Theme Of Evil In To Kill A Mockingbird

Improved Essays
To Kill A Mockingbird A mockingbird is a type of bird that does nothing except sing and be it; it does no harm to others. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird to kill a mockingbird would be destroying innocence with the forces of evil. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama during the depths of the Great Depression. This was also a time of great racial segregation in the South. Atticus Finch, the town’s most notable lawyer, is called upon to defend Tom Robinson, a black man unfairly accused of raping a white man’s daughter. At the trial, an all-white jury convicted him, even though he was innocent. There is also a spice named dill and a man by the name of Boo “Arthur” Radley, which whom is a guardian …show more content…
Him being there is not that important to the plot and how the story plays out, but he add a “spice” of happiness, playfulness, and imagination, and a lost of innocents in the book. Dill a lot of people think is just this unimportant character that just comes from is family and spends his time during the summer at his aunt 's house. But Dill is also a mockingbird because in the beginning of the book when he starts talking about himself, he started talking about how his father has been divorced many times and that has put an effect on Dill. Dill is can also be seen as a mockingbird because he is child and children are “color bind” when they are little. Color bind is when you do not see certain colors. “Color blindness” in little is when they do not notice racism and physical differences and other differences. Dill is “color blind” in till the court trial. Dill is color blind you can tell because at the court case in the middle he begins to cry and feel bad and not understand why Tom is not found incent and after a particularly cruel cross-examination by Mr. Gilmer. Dill after the court case has lost his innocents after witnessing what have happened. No Dill is no longer “color-blind” and because of that has lost his innocents. Dill is a mockingbird bird because his lost of innocents in the …show more content…
In the book Boo was accused of many things like mutilating animals or eating them raw nor did he poison pecans. Boo is a kind person that is just very shy. Boo is a mockingbird because he was accused of these very horrible things and there were stories that were made up about him when in end they were all false. What he is really doing is trying to be friends with Jem and Scout. He does this by first, after Jem runs away after hearing a shot gun shot his pants get stuck on the fence and get ripped and when he goes back for them they are nicely sewn back together and folded around the fence for him. Also when the house was burning down and scout was cold he put a blanket around her shoulder for her. He also put gifts and presents in a trees knot, which was filled up by Boo father. In the end, he saved the children’s lives for the drunk and murderous man Bob Ewell. After he saved Jem and Scouts lives officer Heck Tate wanted to keep it a secret that it was Boo that really killed Bob Ewell and say that Bob fell on his own knife. This is important because it is showing that Heck Tate is trying to save a mockingbird and not kill one because Boo all he wants to do is to be left alone and not to be known because he is very shy. In a way if Heck Tate told everyone who actually killed Bob than he would be killing a

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Boo, who was viewed by Scout like a ghost who creeps on people at night, saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell who give him nothing in return. Scout said " I was beginning to learn his body language. His hand tightened on mine and he indicated that he wanted to leave" (372) This quote reveals to us that Scout is starting to understand how Boo is and why he is so shy since she has experienced how he really is instead of a biased perception of him (before this incident, she wouldn’t even let him put a blanket onto her). She is now learning not to "judge a book by its cover." After Scout walks Boo Radley home she said "One time he said you never know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The action of killing a mockingbird embodies the idea of ones’s innocence being compromised and succumbing to evil. To kill a mockingbird is not only a sin, but also when referring to a person it symbolizes their loss of innocence which is shown in the novel by Harper Lee. This symbol demonstrates the theme of one’s purity being lost due to the exposure of evil such as injustice and prejudice. Mockingbirds are friendly, harmless birds, when killing one someone has harmed something that was innocent. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the mockingbird can be Tom Robinson and Scout.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Them, and their friend Dill, start to witness evil acts of others, such as when Tom Robinson was unjustly convicted of raping Mayella Ewell just because of his racial background. Through the court case, both Jem and Tom Robinson are affected, as they do not know the true evil of racism. Tom Robinson was put in jail and killed, and Jem lost his faith in law and humanity because Tom was unjustly convicted. Dill, Scout and Jem therefore suffer consequences because of their ignorance and the lack of the understanding of the world through an adult perspective. Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout’s father, helps them to understand the evilness in people, as well as acknowledge the capacity for…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A crippled black man named Tom accused of raping a white girl in 1930s Alabama town: Maycomb, and a creepy, mysterious man, Boo, that saves two children from the clutches of a drunken man: these men are the mockingbirds of Maycomb County. Mockingbirds are known to be likable animals that do not build nests or deface property; they only sing for everyone to hear. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, harmless characters are symbolized with a common songbird. This is demonstrated through Boo Radley and Tom Robinson.…

