos of the trial of Tom Robinson. Through this we witness the coexistence of good and evil display in the relationship between Atticus and Mr Ewell, how events can lead to children growing up and determine their moral judgement, how stereotypes and predetermined racially prejudistic ideologies can be challenged, displayed through the incontestable innocence of Tom Robinson in the trial and the nature of Calpurnia. To Kill a Mockingbird
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realistically portrays the raciest ideologies of not only the date in which the novel was set (1930’s) but the date in which was written (1960’s), encouraging readers to question and reflect upon our societies views not only on the past, but the present and the future encompassing the worlds view upon matters.
Throughout “to kill a mockingbird” Lee encourages the reader to consider good and evil in the world, not as separate entities but as parts of a spectrum and how they coexist and interact with each other in the world. This is displayed through good characters such as Atticus juxtaposed with bad character such as Mr Ewell, but also their relations with characters who display both qualities like Mr Cunningham, displaying their interactions with each other throughout the trial of Tom Robinson. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” and “I wanted you to know what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” Are pieces of dialogue which paints Atticus to be empathic, courageous and a person who wants his children to be understanding and knowledgeable, all of these characteristics are found in good people.
This good nature displayed by Atticus is juxtaposed to Mr Ewell. Mr Ewell and the Ewell family was the “"the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations". Lee efficiently uses the antagonist in the novel, a man who “spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains”, as the most predominate source of evil in the novel. His mean, raciest, unforgiving, ignorant, sexist ways seemed to directly contrast Atticus’s moral judgement. Lee expertly indicates that for there to be good there must be bad. For Atticus to defend Tom Robinson and start a snowball effect which lead there to be more people standing up for the rights of black people, there must be an evil entity like Mr Ewell, two completely different entities which though are oppose tu each other but cannot live without each other. Many parallels can be drawn between Mr Ewell and Atticus and the philosophy of the yin yang. Lee also makes a comment about how such humans are neither good nor evil implying that everyone has the capacity to do both, this is primarily displayed throughout Mr Cunnningham’s transition from being a good man from scouts point of view who would pay the finches with “what they had.” …show more content…
Displaying qualities like self-respect and respect for others, which would usually be associated with a good man. To a man which displayed qualities like racism and ignorance. Which was revealed to us when he was a part of a mob who wanted to hang Tom Robinson. Qualities and an act like that are associated with evil. The statement “Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man.....he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” Perfectly displays how people who are apparently good can be perceived as evil. Lee also demonstrates this co-existence of good and evil in people, in the action of the jury and their guilty verdict in the Trial of Tom Robinson. “Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason… In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins”, this dialogue displays how a person or persons judgement could be skewed due to the view of the majority. Lee encouraged the reader to consider good and evil in the world and how the co-exist in society.
Through the book lee encourages the reader to think about the destruction of innocence due to the clash of good and evil in the world.
Lee eludes to this all throughout the book. Using the events which lead to mockingbirds such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson’s innocence being destroyed as the centre point for most of the book. Lee uses the metaphor “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." as catalyst to the idea that mockingbirds such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are just people who have done nothing wrong and are there to serve others innocence should not be destroyed but they are eventually. At the end of the book we see that Boo Radley heroically save the children from Mr Ewell. This was a man who throughout the novel had been described to the children man who “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch” who was described as this “malevolent phantom” when in actual fact he was an innocent kind soul who was destroyed by the evils in society. We witness his kind hearted spirit when he gave the children who were unknowing “Wrigley’s chewing gum”, “Indian head pennies” and many other gifts before the tree in which he left it got cemented by his father. Boo Radley presented many good qualities such as courage, selflessness and heroinism when he saved Scout and Jem’s life from Mr Ewell, further cementing him as a mockingbird. Throughout the novel Lee eludes to the fact that Tom Robinson is a mockingbird.
