“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit them, but remember it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This advice from Atticus Finch to his daughter, Scout, meant that one should not destroy innocence. The mockingbird does no harm and provides beautiful songs, so they should be protected. To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is in the perspective of a tomboyish girl nick named Scout. Her brother is Jem and they play with Dill Harris when he comes in the summer. One summer the three of them try to lure the reclusive Boo Radley to show his face even though they themselves have never seen it.…
Atticus says, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” to Jem in Chapter Ten of To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee after Uncle Jack instructs both Jem and Scout on the principles of using their air rifles. Miss Maudie also tells Scout, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing…” From both statements, the reader may infer that Atticus desires his children to treat any innocent living being, possibly humans in specific, with respect, and wrongdoings occur when behaving oppositely. As the novel and Atticus’ case with Tom Robinson progresses, the idea above may develop into the main theme as the people of Maycomb County treat Atticus, Scout, Jem, and others wrongly simply due to the racism and discrimination that occurred in a segregated atmosphere. Also, several…
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that teaches the true values of compassion and understanding. It is a story that uses the protagonists to show compassion instead of prejudice. Each antagonist in the story falls into the temptation of siding with the major party. Instead of doing the right thing, they do what is comfortable and easy. Harper Lee uses Atticus's fearlessness to inspire her readers. These important life values are values that every reader should demonstrate in their everyday…
To Kill a Mockingbird’s themes of justice, morality, and ethics are represented through the actions and beliefs of the characters Atticus, Bob Ewell, and the town of Maycomb, represented through the Missionary Society, which is controlled by the sociable white women. Justice, as in justice by law, is inherent in the novel as is justice through karma. Morality is also central to the novel; a strong sense of morality, or rather a lack of, guides the characters as the story progresses. Ethics and unethical conduct form the basis for the plotline. Harper Lee uses characters to control the events that bring conflict in To Kill a Mockingbird.…
In the book “To kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Lee talks a lot about the good and the evil that is in our world, the unfairness of people and other decisions they make. The way Lee shows that is by using the people in her book, straight from Maycomb, Alabama. She expresses the wrong choices and decisions the people make for the wrong reasons.…
Morality is the principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behaviour. Personal morality is a set of beliefs or code that an individual lives and abides by. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exploration of human morality, and presents a constant conversation concerning the goodness or evilness of people and moral education.…
A lesson taught by Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird is that you should never kill a mockingbird because they only create music and harm nothing. What Atticus meant by this is that you should never hurt an innocent person no matter the situation. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird the mockingbird symbolizes all that is innocent and all that is harmless in society. Harper Lee uses two characters to show the innocence in people and to show how this innocence is often killed: Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. The theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, that often the innocent are harmed by the wicked unjustly and intentionally, only to be saved by the brave and intelligent, who try hard to show society who these people really are is clearly articulated throughout the novel by the use of the symbolism of the mockingbird infused in the…
“It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” This quote represents the essence of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This novel casts light onto the idea of childlike innocence, sharply contrasting it with the prejudiced nature of adults. It follows the coming-of-age, or, at least, maturation of Scout. In this novel, the meaning of the opening phrase and the novel as a whole is shaped by the development of the protagonist, Scout, from a state of childlike ignorance and innocence to facing the realities of maturity--especially racism and hatred. While evidence of Scout’s maturation is found throughout the book, one event, the condemnation of Tom Robinson, is what ultimately shapes the meaning of the novel.…
Between 1692 and 1693, twenty innocent citizens’ lost their lives in one community. These people were put on trial and given the choice to plead guilty or they die trying to prove their innocence. These trials were the Salem Witch Trials. Convicting those innocent citizens can be viewed as killing a mockingbird; mockingbirds are innocent and they don’t harm anyone. This is exactly what Harper Lee showed in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee uses characters that have had innocence stripped from them and indirectly compares them to a mockingbird. The mockingbird was used as a symbol of innocence they don’t harm anyone in anyway. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses the mockingbird as a symbol of innocence to compare the corruption of society forced upon Tom Robinson, Jeremy Finch, and Arthur Radley to killing a mockingbird.…
