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How Does Harper Lee Use Sight In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is an amazing novel that touches on many of the social issues during the time period in which it is written. Narrated by a six-year-old, readers “see” the faults and fallacies of the setting through the innocent, honest Scout. Sight plays an incredible role in the novel, as it is utilized to show what is morally acceptable to Harper Lee. Not only did Lee’s novel capture America’s attention at the time it was published, it brought to the surface all-to real social problems prevalent during the time period. In the novel, Harper Lee uses perception, eyes, and sight to symbolize what she believes to be morally correct. She shows this through various concrete and abstract situations and various characters, …show more content…

Near the end of the novel, Boo Radley saves the kids from Bob Ewell, who is trying to kill them. Boo rushes them back to the house, but Scout doesn’t see who it is until they are inside. Boo is standing in the shadows of a corner where he can’t be seen. When he steps into the light, Scout sees the mysterious man for the first time. She is so overwhelmed with happiness she starts to cry. On a ABC interview with Oriana R. Aragon PhD. from the department of psychology at Yale University, Aragon states “It's possible that when we're feeling overwhelmed with emotions that we need to balance in some way” referring to tears of joy (Holmes). Up to this point in the novel Scout doesn’t see Boo once; all she knows about him is based off rumor. Scout’s eyes are metaphorically opened when she sees Boo Radley for the first time. She realizes that he is a misunderstood person, one who truly does care for Jem and her. She is grateful for all that he has done and she understands all her father’s teachings. It is at this moment that Scout’s eyes are both literally and metaphorically opened. The phantom Boo, who was once scary to her has become her savior. Now that she can see him, she realizes her perceptions, based on rumors, were completely wrong. It is here the reader understands Lee’s views on gossip. Through Scout’s eyes, the reader can see that Lee believes that gossip is

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Something that is left out a lot in the education system, is that it is okay to have a different interpretation. Students are accustomed to trying to find the “correct” interpretation of something. Christina Hags and Linda Flower in their text, found that more experienced readers used what they called rhetorical reading strategies to more efficiently come to an understanding of difficult texts. Average college students however, don’t implement this into their daily reads. At least some.

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In the last few chapters, Scout finally saw the real Boo, and he saved her and Jem from Bob Ewell. Boo is transformed from a monster into a human being. He appeared as a hero at the last minute. This makes Scout feels very guilty in her mind that she had never done anything to him. She thought innocently, “We never put back into the tree what we took out of it; we had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (373).

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There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten, his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” Little do they know that Boo Radley will play a huge part in their survival at the end of the book when the crazy Bob Ewell Attacks them and Boo Radley protected them, something that Jem and scout would’ve never imagined, But something that the reader could foreshadow. Due to Boo’s acts of kindness like when he returned Jem’s pants sowed after he got them caught on the barb wire fence while he was snooping and around and also the gifts he left in the knot of the tree that helped him build a deeper sentimental relationship with Jem and Scout even if the kids did not know it. Boo had built such a relationship with them that he had done something extremely courageous and protects Jem and scout from Bob

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Boo has helped Scout change her viewpoint from thinking that he’s a scary person who always stays inside to finding out that he actually cares about her and chooses to live inside because he prefers to stay where he can observe what’s going on in the town and protect people when needed, which helps teach Scout that you can’t assume things without knowing the facts. Scout starts out believing that Boo is a mean person who is out to her her and she quickly learns that Boo’s intentions aren’t to hurt her, but rather help her when she needs it most. For example, in the beginning of the book Scout was scared of Boo Radley and the Radley house as shown, “I ran by the Radley house as fast as I could, not stopping till I reached our porch”(Lee 44).

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Overtime, Scout realizes that they are just disrupting Boo, and decides to stop trying to lure him outside. She almost completely forgets about Boo, until he saves both her and Jem from Mr. Ewell who was attacking them. When Scout first saw Boo, she teared up, since she only fantasized about that very moment. Curiosity struck Scout and her

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The scene begins with Scout walking Boo Radley back to his house after he saves her and her brother, Jem, from an attack by Bob Ewell. As she stands on his porch, Scout looks at Boo for the first time, and she sees him not as the "malevolent phantom" she imagined, but as a shy and lonely person. She realizes that Boo has been watching over her and her brother all along, leaving them small gifts in the knothole of a tree and mending Jem's pants. Scout's empathy towards Boo demonstrates her newfound understanding of the complexities of human nature, and her realization that people are not always what they seem.

