Theme Of Death In A Separate Peace And To Kill A Mockingbird

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Through the examination of A Separate Peace by John Knowles and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee a common thread found in both novels is the element of death. Death normally is associated with the termination of a person and the anguish that comes along with their passing. A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird show how death impacts those affiliated to the person who has departed from the world. Gene (A Separate Peace) and Jem (To Kill a Mockingbird) each experienced the lost of an individual significant to them. However, although A Separate Peace and To Kill A Mockingbird feature the aspect of death, the main character of A Separate Peace, Gene, received a sense of peace from death. Whereas, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem learned a …show more content…
The woman, Mrs. Dubose, was highly outspoken and was not afraid to speak her mind. Her words to Jem were extremely rude and offensive causing him to act out. Jem destroyed the one thing Mrs. Dubose loved and tried so hard to keep nice, her garden. As a consequence, Jem was required to read to Mrs. Dubose everyday after school for a month. During Jem’s service, he was never aware that the lady was a morphine addict who went through withdrawal. Her withdrawal caused her to be quite feisty. She was a courageous woman who suffered from withdrawal as a result of not wanting to let morphine murder her. Jem’s blindness to her issue explains why he was glad for the month to be over and frustrated when Jem received a box from her since he wanted absolutely nothing to do with her.“Jem opened the box. Inside, surrounded by wads of damp cotton, was a white, waxy, perfect camellia…’Old hell devil, old hell devil!’ he screamed, flinging it down. ‘Why can’t she leave me alone?’” (128). Shortly after this incident, Jem was told of her addiction, including that she had passed away from it. He realized that not everyone lives a lavish lifestyle like him, everyone has their own struggles they deal with each and every day. Shortly after, “Jem picked up the candy box and threw it in the fire. He picked up the camellia, and when I went off to bed I saw him fingering the wide pedals” …show more content…
They leave a significant legacy that lingers and follows us around each and every day. Even though A Separate Peace and To Kill a Mockingbird inherited the element of death, characters in the novels had a different experience with the aftermath of death. The narrator of A Separate Peace, gained a sense of relaxation once his best friend was gone, on the other hand, Jem from To Kill A Mockingbird learned a valuable lesson from his neighbor’s passing and was able to become a mature adult. Therefore, the idea of what people considered death is not accurate all the time, for some death is correlated with a positive turn of

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