What would happen if you were to shove a colored man to the ground? What if you shoved a colored man eighty years ago? Would you share the same consequences? These are all questions that should have obvious answers, but because of the way our society works, they’re not. Without brave souls fighting for equality, there would be no change. No hope. No equity. Some of those rebels use radical schemes to make statements, while others simply stand in the streets and preach. Harper Lee chose a different way to display her disapproval — writing. In To Kill a Mockingbird , Harper Lee employs irony, symbolism, and humor to launch real world ideas and values at the public, and lets them slowly come to a realization on where our problems really lie. Irony is a tricky artform to master, but Harper Lee has utilized it phenomenally in displaying the social injustices occurring in Maycomb. Countless times the citizens of the small town reveal what hypocrites they are. For example, when Jean Louise “Scout” Finch (an especially bright child, who understands concepts far beyond her years) was in school, and her teacher, Ms. Gates (Scouts teacher at the time), was lecturing the class about Democracy. Her teacher went …show more content…
This entire discussion was a sure piece of irony, seeing as in their own town, the innocent man Tom Robinson (a black man who was accused of raping a while girl) was convicted of a felony only because of the color of his skin. The teacher even praises Scout for her definition of democracy; “‘Equal rights for all, special privileges for none.” (Lee 328). None of this is regarded, for Ms. Gates continues to preach that the Jews, an analogy to the blacks, had done nothing wrong and that they were merely