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How Does Lee Use Setting In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee uses setting and characterisation to reveal values such as social justice, attitudes such as racism and fears that exist in relationships within the town of Maycomb County during the 1930’s. In this essay I will discuss these aspects that exist in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Maycomb County is a small town in Alabama which is very much set in its ways. Time goes by and nothing seems to change, everyone’s business is publicly known. As Scout quoted ‘ He liked Maycomb County, he was Maycomb County born and bred; he knew his people, they knew him’. This was refiring to his father Atticus Finch, the town lawyer who was highly regarded and respected. It confirms a small town mentality where knowing everyone’s business …show more content…

It is the centre of attention within the town of Maycomb, and is seen as an evil haunted place where secrets are kept and only bad things happen. At one point H.Lee portrays a sense of fear in the passage ‘ The shutters and doors of the Radley House were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and bad weather only’. This fear is evident when Scout, Jem and Dill continue their adventure whilst exploring the Radley House with great caution and trepidation. H.Lee provides further evidence that the house’s occupants are also evil when she states, “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom.” The inhabitance of Radley House brought mystery to the town of Maycomb. Boo Radley a reclusive teenager is seen in the eyes of Scout, Jem and Dill as this creepy phantom. H. Lee successfully portrays the Radley property and its occupants as suspicious, creepy and …show more content…

She is looking back from an adult perspective and portrays Scout as an innocent young girl growing up in a society that is divided by people’s races and culture. Her intelligence allows her to question her father regarding the issues of racism and she learns and develops an understanding about what is right and what is wrong. She highly values her father and has great respect for him. This is made clear in chapter 7 through the following quote where Scout makes use of her fathers advice, "As Atticus once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem's skin and walk around in it: if I had gone alone to the Radley Place at two in the morning, my funeral would have been held the next afternoon. So I left Jem alone and tried not to bother

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We can say because of the way the house was described to us in the book we get an anxious feeling about the people in the house, but our assumptions made about Boo and the Radley house was false. A second example of the theme Lee gives to us would be in chapters 28 when Jem and scout are getting older and they get getting assaulted by Bob Ewell. On page 299 Harper Lee uses the imagery “I could hear his breath coming easily beside me. Occasionally there was this sudden breeze that hit my bare legs, but it was all that

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Reese Balaski Due Date: Tuesday 6th Journal 2 I am reading To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and I am currently on page 42. This book is about a girl named Scout and her family living in Maycomb, Alabama. In this journal, I will proceed to predict and evaluate the plot points of the book so far. One of the major topics in the story so far is Scout and her brother Jem being able to see their neighbor Boo Radley.

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Rumors embraced Jem, Scout and Dill as they acted out stories of Boo stabbing his father with scissors and imitated his sad, psychotic life. When the kids started to mature they received a sense of reality in Maycomb and how the citizens aren’t as innocent as they appear. While Scout and Jem began to realized this Jem stated, “...I think i'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed up in the house all this time … it’s because he wants to stay inside.” (Lee, page 304) When miss Maudie's house caught fire on the cold night, a blanket appeared over Jem and Scout while they sat in front of the Radley house. They later found out that Boo was the one who had placed it there.

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The melting pot is a failed value of american society, broken by racial segregation. Race-related discrimination hit especially hard in the south during the 1930s. Coloured people were considered insignificant to their privileged peers and nearly all whites accepted this unfair treatment. Published in 1960, Harper Lee’s american novel To Kill a Mockingbird implements bigotry through the use of the metaphor and symbolism regarding mockingbirds ; a bird representing innocence. Throughout the plot, characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley reveal themselves to be mockingbirds as they are victimized by the town of Maycomb despite their harmless nature.

