Analysis Of To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Improved Essays
You don’t know someone until you take a walk in his shoes. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM), Scout Finch, the narrator, goes through many challenges to discover the meaning behind this and many other lessons. Her introduction to the real world is also aided by her father Atticus, brother Jem, and her friend Dill. Some main themes in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird are family, courage, and racial prejudice.
A main theme in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is family. The Cunningham’s are a very poor family but they don’t let their wealth determine who they are as people. They try to make the best of what they have and encourage their kids to go to school. “‘The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back’” (Lee 26). Lee uses this

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The case of Robinson who is accused by Mayella Ewell of rape and Tom is being defended by Atticus Finch a respected lawyer. In ‘’To Kill a Mockingbird’’ by Harper Lee Atticus Finch tells his speech in the court room and uses rhetorical devices to convince the people in court that Tom is not guilty. Furthermore, Finch wants the people in the court room to relize that Tom is not guilty and that we are all equal and that our skin color doesn’t matter because that doesn’t make us who we are. Atticus in his speech uses persuasive appeal to get the people in the court room’s attencion. A persuasive appeal that Atticus uses is logos to appeal to the audiences sense of reason and logic.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Atticus Finch Quotes

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages

    To kill a mocking bird To kill a mocking bird was a tragic story full of events depicting the life of people of color in the 1930’ although racism is a very alive theme in the novel it also has a under lying theme and meaning created by Harper Lee’s character,Atticus Finch,in the importants of morals and respect of all people no matter who they look or what they say. Harper lee did a amazing job setting up this theme by making Atticus a poster child for it and showing scout and jem the importants of the suguation at hand even if it goes against what the people in there class or on the streets say about it. In the novel Atticus does everything he can to show scout and jem the importants of loving other for who they really are, in chapter 11 scout first gets introduced to the discrimination towards Atticus do to the fact he’s helping Tom Robinson in court.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As Steven Pinker said, “With violence, as so with many other concerns, human nature is the problem, but human nature is also the solution.” This demonstrates how human nature can both cause a problem and fix it. Schindler’s List showed that exact message as well. Oskar Schindler wanted to use all of the Jews as workers for him because he wanted to get rich. The Jews, in Schindler 's List were being killed and tortured by the Nazis, over time Oskar Schindler changed.…

    • 1690 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    For example, Atticus says in the story, “‘Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win’" (108). Lee supports the theme of morality through diction because of the words “licked” and “try’”. Specifically, these words show that Atticus decided it was wrong not to try his…

    • 759 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Set in the 1930’s in a small Alabama town suffering from the Great Depression, To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of a young girl named Scout Finch, her brother Jem, their widowed father Atticus and their life in Maycomb county. Through many lessons taught by their father, including how to treat citizens who aren’t white in ethnicity, Jem and Scout learn the true meaning of acceptance and the difference between right and wrong. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee proves that courage can be seen in unlikely characters by portraying Atticus Finch as a man ahead of his time. This can be proved by the individual’s belief in equilibrium, his set of moral values, and his lack of prejudice.…

    • 976 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Atticus Empathy Quotes

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In To Kill a Mockingbird a lot of crazy events happen, and a lot of true human nature is revealed. Harper Lee does a great job showing good traits like empathy in a story with murder, racism, drug abuse, and injustice. The main characters of the novel are the Finch family. The Finch’s consist of the dad Atticus, the children Jem and Scout, and Calpurnia their African American cook. The novel follows their lives growing up and the hardship that comes when their father is tasked with defending a Negro in an unjust court system.…

    • 1101 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why is it a sin to kill a mockingbird? In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, a mockingbird symbolizes innocence. According to Atticus, “It is a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Pg 119). Three examples of mockingbirds are, Mayella Ewell, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The central thematic topic in To Kill a Mockingbird is courage for an extensive range of reasons that will be mentioned throughout this essay. To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was first published on July 11, 1960. Around this time America is greatly struggling with racial discrimination and equality, and in this novel, it explicitly focuses on this topic. The outstanding thematic topic in To Kill a Mockingbird is courage which is found throughout the entire novel and it is woven through each and every character, there are several influential examples of this, but I will focus on the three most significant ones which are, Atticus taking Tom’s case, Boo escaping Nathan Radley’s wrath to save Scout and Jem and Mrs. Dubose’s addiction.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird Essay “In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future.” Alex Haley. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a journey the main characters, Jem, Scout, and Atticus take in defense of a colored man named Tom Robinson. Robinson was accused of raping a white woman named Mayella. Though Atticus is a dexterous lawyer, Robinson 's skin color is a detriment to his freedom.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is written to address the horrendous issues of the 1930’s, The Great Depression, the Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. It explores a variety of themes, all of which affect the reader greatly. Its portrayal of white supremacy, injustice, and prejudice is evident in many occurrences during the novel. The way the characters react to these times of hardship, however, defines their real strength stated by Martin Luther King Jr with the quote “the ultimate measure is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. These significant themes, white supremacy, injustice, and prejudice, are reflected through the characters Scout Finch, Atticus…

    • 1088 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird is a great book showing how people can grow together. We have Scout and Jem growing up together in an innocent childhood growing into adulthood. We have Tom Robinson, an African American man who, is going to court with Atticus Finch (scouts father) and is trying to defend Tom against the harming white community. Tom Robinson was accused of rape of a white female Mayella. The raping of a white woman by a black man is similar to The Scottsboro Trial in 1933, where 9 black men were falsely accused of raping two white women.…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout my high school career I have worked on many essays. I have, over the past four years, improved in a variety of ways. I have not only improved in my English writings, but also in my social studies, science and art writings. Also, I have become more efficient in my grammatical and my structural skills as well. Throughout high school I have improved my writing through class warmups to standardized tests.…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Imagine a wagon with wooden wheels, helping a family move across a valley. The wheels have to endure all of the bumps, rocks, mud, and water, yet a family will not move anywhere unless the wheels are on the wagon. This is similar to the idea of empathy that Harper Lee is trying to emphasize through Atticus. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she keeps proving through Atticus that even though being truly empathetic toward someone less fortunate than you may bring them down in society, standing up for one another could also make a whole society respect one another.…

    • 620 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Family in To Kill a Mockingbird “Family is not an important thing, it’s everything,” stated Michael J. Fox. Family is a meaningful theme in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which is written by Harper Lee. The main characters are Scout, Jem, and Atticus, their father. The setting takes place in a small town called Maycomb County in Alabama. Scout and Jem have to deal with the problems that occur because of Atticus’s trial.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The novel To Kill a Mockingbird contains many different literary devices that the author, Harper Lee, portrays throughout the book. The most abundant of the literary devices is the author’s use of theme. Some themes are more thoroughly extended upon and made detectable by Harper Lee. Although some examples of theme throughout the novel are very subtle, the ones described in this paper are the most easily detected and have the most accounts in the novel. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird the themes of prejudice, ignorance, and courage are frequently introduced and expanded upon through characters and situations alike.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays