The Protestant Reformation became so widespread across Europe primarily because of the printing press. Martin Luther was able to spread his ideas for change so quickly because the printing press made books cheaper and more available to the public. Books have been a method for seeking reforms in society for ages. Harper Lee uses her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, to plead for change in the unjust way people treat others. This story, narrated by Scout Finch, takes the reader to a small town in Alabama, Maycomb County, during the 1930s, where Scout shares some memories and experiences from her childhood. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee advocates for change in her society’s cruel attitudes and traditions toward people with darker skin using the perspective of a child and her father’s unchanging morals.
Harper Lee …show more content…
Atticus acts in a way he believes is right and does not change to accommodate the situation. He also admits that if he fails to do what he sees as right, he could not live with himself. Lee uses the simple and unchanging morals of Atticus to display the wickedness in their community from racism. Atticus states, “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I don't pretend to understand.”(Lee 117)
Altogether, Harper Lee and her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, uses Scout and Atticus to cause readers to examine their own lives, deciding whether they have the same troubling attitudes and traditions as that of Maycomb County. Lee convinces readers to beware of having hate towards another person. She also shows through Scout how one could examine themselves and look at the way they treat their fellow people, asking, “What does not add up,” about the way they act. Lastly, she displays Atticus as an example of how to preserve a strong foundation, not easily bent or