This is revealed to the reader when his kind-hearted action of helping a white woman chop wood ended up in him unjustly being put on trial for a crime of rape. Although through this court proceeding Atticus revealed that he couldn’t have done it and it was Bob Ewell violently attacking his daughter the jury still decided that he was guilty the result being unanimous. Tarnishing the innocence of Tom Robinson. Lee encouraged reader to think about the destruction of innocence in the world. This was displayed through characters such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinsons and the metaphor “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."
realistically portrays the raciest ideologies of not only the date in which the novel was set (1930’s) but the date in which was written (1960’s), encouraging readers to question and reflect upon our societies views not only on the past, but the present and the future encompassing the worlds view upon matters.
Throughout “to kill a mockingbird” Lee encourages the reader to consider good and evil in the world, not as separate entities but as parts of a spectrum and how they coexist and interact with each other in the world. This is displayed through good characters such as Atticus juxtaposed with bad character such as Mr Ewell, but also their relations with characters who display both qualities like Mr Cunningham, displaying their interactions with each other throughout the trial of Tom Robinson. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”, “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” and “I wanted you to know what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand.” Are pieces of dialogue which paints Atticus to be empathic, courageous and a person who wants his children to be understanding and knowledgeable, all of these characteristics are found in good people.
This good nature displayed by Atticus is juxtaposed to Mr Ewell. Mr Ewell and the Ewell family was the “"the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations". Lee efficiently uses the antagonist in the novel, a man who “spends his relief checks on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains”, as the most predominate source of evil in the novel. His mean, raciest, unforgiving, ignorant, sexist ways seemed to directly contrast Atticus’s moral judgement. Lee expertly indicates that for there to be good there must be bad. For Atticus to defend Tom Robinson and start a snowball effect which lead there to be more people standing up for the rights of black people, there must be an evil entity like Mr Ewell, two completely different entities which though are oppose tu each other but cannot live without each other. Many parallels can be drawn between Mr Ewell and Atticus and the philosophy of the yin yang. Lee also makes a comment about how such humans are neither good nor evil implying that everyone has the capacity to do both, this is primarily displayed throughout Mr Cunnningham’s transition from being a good man from scouts point of view who would pay the finches with “what they had.” …show more content…
Displaying qualities like self-respect and respect for others, which would usually be associated with a good man. To a man which displayed qualities like racism and ignorance. Which was revealed to us when he was a part of a mob who wanted to hang Tom Robinson. Qualities and an act like that are associated with evil. The statement “Mr. Cunningham's basically a good man.....he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us.” Perfectly displays how people who are apparently good can be perceived as evil. Lee also demonstrates this co-existence of good and evil in people, in the action of the jury and their guilty verdict in the Trial of Tom Robinson. “Those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason… In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins”, this dialogue displays how a person or persons judgement could be skewed due to the view of the majority. Lee encouraged the reader to consider good and evil in the world and how the co-exist in society.
Through the book lee encourages the reader to think about the destruction of innocence due to the clash of good and evil in the world.
Lee eludes to this all throughout the book. Using the events which lead to mockingbirds such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson’s innocence being destroyed as the centre point for most of the book. Lee uses the metaphor “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." as catalyst to the idea that mockingbirds such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are just people who have done nothing wrong and are there to serve others innocence should not be destroyed but they are eventually. At the end of the book we see that Boo Radley heroically save the children from Mr Ewell. This was a man who throughout the novel had been described to the children man who “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch” who was described as this “malevolent phantom” when in actual fact he was an innocent kind soul who was destroyed by the evils in society. We witness his kind hearted spirit when he gave the children who were unknowing “Wrigley’s chewing gum”, “Indian head pennies” and many other gifts before the tree in which he left it got cemented by his father. Boo Radley presented many good qualities such as courage, selflessness and heroinism when he saved Scout and Jem’s life from Mr Ewell, further cementing him as a mockingbird. Throughout the novel Lee eludes to the fact that Tom Robinson is a mockingbird.
This is revealed to the reader when his kind-hearted action of helping a white woman chop wood ended up in him unjustly being put on trial for a crime of rape. Although through this court proceeding Atticus revealed that he couldn’t have done it and it was Bob Ewell violently attacking his daughter the jury still decided that he was guilty the result being unanimous. Tarnishing the innocence of Tom Robinson. Lee encouraged reader to think about the destruction of innocence in the world. This was displayed through characters such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinsons and the metaphor “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."