    • 642 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Dill is a mockingbird as, despite only ever wanting a caring family, he is made to feel abandoned. He expresses the impact of this feeling in his decision to run away from, what he describes as, a neglectful home. Stating that he left because he feels as if his parents “[don’t] want" or need "[him]” as they never spend time with him. In making him feel so “[unwanted]”, his parents, the very people meant to protect him, lead him to question his self-worth. That is, they make him question whether it is his fault that "they sta[y] gone”, or away from him, all the time".…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 1960, author Harper Lee released a book that would become a literature icon for years to come. To Kill a Mocking Bird is a story of racial discrimination, justice, rape, and loyalty, all set in the wonderful backdrop of little southern town called Maycomb. Central to the story, Atticus Finch, an attorney, agreed to defend a colored man accused of raping a teenage girl. Throughout the book, Atticus is subject to peer pressure, public rejection, and the inquisitive young minds of his two children Jem and Scout. He has a personality that remains constant through the trials of his life.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harper Lee employs all three rhetorical categories in order to appeal to her audience. Concerning ethos, Atticus points out how Mr. Heck Tate never called a doctor to the scene. The author emphasizes the suspicious nature of this through Atticus’ dialogue, with continuous questioning directed towards Tate. American society typically views doctors with a significant level of trust. Therefore, this persuades the reader to agree with Atticus how Tate made a mistake by neglecting to call a doctor (whose title comes with a sense of public credibility), which likely could helped her greatly with treating the alleged serious injuries sustained.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rejected and hated by his “family”, Dill has lived a harsh life due to injustices in his life. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout, and Dill are all affected by injustice in several different ways. Tom Robinson is an African-American man who stands accused of rape and Atticus Finch decides to be his lawyer. Though Atticus defends Tom Robinson the best he can and creates valid evidence, TR is convicted and sent to jail. “No sir, they oughta do away with juries.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tom is an honest man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Even though Tom is a colored man, he pities Mayella, who is White. He frequently helps her with chores around her house knowing her father is abusive and drunk, however on the witness stand he makes the mistake of saying he feel sorry for her. He quickly realizes what he said wrong, knowing that a Black man should be worse off than a White woman. The jury starts to shake their heads, as Tom attempts to take it back, “I don’t say she’s lyin’, Mr. Gilmer, I say she’s mistaken in her mind” (Lee 67).…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sirius Black once said, “We’ve all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That’s who we really are.” Good and evil oppose the meanings of one another. Often in this world, people describe others by either all the positive qualities or by the negative qualities, forgetting that nothing in the world is perfect or completely imperfect.…

    • 1155 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird is filled with symbolism used to display different themes. A major symbol is the mockingbird. Mockingbirds are harmless creatures that just sing and make the world a happier place. Lee uses three main characters that resemble greatly to mockingbirds to get her subtle, but imperative points across. One of these mockingbirds is forced to meet his maker, another is forced is forced to kill, and the last mockingbird’s innocence is forced to slowly die.…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What Scout learns is that not everyone is as they may seem on the outside and until getting to know that person, it is not right to judge them. In To Kill a Mockingbird Dolphus Raymond is known to always be intoxicated and an outcast since he lives with a black woman and has mulatto children. Since he lives this way everyone in Maycomb believes he is an evil man who can not change his ways and Scout believes all of this. But during the trial, when Dill and Scout had to step out because Dill was crying, it is revealed to us that Dolphus Raymond may not be evil afterall. When he overhears Dill talking how the way Mr. Gilmer was talking to Tom and how he did not like it, Mr. Raymond agrees with Dill and offers him a drink from his paper sack.…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird In to Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus says to Scout “Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it” (119). Many people can elaborate from this quote, mockingbirds can be considered a sin to kill them. All mockingbirds do is sing their hearts out for us and that it’s a sin to kill them.…

    • 538 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, there are many different themes depicted such as hypocrisy, prejudice, courage, coming of age/loss of innocence, justice, femininity, but racism is illustrated more heavily. Living in maycomb, racism is allowed; if you were not racist towards the blacks then you would be criticized by being called names such as “nigger-lover”. Atticus ignored the rest of the people in Maycomb and went out of his way to support a black man known as Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape. Racism is the key theme in the novel.…

    • 123 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee gives many life themes that all are life lessons for the reader and Scout the main character. Throughout the book many themes are shown but two that really stick out to me were compassion and courage. These themes stick out because when reading about Scout growing up we see her develop into a more compassionate and courageous person in the way she acts and presents herself. Furthermore, these themes serve great life lessons for the reader and help them grow throughout the reading of the book.…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics