Examples Of Conflicts In To Kill A Mockingbird

Why do conflicts happen anywhere? Misunderstanding and intolerance are the root of many, if not all, conflicts among humans. This can be seen in examples from everyday arguments to global conflicts throughout history, so why are we still unable to understand each other? In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee illustrates throughout the book the idea that human conflict comes from the inability to understand another, suggesting that this concept is the prevalent theme of the novel. This is supported through conflictual situations developing tension amongst the characters, as Lee describes arguments and tension between Scout and Jem sprouting from misunderstanding and the lack of empathetic behavior. This can be seen as the situations and

Lee begins to develop this theme in the first couple chapters of the book, where Jem becomes frustrated at Scout and exclaims, “Scout, I'm tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home—I declare to the Lord you're gettin’ more like a girl everyday!” (Lee 69) In this situation, Jem was irritated with Scout for her complaints. Jem feels the need to yell at her because he does not understand how she perceives the situation, and may not have realized that she was complaining because she was struggling more than him. This only reinforces the idea that human conflict comes from the inability to understand another, and in this example the conflict comes from Jem’s inability to understand Scout’s complaints. A similar example would be when Scout explains, “Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”(Lee 55) Jem’s misunderstanding of Scout’s way of living leads to consistent conflict towards the beginning of the book, this specific example regarding Jem’s intolerance for his younger sister’s