TKM Essay

Explain how Harper Lee’s novel TKM uses literary elements to show what causes Jem to discover the truth about his community.

As one grows older, they go through a time in their childhood where they realize the world isn’t as fair as they may have thought it to be. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of a noble lawyer named Atticus Finch and his young family as he attempts to defend a falsely accused black man in an important trial. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that drives Jem to evolve. In TKM, Harper Lee uses setting, plot, and characterization to show what causes Jem to discover the truth about his community. The first literary element Harper Lee uses to show Jem’s realization is setting. TKM takes place in the south during the 1930’s. Since these were the years of the Great Depression, poverty and unemployment were widespread throughout the United States. In Chapter 1, Scout said, “People moved slowly then… A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was no where to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with…”, describing the effect that the Depression had on Maycomb. The southern states during this time period were a place of regular prejudice and racial discrimination against blacks. Since the story takes place in Alabama, racism was already deep-rooted into society and was accepted by most people. The combination of the time and place create a very racist environment in which Scout and Jem have to grow up in. In Chapter 2, Lee provides a context for the events to follow by introducing some of the citizens of Maycomb on Scout’s first day of school. By describing Scout’s classmates, Harper Lee reveals the culture of Maycomb. The students are portrayed as rural and uneducated, which gives the reader a description of the whites living in town. This is significant because even families like the Ewells and Cunninghams are more respected than Maycomb’s black community. Maycomb’s culture affects Jem because he is surrounded by racism all his life and he doesn’t even know it. Throughout the book, Jem experiences many events in places that lead him into discovering the truth about his community. In Chapter 12, Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church. One black woman says “ "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here – they got their church, we got our'n.” This event shows us that Maycomb has a clear split between the black and white citizens. Besides noticing how poor the church is, Jem also realizes how close they are and how much it differs from his life. The second literary element Harper Lee uses in TKM is plot. As the story unfolds and the plot thickens, Jem starts realizing the truth about his community. The main event which led to this discovery was the trial. The trial proves that racism is a huge key in the book and that at this time, justice cannot overcome this discrimination. Bob Ewell accuses Tom Robinson, a young black man, of raping his daughter, Mayella. Everyone in town knows that Tom is going to lose the trial, because like Atticus told Jem, “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man’s word always wins”. Atticus, who was defending Tom Robinson, gave evidence that contradicted everything the witnesses had said. The entire jury and everyone in court knew that Tom was innocent, but he was found guilty anyway. The outcome of the trial severely impacted Jem. In a conversation with Scout in Chapter 23, Jem says, “I think i’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all the time... it’s because he wants to stay inside”. His faith in justice and humanity was badly damaged, and he becomes frustrated with the unfair social system. An earlier example of the unfair social system was the way Boo Radley had been mistreated by the citizens of Maycomb. Since Boo Radley and his family don’t like to come out and gossip or go to church like everyone else in Maycomb, they do not fit the usual expectations the town creates for people. The town does not understand this behavior, so they make up stories to understand them. In Chapter 28 after Boo saves Scout and Jem from the Bob Ewell attack, even Scout understands that “Boo doesn’t mean anybody any harm”. Boo Radley had saved their lives and they understand that he was never a bad person. As Jem grows up and experiences more in Maycomb, he learns the truth about the people living there. While Maycomb portrays the Radleys and the entire black community as outsiders, Jem realizes that it’s the whites who are ignorant. The third literary element Harper Lee uses in TKM is characterization. During the course of the book, Jem goes from being a childish, playful boy to a more calm and composed figure. Harper Lee incorporates the theme of maturity by showing the development of Jem throughout the story. After Jem breaks the no-tattling rule, scout says, “Jem was standing in the corner of the room, looking like a traitor he was.” This statement shows that that Jem’s character is evolving during the story and he’s becoming more mature. This applies to the way he sees his community because now that he is growing up and experiencing more in Maycomb, he is going to learn the truth about the people living there. When Jem was younger, he wasn’t skeptical about Maycomb being a racist community, but as he matures he realizes all the wrong in the people there. Jem also gains a new perspective of his father, Atticus. He used to see Atticus as an old hag, “nearly blind in his left eye”. After Atticus kills the sick dog with one shot, Jems perspective starts to change. “Atticus’s hand yanked a ball tipped lever as he brought the gun to his shoulder. The rifle cracked.” Atticus is proving to this kids that he’s not a boring father, and Jem seems to respect his father more. After this, Jem is slowly beginning to transition into a reflection of Atticus. He doesn’t get into trouble anymore and becomes very responsible. After the trial Jem says, “It’s like being a caterpillar in a cocoon, that’s what it is”. Tom Robinson lost the trial only because he was black, which causes Jem to question Maycomb and its values. He compares himself to a caterpillar because all his life he was shielded from the outside world, and the outcome of the trial came as a shock to him. As Jem matured and started to take on views of an adult, he becomes exposed to the “reality” of Maycomb. The court case was his Jem’s first taste of the immoral side of Maycomb, and he realizes how cruel the world really is. “I always thought that Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world”. In Harper Lee’s TKM novel, Jem experiences many events in Maycomb which make him realize the truth about his community. As he matures and changes throughout the story, he notices that his Maycomb is not the place he thought it was. Jem comes to a mental realization about society in the 1930’s and that the world could be entirely different than what you thought it would be.