ipl-logo

Historical Lens Essay On To Kill A Mockingbird

517 Words3 Pages

Harper Lee once said an author “should write about what he knows and write truthfully”(Lee). “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place in town called Maycomb, in Alabama. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression and the towns challenge to overcome racism. With the South's history of slavery, the relationship between the black and white communities has been one of Harper Lee’s have focused on regularly in her novel. Raised during the segregation era Harper Lee not only interprets the cultural/ historical lens within her life but also in her novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” she does this to give a universal message to the readers. First and foremost, Harper lee uses the cultural/ historical lens on her life to give her readers a realistic idea of this time era. For example, “Lee saw segregated and harsh cultural attitude toward African Americans” while growing up in Alabama (Harper Lee 1). Growing up with these social problems allowed Harper …show more content…

For instance in the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” it “shows how Scout and her elder brother, Jem, learn about fighting prejudice and upholding human dignity through the example of their father Atticus, who takes on the legal defense of a black man who has been falsely charged with raping a white woman” (Harper Lee 5). With the story revolving about a trial case where a colored man may be accused of sexual assault against a women based on his race shows the social status in the novel. Seven years before Harper’s birth, her father defended two colored men accused of murder. With using her own experience with her family during the segregation era Harper is able to make the cultural/ historical lens effective. After reading and understanding “To Kill a Mockingbird” one is able to tell that the white men were in first place when it came to social and political

Show More
Related
897 Words | 4 Pages

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee talks about discrimination based on gender role, age, and skin color. The characters in this book all have different personalities that influences others. Maycomb, Alabama in 1930’s is where everything happened with slavery and struggling with being poor. The characters Scout, Jem, and Dill had a strong bond and had lots of courage. Shows that justice means other things to other people.

Read More
622 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird focuses on multiple significant ideas to highlight the main ideas of the novel. One of great magnitude is explained in chapter three of the novel when author Harper Lee simplifies the importance of being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes to view each different perspective. “First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folk. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” Be understanding, realize that honest mistakes happen as in the excerpt with Scout and Walter.

Read More
797 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird is set in segregated Maycomb, Alabama, in the early to mid-1930s. The book is narrated by one of the main characters, Scout. The first half is lighthearted and takes us through her childhood and the little challenges she faces. The second half, however, follows the trial of a black man accused of a crime for which there is not enough evidence that it actually happened or that he genuinely committed. A central theme of this book is that we should empathize with people, rather than judge them for what we do not know.

Read More
548 Words | 3 Pages

Wesley Mrs Pearson English-10c 5/15/24. Historical lens The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a great description of how the social norms and expectations of the black population were in southern Alabama back in the 1930s during the Jim Crow era (which really enforced segregation). Racial conflicts happen a lot in To Kill A Mockingbird,From the perspective of the narrator Scout Finch who had to learn over time that not only are black people treated poorly but they are people too. In the novel she sees how people treated Atticus like pure garbage for even defending them.

Read More
611 Words | 3 Pages

Discrimination and prejudice was very common in the early 1900s. It was displayed throw act of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. Harper Lee addresses prejudice and tolerance in her famous novel. She shows that it takes a great deal of courage to make social change. In the Novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, She combined her civil rights ideas and her personal experiences to write her Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Read More
531 Words | 3 Pages

Harper Lee portrays the town of Maycomb, Alabama in her American Literature book, To Kill A Mockingbird, for she uses the characters in this novel to explain how her feelings about the world and the . The understanding of To Kill A Mockingbird examines society and culture of racism through the lens of Maycomb. ((((THESIS)))) To Kill A Mockingbird shows racism during different times throughout the book. This includes when Atticus was telling Scout about the nicknames of the blacks in Maycomb.

Read More
1019 Words | 5 Pages

Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.

Read More
1192 Words | 5 Pages

Mark Twain believes that people should "write what [they] know" ("A Quote.."). Some classic books tell stories the reader cannot imagine experiencing, but the book allows the reader to get an inside perspective to make the book seem like a memory of their own, such as David Copperfield, Of Mice and Men, On The Road, and The Diary of a Young Girl. Classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird tell stories of prejudice that most cannot imagine happening in today's society. Yet, if Mark Twain's advice holds true, then the author of To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee - should have told the story through what she already knew (and that is exactly what she did). Harper Lee wrote her novel with the specific setting and conflicts because of what she has been through, her experiences in young life, and her personal perspective on racism.

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

Award-winning author Harper Lee acknowledges this and uses her literary power to showcase our faults. To Kill A Mockingbird, a famous novel brought to us by Harper Lee, is a story about a young, naive girl who grows to realise just what the world is like. She witnesses things like racism and strict gender roles. The author uses characterization to imply that hardships force

Read More
1095 Words | 5 Pages

During this period of time, Harper Lee powerfully illustrates examples of racism, poverty, and domestic violence. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the character that symbolizes the

Read More
1914 Words | 8 Pages

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that show the life of a southern state od Alabama during the “black racism” time period, where majority of the people had the mentality that (quote) with the exception of a few. To chosen to portray it from the eyes of Scout Finch, from a child’s point of view. Living in Maycomb, in the midst of a conservative society of the 1930’s and 20’s Southern America Scout Finch is an extra ordinary child.

Read More
816 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ explores a racist society and the effects it has on certain individuals by highlighting prejudice, societal outcasts and social injustice prevalent in Maycomb, a typical southern American town in the 1930’s. Harper Lee mainly focuses on the characters Tom Robinson, Boo Radley and Atticus Finch by framing the novel in a certain way to explore their cruel relationship with an unfair society. She explores the societal issues within Maycomb through the characters' hardships and struggles. Prejudice, which is mainly in the form of racism, is explored by Lee throughout the novel, compelling readers to realise the unfairness in society by displaying a black man, Tom Robinson, in a predominantly white society who

Read More
614 Words | 3 Pages

In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.

Read More
1067 Words | 5 Pages

How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.

Read More
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.

Read More

More about Historical Lens Essay On To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document