Examples Of Assumptions In To Kill A Mockingbird

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are many valuable lessons to learn about making assumptions. Assumptions occur many times throughout this book from many different people. Assumptions are claims made about something or someone that have no proof. One major assumption in this novel is about Arthur “Boo” Radley. Scout explains, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of

She doesn’t like wearing fancy dresses and being ladylike. Harper Lee chose to show that these girls are examples of different ladies that are not like everyone else, and that is okay. People can be who they want to be, and others cannot assume that people will act and live the same as everyone else. That is not wrong. One more assumption that is made in this novel is that African Americans are to be treated as less than white men. Tom Robinson, for example, is proved guilty in his trial for being accused of raping Mayella Ewell just because he is a black man, even though the evidence clearly shows that he is innocent. In Atticus’s closing summation, he says, “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. (204)” This quote is saying that black men themselves are not a problem, but that it is the whole human race that should not be trusted. Black men are just as human as white men and should be treated equally. A song that describes the theme in this book is “People are People” by Depeche