Comparison Between 'To Kill A Mockingbird And The Reader'

Both “The Reader” and “To kill a Mockingbird” argue that morality is difficult to define

In Schlink’s novel, “The Reader”, and Mulligan’s movie, “To kill a Mockingbird”, the values and “moral issues” of the society predispose the outcome of the trial. Both Schlink and Mulligan “call into serious question” the idea of justice as something “enacted by society”, because their lack of “understanding” of a person’s “circumstances” makes it easier to “condemn” them.

Schlink purposefully starts his novel with Michael’s illness to suggest the disease and guilt of society. Set in post-World War two Germany, the society’s moral set had “generational conflict”, with the younger generation confused about the guilt or innocence of the generation that

There is an inability for anyone to answer her question, everyone looking towards the judge, “who seemed to know everything”, to “enlighten” them with the correct response. This shows that the people who came to lie blame on Hanna and those like her were not only questioning the morals of the “accuse[d]”, but were unsure of their own. In a society where justice is absolute, morality is difficult to define. In contrast, the world created by Mulligan in “To kill a mockingbird” is defined by the “belief” that all African Americans are like “wild dogs”, the only way to control them is to put them down. For this reason, Atticus is the only white man in society who saw “niggers” as “mockingbirds”, and it would “be a sin to kill” or distance themselves from them, as if they were “out of [the white’s] world”. When Tom is killed on his way to prison society, the white society id glad that there is one less “mad dog”, apart from Atticus, who believes a “sin” has been “committed”. Even though the societal values were set in the ways of the Maycomb county people and it was assumed that

Although Hanna is guilty of being an SS Guard and not “unlocking the door” of a “burning church”, she “is guilty, but not as guilty is it appeared” due to her presumed “inability to neither read nor write”. She does not tell the court, however, of her illiteracy because she “would rather be found a criminal than illiterate”, living her life as if it was not her [own], but someone else’s”. The addition of Hanna’s summer affair with Michael and describing how she past her time in prison shows her softer, compassionate side. Schlink uses this to suggest that maybe Hanna really did just “want to make their last month’s bearable”. He argues that “understanding” Hanna’s story and gaining perspective helps to define her fundamental rule set. Although in Schlink’s novel there is a lack of characters who are the most moral, Mulligan has the protagonist of Atticus, is a revered character in Mulligan’s movie. His ability to empathize for others and “climb inside [their] skin” is so strong that it drives him to defend an African American, unheard of for the time. He passes his ability of perspective onto Scout, which she in turn uses to help her understand Boo Radley and the Cunninghams. Mulligan creates societies perspective of Boo Radley by using suspenseful music and a large, “monster” like shadow. Scout’s perceptions of Radley change from a crazed, deranged man who murdered his father