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was published in 1960 and is set in the American South during the 1930’s; Lee grew up during this harsh time, which paints a vivid and clear picture of what it was really like during the events that had unfolded. “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen” (Winston Churchill). In the plot, there is many themes that can define the characters, and how they carry themselves in life. Some are good standing people, some abuse their power, and a couple of them don’t understand and are innocent. In this story, created by Lee, there are three common themes that help shape both good and bad characters, morality, courage, and justice.

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One night, Jem, Dill, and Scout decided to try and get a look at Boo Radley through a loose shutter. As they made their way to the back of the Radley house Scout sees “...the shadow of a man with a hat on” (71). As kids begin to escape from Nathan Radley when suddenly Scout trips and “...the roar of a shotgun shattered through the neighborhood” (71). This caused everybody to gather in front of the Radley house, Miss Maudie explains that “Mr. Radley shot a Negro in his collard patch” (72). The blacks were automatically blamed for the disturbance of the Radley house.

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Misunderstood and isolated from society, Boo Radley becomes hateful and gossip spread by those of his community, forced to live in confinement, isolated and hidden from society. Despite his Boo’s reclusive nature, Boo Radley illustrates acts of kindness towards Scout and Jem, such as leaving them gifts in the hole of a tree for them to find and look past all the rumors. Through Boo Radley's character, Harper Lee emphasizes the utmost importance of looking past stereotypes and appearances of people and to empathize with others,and their own trauma. Boo Radley's story stimulates the reader to question their own preconceived notions about characters and consider the impact of empathy on individuals’

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Her, as a character, has started to develop and it is shown here. She has a sense of maturity to her, showing she wants to stay, to not only see the end of the case, but to watch her father as well. This also ties into the theme by Scout, although she may be young, really understands what is happening and should not be perceived as not smart. Another sight of characterization is shown here: “I’ve heard that lawyer’s children, on seeing their parents in court in the heat of argument, get the wrong idea: they think opposing counsel to be the personal enemies of their parents, they suffer agonies, and are surprised to see them often go out arm-in-arm with their tormentors during the first recess. That was not true for Jem and me.”

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Arrogance and naivety mirrors the true human nature and of a society as whole, specifically, the Maycomb county. The renowned author, Harper Lee, exemplifies this in her acclaimed southern gothic novel, To Kill a Mocking Bird. The novel is set between 1933 to 1935, a period where social injustices and inequality were a common fixture. It is also a period that graced the great depression. The characters in this novel live in a small town called Maycomb county in Alabama.

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Scout, Jem, and their friend Dill are all curious about what is happening in their neighbor, Boo Radley’s house. The three of them snuck onto Radley’s property searching for answers. Jem, curiously went onto Radley’s porch to try and look in. Next, Boo Radley came out with a shotgun trying to shoot them as he thought they were trespassing. After a shot grazed Jem’s ear, the three children ran back to their homes acting as if they were playing a game of poker.

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To Kill A Mockingbird, is a powerful, classic piece of literature which heavily influenced readers through its enduring concepts since its initial publication. Written in 1960’s by Harper Lee, the passage is set in 1930’s America in the southern state of Alabama. A prominent period of racial segregation, in which most experienced horrendous brutality, political exclusion, and legal segregation. Harper Lee endeavours the key concept of moral courage through the practice of common racial cultural assumptions, beliefs and values present in 1930s America. Lee employs stylistic devices and aesthetic features to provide an insight into the characters mind, and therefore, provide a marginalised perspective of the racial segregation of blacks during

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Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.

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Their father, Atticus has a black client who is accused by a crime that he didn't commit. Atticus does a lot to protect this man from danger. He goes to his home a couple of times, he waits in front of the building where they keep him, to protect him from the racist people who

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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 Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee presents a large social atmosphere that includes many different cultures and extremes. The story takes place in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. This novel illustrates how the southerners perceived different ideas about each other and social norms. It is told through the eyes of a young girl, Scout Finch, as she is growing up and becoming influenced by societal attitudes. Throughout the course of this book Scout learns many lessons including: how a society functions, why there is conflict between different cultures, and what makes cultures different from each other.

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