To Kill A Mockingbird Themes

Forty million is an unfathomably large number. Forty million also happens to be the approximate number of copies of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird sold since its release. This novel contains fictional events with parallels to real life in order to draw readers into it and make them care. Not only is it an American classic, but it is also loved by current high school students across the nation. This novel should be kept in the IB English curriculum due to its high readability, important themes, and relevance in today’s society. To Kill A Mockingbird’s high readability assists students’ understandings of the novel and encourages them to participate in class discussions. The novel is written mostly in modern English, but saying that the words that Lee uses are simple would almost be an insult to her. Lee uses language that is easy to understand in order to convey complex themes, but this act does not diminish the novel’s literary quality. Lee spells some words phonetically in order to highlight different dialects, such as Calpurnia’s colloquialisms. However, there are very few of those instances and it is not difficult to understand …show more content…
These themes are especially relevant to students’ lives at the time that the novel is read in class. Empathy is displayed when Atticus Finch encourages his children to deeply consider the emotions of others and when he defends Tom Robinson in court despite the color of his skin. Coming of age is shown through Jem Finch’s increase in maturity throughout the novel and his loss of innocence during the Tom Robinson trial. When a student is caught up in a never ending cycle of due dates and tests to study for, it is often easy to forget to be empathetic and consider one’s own coming of age. To Kill A Mockingbird reminds students to consider the emotions of both others and themselves at a time when it is most