In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, I think the theme is, that it takes a great deal of courage to look beyond the stereotypes that exist and it takes even more courage to act against a norm that you believe is wrong. Two pivotal events in the story that shape the theme are the fire at Miss Maudie's place and the trial of Tom Robinson. When the fire at Miss Maudie’s place was happening, Scout didn’t realize it, but Boo Radley had come out of his house to put the blanket on Scout, to keep her warm. When Scout and her family got home, Scout realized that there was a blanket on her. Scout had no idea how it could have gotten there. Then Jem told her it must have been Boo Radley that put the blanket on her. This moment affected Scout because previously she had thought that Boo …show more content…
Then at the trial of Tom Robinson, that was an important event for Scouts to witness to better understand the world and how it was working then. When Scout heard Atticus give an amazing argument to prove Tom Robinson innocent and potentially Bob Ewell guilty, despite Atticus knowing going into it that he was going to lose, Scout learned a lot about racism, social hierarchy, and courage. When Scout asks Atticus why Tom was proven to be guilty, Atticus replies, that in the South the word of a white woman is worth more than any word of a black man. Scout also learned from Atticus how despite having as little credibility as Bob Ewell, his word may have been used to prove Tom guilty but nobody believed him, which destroyed the rest of his reputation. Scout was also impressed, learning, that despite her father knowing he was going to lose the case, he still tried as hard as he could to prove Tom innocent. This contributes to the theme because Atticus tried to change the way black people are thought of, during the trial despite being deliberately told by some people to claim Tom is