All great literary works require you to sit back, and really think about what is going on in the story. Literary theories are one way to help you analyze and fully understand what you are reading. People have been using literary theories for a very long time, even if they didn't realize it. Some of the more common lit-theories are formalism, race theory, marxism, new historicism, gender studies, post colonialism, and queer theory. Some novels are harder to analyze through literary theories than others, but there are some that are quite easy to analyze through these, like To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is the story of a family living in Alabama in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, the father of Jem and Scout Finch, is a lawyer …show more content…
Race theory is a way of examining literature where you look at how race affects interactions and decisions of a character. This story takes place in the fictional town, Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is very small and unfortunately, many people living in the town are very racist. When Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, most people just assumed that he was guilty. If he had been a white man, people wouldn't have been as quick to judge. The final decision that the jury came to at the end of the trial is a good example of how race affects the decisions and interactions of characters. During the trial, we can see that it is nearly impossible that Tom Robinson committed the crime he was accused of, but the jury says he is guilty anyway. Also, at the end of the novel, the guards at the prison where Tom Robinson was at shot Tom, because he was trying to escape. If this had been a white man who had been killed, everyone in Maycomb would’ve been very upset, but since Tom Robinson wasn't white, they shot him and no one thought twice about it. Although there are many examples of racism in this story, there are also some examples where people of different race come together. While Atticus is working on the Tom Robinson trial, a lot of the black community in Maycomb starts to accept and welcome Atticus and his family. They bring him baskets of food, and invite him to their homes. It is unfortunate that it took such a tragic event to bring them all together, but the situation did have some