Transformation of Humanity: Prejudice, Innocence, and Morality in To Kill A Mockingbird
Society has evolved fifty-four years since Harper Lee published, To Kill a Mockingbird, yet the novel reverberates throughout society today because it keenly accentuates the coexistence between good and evil through prejudice, innocence, and morality. Prejudice displays the cruel oppressive nature of humans and emerges as a major theme throughout the Tom Robinson trial, the controversial epicenter of the novel. Unfortunately, Jem and Scout experience the grotesque nature of southern society when racism runs rampant in the depths of the African American community, which establishes racism as a polarizing civil justice issue during the 1930s, coinciding …show more content…
Prejudice intertwines with the concept of evil while innocence displays the good in society in its purest form. The benevolent nature of society exposes itself through Jem and Scout’s youth and the superstitious age at which “children are children” along with the good deeds of metaphorical mockingbirds (Lee 202). Characters such as Tom Robinson, an alleged rapists in a highly contentious rape trial, and Boo Radley, a community recluse, indirectly assist in the good deeds of others. In today’s society, mockingbirds are continuously berated and destroyed by evil, but Mockingbird explicates that killing mockingbirds is wrong because without them, society does not prosper or advance on any moral level. The innocence and good nature of these mockingbirds is what allows society to continue like it does; the drive for true humanity balances out the evil from the oppressors of …show more content…
From the title, to Atticus telling Scout that “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”, this stands as a single moral (Lee 98). The harsh treatment in the south goes as far to give blacks “different Bibles on which to swear in the courtroom,” despite their mutually shared faith; the prejudice whites of the south manage to alienate blacks which ironically goes against key principles, such as love and acceptance, within the same faith in which both groups believe (Overview 1). There is no plausible way for blacks to be equal to their counterparts if the cultural norms of the south forbid blacks from being seen as less equal in the eyes of the God. Calpurnia gives Scout a “sting smack” to get her point across and Cal only does this because she wants the best for Scout and Jem; to teach Scout that the Finch’s are above no one, but rather levels of social hierarchy are a human created diversion away from truth (Lee 59). This lesson is essential today because it identifies the idea of social inequality and Calpurnia addresses that there is no social divide between anyone. Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’s sister, is a polar opposite of Calpurnia because she believes that there is a divide socially between the Finch’s and Cunningham’s; she subsequently conforms to a stereotype of social inequality. There may be a
Society has evolved fifty-four years since Harper Lee published, To Kill a Mockingbird, yet the novel reverberates throughout society today because it keenly accentuates the coexistence between good and evil through prejudice, innocence, and morality. Prejudice displays the cruel oppressive nature of humans and emerges as a major theme throughout the Tom Robinson trial, the controversial epicenter of the novel. Unfortunately, Jem and Scout experience the grotesque nature of southern society when racism runs rampant in the depths of the African American community, which establishes racism as a polarizing civil justice issue during the 1930s, coinciding …show more content…
Prejudice intertwines with the concept of evil while innocence displays the good in society in its purest form. The benevolent nature of society exposes itself through Jem and Scout’s youth and the superstitious age at which “children are children” along with the good deeds of metaphorical mockingbirds (Lee 202). Characters such as Tom Robinson, an alleged rapists in a highly contentious rape trial, and Boo Radley, a community recluse, indirectly assist in the good deeds of others. In today’s society, mockingbirds are continuously berated and destroyed by evil, but Mockingbird explicates that killing mockingbirds is wrong because without them, society does not prosper or advance on any moral level. The innocence and good nature of these mockingbirds is what allows society to continue like it does; the drive for true humanity balances out the evil from the oppressors of …show more content…
From the title, to Atticus telling Scout that “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird”, this stands as a single moral (Lee 98). The harsh treatment in the south goes as far to give blacks “different Bibles on which to swear in the courtroom,” despite their mutually shared faith; the prejudice whites of the south manage to alienate blacks which ironically goes against key principles, such as love and acceptance, within the same faith in which both groups believe (Overview 1). There is no plausible way for blacks to be equal to their counterparts if the cultural norms of the south forbid blacks from being seen as less equal in the eyes of the God. Calpurnia gives Scout a “sting smack” to get her point across and Cal only does this because she wants the best for Scout and Jem; to teach Scout that the Finch’s are above no one, but rather levels of social hierarchy are a human created diversion away from truth (Lee 59). This lesson is essential today because it identifies the idea of social inequality and Calpurnia addresses that there is no social divide between anyone. Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’s sister, is a polar opposite of Calpurnia because she believes that there is a divide socially between the Finch’s and Cunningham’s; she subsequently conforms to a stereotype of social inequality. There may be a