To Kill a Mockingbird Analytical Essay

There are many themes in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Deceptive appearances are one of them and that is what I will prove. People like, Dolphus Raymond, Lafayette Dubose, and Boo Radley. These characters may be portrayed as drunks, mean old spirited, or psycho, but that may not be what they truly are. Deceptive appearances are presented plenty of times; they are usually people who want to be different from the population without being judged. In chapter twenty, one appearance of deceptive appearances appears when Dolphus Raymond comes into the picture. “’ You mean all you drink in that sack’s Coca-Cola? Just plain Coca-Cola (Lee 200)?’” is what Scout says to Mr. Raymond. Dolphus Raymond, to the county folks, is a drunk, when he pretends to be drunk. In the story, Mr. Raymond says,”’ I try to give ‘em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason. When I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey-that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does (Lee 200).’” Even though he may appear drunk to everyone, he is actually only lying so people think that he has a reason to be like what he is and make assumptions like “ He’s in the clutches of whiskey and he has no choice. Another appearance is chapter eleven when Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose is assumed to be a really mean old lady. “If she was on the porch when we passed, we would be raked by her wrathful gaze, subjected to ruthless interrogation regarding our behavior, and given a melancholy prediction on what we would amount to when we grew up, which was always nothing (Lee 99),” in which provides that she was a mean old lady that criticizes all that the children do. Near the end of the chapter, we find that she was actually a morphine addict trying to leave the world without anything holding her back. The quotes,”’ Mrs. Dubose was a morphine addict,’ said Atticus (Lee 111).” And “’ she said she was going to leave this world beholden to nothing and nobody. Jem, when you’re sick as she was, it’s all right to take anything to make it easier, but it wasn’t all right for her. She said she meant to break herself of it before she died and that’s what she did (lee 111),’” gives hard evidence on that. Finally, there’s Boo Radley, in which the children all believe that Boo Radley is a psycho and crazy man, but in the end, they find out he’s just an innocent man trying to protect the Jem and Scout Finch from harm’s way. “’ Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it Lee 276),”’ and “Atticus put his face in my hair and rubbed it. When he got up and walked across the porch into the shadows, his youthful step had returned. Before he went inside the house, he stopped in front of Boo Radley. ‘Thank you for my children, Arthur,’ he said (lee 276),” shows that Boo Radley is actually an innocent and unselfish person who cares about the Finch’s children. I may not seem like it but then again, appearances may not be what it seems. In conclusion, “deceptive appearances” is a theme of To Kill a Mockingbird. Although deceptive appearances show up many times in the story, they are people in the population who want to be different but don’t say anything. Dolphus Raymond who acts like a drunk to keep people from saying bad things about his own ways, Mrs. Dubose with her morphine addiction when she’s trying to be tough and tries to kick the stuff, and Boo Radley with rumors saying that he stalks people and eats squirrels when actually, he’s trying to be helpful to Jem and Jean while being mysteriously discreet. In the end things aren’t always what they seem the way people see thing and it may surprise you.