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Throughout life, society creates stereotypes and misinterpret people. This often has severe impacts on the person’s life and their interactions with outside world. Similarly, Harper Lee connects people in her novel to an innocent songbird: the mockingbird, a symbol that she uses a numerous amount of times to connect between the title and the main theme. Throughout the novel, the mockingbird represents two things: an innocent creature that perishes by acts of evil and a symbol of innocence and purity that does no harm while spreading joy and happiness. Mayella Ewell, Tom Robinson, and Arthur Boo Radley identify as mockingbirds - pure, innocent characters that face injuries through contact with evil.

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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.

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In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to express the cloud in judgment prejudice causes when examining the morals of others. Scout is able to understand more about the town folk in Maycomb County through studying her teacher’s ironic and corrupted views of life around her. Lee uses Miss Gates, Scout’s teacher, to allow Scout a chance to understand the complexity of the adult world. While teaching the class about the Holocaust, Gates expresses the injustice being done to the Jews. She teaches the children that the town does not “believe in persecuting anybody” (Lee 329) because of the U.S. democratic government.

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Perception defines the world around you. It affects every aspect of your being: your thoughts, actions, beliefs, etc… In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch begins to understand just how impactful perception can be as she witnesses the deterioration of the dignity of Tom Robinson, a black man who is being tried for the rape of a white girl. In this intriguing read, Harper Lee demonstrates the theme of inaccurate allegations very effectively. More specifically, when inaccurate allegations that are solely based on perceptions are presented, the consequences can be significant, for others may suffer at great lengths.

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Atticus then tells Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.". Although, throughout the novel the children are curious about Boo Radley and attempt to make Boo come out and make contact with him going against their father's word to leave Boo alone. Later throughout the story, Scout and Jem is attacked by Bob Ewell and defended by Boo Radley. At this point, Scout then realizes that Boo is really nice and has kind heart and is just different from others. As she stands on the Radley's porch, Scout acknowledges her father's lesson.

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Throughout the novel, the children befriend Boo Radley, since he is a shut in and many children of the neighborhood are quite curious as to what he does inside all of the time. Boo and Scout came specifically close, him giving her a blanket when Maudie Atkinson’s house burned down and at the climax point when he makes his initial known physical appearance as he saves Scout and Jem when Bob Ewell attacks them. After the Tom Robinson trial, Jem and Scout are finally starting to see from his perspective as Jem says “Scout, I think I'm beginning to understand something. I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside.

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Boo Radley never harmed anyone, but was victimized by the social prejudice of the Maycomb community. Although not established until the end of the novel, Boo Radley is set up to be the last discovered symbolic character for the image of the mockingbird. Harper Lee has done this to illustrate all points of injustice in the 1930s societal town of Maycomb, where rumours and old tales define Boo's life story rather than his authentically generous heart and personality. During the concluding chapter of the novel, Scout comes to the realization that blaming Boo for Bob Ewell's death would be "sort of like shootin' a mockingbird." Boo does many kind-hearted things in the novel such as leaving gifts in the knot-hole for Scout and Jem, repairing Jem's pants, putting the blanket on Scout discretely in order to keep her warm, and even saving them from the evil Bob Ewell.

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We live in a society today where judging others is a regular, everyday activity. Many people may blame a significant amount of this issue on the excessive amount of technology we have access too, but this problem has been around for much longer. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it shows the ugliness that can come from judging others, but it also teaches two young children, Scout and Jem, to listen to others, so that you can have the opportunity to learn from them. Throughout the story many characters were able to demonstrate this lesson for the kids, but three that were true examples of it were Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Boo Radley. With only aiming to stand up for what they believe in and not worrying what everyone

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For example, when she participates in spreading rumors about Boo Radley and making fun of Walter Cunningham. Scout has at last learnt to see that there is a story behind every person, a reason why they are the way they are and in order to truly understand them she must put herself in their

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