Examples Of Irony In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, irony is used to introduce the theme that prejudice, on any level, is a destructive force that impairs progress and corrupts the innocent. Lee expresses this when Scout, the protagonist in this story, attends the first day of first grade, and is asked to read out the alphabet. She does this perfectly, and goes on to read excerpts of My First Reader and The Mobile Register. Her teacher, Mrs. Caroline, is less than pleased upon finding out that Scout was literate, and looked upon her with “more than faint distaste” for the rest of class (Lee 22). Mrs. Caroline seeing Scout with “distaste” portrays that she has a dislike for her, which is ironic because as a school teacher, Mrs. Caroline should appreciate