Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird was a novel that took place in a three year time span during the Great Depression. The main character in the novel is Scout Finch who lives with her older brother Jem and their father, Atticus, who is a lawyer. Scout and Jem befriend their neighbors nephew named Dill who visits his aunt every summer. The three become interested in the man who never leaves his house in their neighborhood, Boo Radley. They hear rumors about the man and in one summer they tell the events of Boo’s life as they know them, daily. Atticus catches them one day trying to leave notes on his windowsill and scolds them to stop making fun of a sad man’s life. The children start receiving little gestures that they believed came from Boo
The novel had multiple themes and made you feel many perspectives so you could capture the full idea of the story. As it is obvious the core theme of the story is about racial inequality during the time period and the prominent stereotyping and racism in the town, which is very similar to other events in the United States at time as far as equal rights goes. Not only does Lee confront the equality issues the novel also addresses public education and gender roles in society. From reading the novel one could accurately say that the main purpose of To Kill A Mockingbird is to explore social inequality in general and that race and racism are just one branch. The book focuses one Scout, Jem, and Dill transitioning from their childhood world to an uncharted world of inequality. The book perfectly showcased how the inequality destructed innocence, or “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”. The Book begins with the children being somewhat aware of what is going on around them but the upbringing of the trial, rioting and Tom Robinson’s obvious innocence are going to open the eyes of the once numb children. The Two plot lines-- attempting to get Boo Radley out of his house and the trial of Tom reinforced the two contradicting themes of ignorance, prejudice, and hate opposed by courage and morality, kindness and calm reason. The
They learned to value the people in their towns as individuals, developed moral courage in the face of hypocrisy, and the realization that justice should be followed through with no regard to race or class. The children learned to develop open minds, unprejudiced and individual minds. The book was an eye opener for not only what went on during the Great Depression, but also for what is happening now in 21 century everyday life. The novel has many themes and lessons, many of the best ones written in between the lines. This book could be read by anyone as it is written through the eyes of a child, and the grammar of one, with an adult’s