Atticus Finch Alienation Quotes

Would you rather do the right thing and be alienated by your community for being different or do what everyone tells you to do and regret it for the rest of your life. In Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a story about coming of age and the loss of innocence, we dive into the mind of a young woman by the name of Scout Finch. Scout is different from the people of her small town of Maycomb, located in the state of Alabama in the two decades following the First World War. Scout is a oddity in the town, as well as the era in general, with a mind that chooses to see what others in the town choose to turn their eyes away from. In the story we follow the three main themes of naivety, hypocrisy and alienation. The themes are so apparent because

An excellent example of alienation in the book is the meeting after the trial of Tom Robinson, by the women in Alexandra Finch’s meeting. They start talking about some people that defended Tom, namely, Atticus Finch, all while being in his house as guests. "His food doesn't stick going down, does it?" (ch 24,pg 307). This shows how alienated Atticus is in the town for defending Tom, to the point where women he has known all his life are talking of him choking on his food, in front of his children, in his own house.However, alienation is truly a theme with the case of the wealthy, white, Dill, In one chapter, Dill runs away from home and sneaks on a train to get to Maycomb,due to the fact that his parents do not interact with him, making him sad and alone. “The thing is, what I’m tryin‘ to say is—they do get on a lot better without me, I can’t help them any. They ain’t mean. They buy me everything I want, but it’s now—you’ve got it go play with it”(Lee 54).Dill is a young boy that visits Maycomb every summer. He is friends with Jem and Scout, and shares their great fascination with Boo Radley. He starts facing alienation when he’s mother gets a new husband and marries, his father doesn't really understand him; for that reason he always feels lonely and unneeded, thus, alienation is a theme that transcends race or class, as the other two

The children show their naivety all throughout the story giving the reader a taste of childhood simplicity throughout naivety. Scout is one of the main characters of the story. at the beginning of the story she is 6 years old. In this sense, Scout acts her age, her immensely naive age. For example, she asked her father, Atticus, the following question: ”Atticus... what exactly is a ni**er lover”(Lee 112). From her age and the way she asked the question, it is clear that she had no malicious intentions behind the question and was merely a curious child. Another instance of Scout’s naivety is when she broke up the group of men in front of the prison about to lynch Tom Robinson. Scout, not knowing what the men were planning, openly calls out one particular man, shaming the entire crowd back. “The men were all looking at me, some had their mouths half-open.” (Lee 143). Scout’s honest confusion over the events of the night are what allows for the trial to commence, and truly expose to Scout what injustices Maycomb is perpetrating. Another instance of naivety in the book is when Dill and Scout talks about where babies come from, they say things that would sound ridiculous to an adult. They argue “There was a man... who had a boat that rowed across to a foggy island where all these babies were: you could order one-- But Scout knows better. "That's a lie. Aunty said God drops 'em down the