Southern Literary Messenger

Traditional southern gothic writing uses grotesque and disturbing events to create a specific tone and atmosphere within the writing. “A Rose for Emily” is a short story written by William Faulkner. Faulkner’s story is told by an entire community within a town and narrates the development of a mentally-ill woman named Emily Grierson. The reader is shown the downfall of this woman and eventually the dark secrets that she bears inside the house that her father left her after his death. This…

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird contains a title that is very relevant to the plot of the story. The mockingbird is used as a symbol of innocence, and the “killing” of it represents characters like Scout, Jem, and Boo Radley losing their innocence. The story, as told through the eyes of Scout, shows her journey from an innocent six year old to a nine year old who no longer sees the world in such a pure way. This loss of childhood shows clearly how the title relates to the storyline. Similarly…

In situations of injustice, do you stand on the side of justice or on the side of the oppressor? This is a question that many people had to ask themselves in the south during the 1930’s and The Great Depression. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, an ambitious lawyer and single father to his two children, Jeremy “Jem” and Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, most definitely stands on the side of equality and expresses this through his words and actions. Even though Atticus is a non…

The political cartoon, “Little Goldilocks Riding Hood,” was drawn for the American public by the US cartoonist's Herb Block in 1939. The message of this cartoon denotes a small grill labeled as Poland and that is confronted by two fairy tale predators. The undertone of the cartoon is that the little girl is vulnerable and weak and is about to be eaten by two predators. Essentially meaning that Poland is in danger. The cartoon also includes the words “Nazi Germany” on the wolf’s pillow who also…

but everyone ignored it up until Harper Lee said something by writing a book. Continuing, the author of an article says "To Kill a Mockingbird" gave an accurate depiction of life in the South. It dared to speak the truth about the immorality of Southern society” (Sutton). Nowadays, people recognize that the things spoken about the South in “To Kill a Mockingbird” were true. However, people weren’t always aware of or didn’t care about the hateful events taking place in the South 50 years ago.…

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, is a novel about a family consisting of Scout, her older brother Jem, and her father Atticus. It takes place in Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Tensions rise in Maycomb due to all of the segregation that takes place between the blacks and whites. The Finch family, which is white, is put to shame when Atticus defends a black man in court. Throughout history, racism has gotten better overall since the Civil Rights Movement of the1960’s, but racial…

Someone once stated, “Courage is the ability to do something difficult even when there’s a risk.” Courage plays a large role in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the novel, courage was seen through the characters Jem Finch, Scout Finch, Boo Radley, and Atticus Finch. These characters all demonstrate excessive ideas of courage as the novel goes on. Through the characters minds there is fear involved, but was overcome by their courageous actions. To begin with, Jem and…

In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there were many instances of discrimination, court trials and lots of judgement. It didn’t matter if you were the nicest person in the town, there was always someone talking about you in Maycomb and judging you. A character that rarely ever made himself known got most of the judgement. He was a recluse everyone said and they feared him. No one in the town knew him well enough, but still told their children to be careful and to not go near his property. Boo…

In Southern California there is a period commonly in the fall that produced winds that are known as the Santa Ana Winds.because This wind comes from the desert and then travel around the Southern California area. The Santa Ana Winds are known for being hot and extremely powerful. Due to the conditions of these winds they bring destruction to the areas that they affect. In the passages “The Santa Ana” By Joan Didion and “Brush Fire” by Linda Thomas real life experience of the Santa Ana are…

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the greatest novels of all time, and the biggest reason for that is the character of Atticus Finch, a warrior of integrity. Integrity is one of the most prevalent themes, the idea of sticking to your morales, regardless of how many disagree. Despite most of the town turning against him for defending a black man, Atticus abides by his conscience and insists on doing what he believes is right, even if that means doing it alone. When Scout refuses to go to school,…