Living in the pages of a classic novel, there is a girl named Jean Louise Finch, or rather, Scout. She is young and untainted by the world's prejudices, and she possesses a mind full of curiosity. Scout wondered about many things. She wondered why Mrs. Dubose is such a mean old hag, about why Arthur, Boo, Radley never leaves his house, and why must a girl become a lady? The question that Scout pondered most about, however, was what it means to kill a mockingbird. The character Scout and the book To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is greatly influenced by a history of repression and injustice and by a set of ideals that had once dominated most, if not all, of the country at one point or another. Three of the many events and ideas…
Imagine how hard life was for colored people back then. How one couldn’t even receive a fair trial because of someone’s color or ethnicity. How is was virtually impossible for them to receive a fair trial without people using stereotypes to structure their judgment. To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates many conflicts, one being the beating and rape of a white woman by a black man, which back then was punishable by death. With this case, a man by the name of Atticus accepts to defend the man who is accused : Tom Robinson. Atticus has to endure what the society throws at him, along with his two children : Jem and Scout. To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee reveals, by using characters and characters’ actions and choices, it is morally correct to stand up and do the right thing. Without someone pointing out what is wrong with the society, things will never change for the better.…
It is a sin to hurt the ones that only help the helpless and only do good things for the world. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a young girl named Scout Finch goes on many adventures with her older brother, Jem. They lived in Maycomb County in the mid 1930s. They deal with visits from their best friend, Dill, trouble with the town’s biggest trial and missions to get their neighbor, Boo Radley, out of his house for the first time in years. At the time, Atticus, their father, was the best lawyer in town and he had new case. He had to defend a black man that was accused of raping a white woman. His name was Tom Robinson and this trial became the talk of the town. This affected Scout and Jem greatly and created one of their longest journeys. The most important theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is the sin to kill a mockingbird. The mockingbirds in this novel are Atticus, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. They affected them gravely and were important characters in the novel.…
In Harper Lees’, To Kill A Mockingbird, the community of Maycomb County is full of varied religious perspectives. Lee uses religion as framework for everything that happens in the community with examples that are both harmonious and conflicting. In doing so, religion has both a positive and negative impact. On one hand it can be interpreted as happiness, unity and charitable goodwill. On the other, it can be seen as the cause of hatred, violence and segregation. Atticus sets the moral standard for the town of Maycomb in a positive way. He shows conviction in doing what is right in the eyes of God, and stands up for what he believes in. He explains his reasons to defend Tom Robison to Scout with a religious message saying, “This case,…
Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird is a coming of age story in which a young girl, her older brother, and their friend are exposed to the harsh realities of the 1930s. The various events that occurred over two years helped shape their moral perspectives into the ones of mature adults. With the help from their father, family cook and caretaker, and intelligent but stubborn neighbor, they come to realize that not everything is as good as it seems. The novel is titled To Kill A Mockingbird because the story teaches the valuable lesson that to mistreat someone or something that has done nothing wrong is a sin. The mockingbird is a symbol that represents innocence and true goodness that should always be protected. To kill a mockingbird is to destroy…
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, many characters are stereotyped into whom they are not, to emphasise the theme of the novel, as well as teach the audience of the moral lesson that is learned from this novel; to be a less judgemental society and to be willing to accept others of different cultures and races by creating moral education. This technique of using stereotypes gives the reader a first-hand knowledge of what it is like to be stereotyped; thus, creating the theme of the coexistence of good and evil. Throughout the novel, characters are stereotyped and the audience learns their true self as the novel goes on. These stereotyped characters are used to achieve the theme in the way Boo Radley represents how humankind is essentially good, how children view society and prejudice compared to adults, as well as the way minor characters in the novel prove that not everything is as others perceive them to be.…