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Isolation In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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The United States of America claims in its constitution that all men are created equal, but for three and a half centuries that was not the case. In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee places the reader in Maycomb, Alabama 1963. Lee places us in the eyes of A eight year old girl named Jean Louise Finch, Scout, living during the Great Depression and this time of prejudice. She lives with her father Atticus, her maid Calpurnia, and her older brother Jem. While Scout refuses to become the ideal southern lady she also learns the dark realization in her hometown of Maycomb that people are racist. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee powerfully analyzes the theme of isolation and it causes through the stories of several unusual characters. …show more content…

Jem and Scout meet a new kid named Dill who is from Mississippi, but is staying with his aunt for the summer. After getting to know him a little Jem mentally examines him. Lee writes “Dill was a curiosity. He wore blue linen shorts that buttoned to his shirt, his hair was Snow White and stuck to his head like duckfluff; he was a year my senior but I towered over him” (9). With Jem's initial observation of Dill he seems him as a curiosity. Dill seems like an albino, for his hair is Snow White. With this unique look Dill can not fit into any crowd, for he is isolated appearance wise. A second way Lee uses isolation through unusual characters is when Dill runs away from his home in Mississippi and goes to the finch's house. In the novel Scout feels something that's under her bed so she fetches Jem to find out what's under there, but it's Dill. Obviously Jem and Scout are confused so Dill explains to Jem and Scout that his father who wants nothing to do with him so he locked and chained up dill in the basement. Lee writes “. . .having bound in chains and left to die in the basement (there were basements in meridian) by his father, who disliked him, and secretly kept alive on raw field peas. . .” (186). This explanation helps further prove the idea of isolation because Dills parents don't even want him. It is unsure if this is what actually happened, but it is …show more content…

At the trial for Tom Robinson's life the third person to be questioned is Mayella Ewell, the rape victim and Bob Ewell's daughter. While Atticus questions her he refers to her as ma’am and miss Mayella she gets offended, for she thinks that Atticus is mocking her. Mayella says “long’s he keeps callin’ me ma’am an sayin’ miss Mayella. I don't haft a take this sass, I ain't called upon to take it” (Lee 243). The way Mayella reacts to Atticus addressing her with respect shows that no one treats her in that manner. The reader further learns that Mayella has lived a recluse life, for she is different compared to the rest of her family. A second way Lee expresses isolation through unusual characters is when Tom Robinson is testifying and he said how he felt sorry for Mayella. After Mayella leaves the stand in a tearful episode Atticus brings up his defendant, Tom Robinson, so he can't get questioned. Toms claim is different from the others, for he says he didn't touch Mayella but she touched him. Tom says “. . .when the next thing I knows she-she'd grabbed me round the legs. . .” (Lee 259). Tom explains that Mayella hugged Tom around the legs while he was on the chair. In this society it was taboo for a white woman/man to have any attraction towards a person of color. Mayella is so low on the social scale that she can't even get affection from a person of color. Mayella has

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From Scout’s narration, readers can tell Dill is very curious and imaginative, when Scout describes him to be inquisitive in the Radleys; “The more we told Dill about the Radleys, the more he wanted to know, the longer he would stand hugging the light-pole on the corner, the more he would wonder.” (13) Lee introduces Dill as a creative and intelligent child, who is still mostly innocent to the world. Jem is also a symbol of innocence in chapter one. When Jem blindly believes Stephanie Crawfords exaggerations of Boo Radley, it shows how naive and trusting he is, and that he hasn’t been epxosed to much lies in the world. Jem is also prideful, which shows when he finally decied to touch the Radley house only when Scout “sneered at him.”

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Dills empathy matures as he faces all the injustices in the book. Dills curiosity overrides his thoughts in the beginning of the book. Jem, Scout, and Dill all want to see Arthur Radley on their next door neighbor. Arthur stabbed his father in the leg and was place in the courthouse basement. The sheriff told Mr. Radley that Arthur would die in the basement from all the mold and asbestos.

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Dill stood behind as Jem took the role of the risk taker. After Jem touched the Radley house they darted away. Jem helped the others escape but when he tried he lost his pants. During this time Dill I infer probably was filled with adrenaline as his young imagination is thinking of different scenarios where Boo or somebody was chasing them influencing them to run in the opposite way of the Radley house. As, Dill is faced with racial and social class issues during his lifetime it affects his view and perspective on life and the cruel era of the Great Depression and racial inequalities.

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Everybody wants power. People with no power want to obtain it, and people with a lot of power want to keep it. In Harper Lees book To Kill A Mockingbird power means to consider the amount of control a person has over his or hers own life as well as the lives of others. The novel is set in a fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. This novel is mainly focused on the rape trail, between, Tom Robinson, a black man, and Mayella Ewell, a white woman.

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Ewell takes a stand to defend Mayella in the courtroom when Atticus starts to realize that Mr. Ewell could’ve been guilty for Mayella’s rape. Atticus tries to prove that Mr. Ewell is guilty by intentionally asking Mayella questions, but Mayella refuses to prove that Mr. Ewell is guilty and responds to this saying “I got somethin’ to say an’ then I ain’t gonna say no more. That nigger yonder took advantage of me.. “ (Lee 251). This quote symbolizes the judgement that Mayella made on Tom Robinson to prove that he’s guilty.

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In the South Atlantic Ocean, Tristan da Cunha is the most remote archipelago on Earth. In fact, it’s so isolated that one of its island is literally called “Inaccessible Island.” Over 1 000 miles away from any signs of human life, it’s the place to go if you want to become isolated from society, or just people in general. That is, if the island didn’t have a town on it.

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Race has always been a part of history, from slavery to MLK, to Barack Obama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee defines race in the south during the 1930’s. Jean “Scout” Finch, is the narrator of the story. Her brother Jeremy “Jem” and her dad, Atticus, are both main characters. Calpurnia is their house cook and helper, she is also black.

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Option 2 Literary Analysis To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being

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In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee which takes place in Maycomb Alabama, where there is a lot of racial discrimination. But there is also some gender, and religious, discrimination.

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1317 Words | 6 Pages

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The author Lee demonstrates some major themes such as social inequality, intolerance, education, legal justice and bravery through this character. The title To Kill a Mockingbird symbolises innocence where Lee explores this through the eyes of Jem and Scout who are kids of Atticus Finch. He is one of the most honest, patient, kind, fair, respected and admired men in Maycomb during the Great Depression. Atticus is known for his moral character throughout the book.

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"(Lee, Pg 15) That is the beginning of Dill 's curiosity. When Dill found Jem and Scout he didn’t feel rejected.

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Dill’s character brings out the playful innocence by his exaggerations and stories. “Dill recited this narrative” (Lee 186) about him being “bound in chains and left to die” (Lee 186) by his hateful stepfather. Because of this, he ran away to Maycomb and hid under Scout’s bed before being discovered. In actuality, he believed that his parents neglected him and he was upset. Being at the age of about seven, Dill had to have got on a train and walked many miles to reach his destination.

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Many people in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper lee, isolate themselves. Sometimes Isolation turns out fine for them, but other time is can hurt them in the inside and make them feel lonely and sad. Mr. Raymond is a huge outsider in town and almost everyone takes pity on him and say it’s not his fault he's a drunk. The whole town thinks he's evil because he has a mixed colored child, in Maycomb you can only be white and be accepted.

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1244 Words | 5 Pages

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.

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In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.

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