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Scouting Out The Truth Analysis

1042 Words5 Pages

Scouting Out the Truth by Liam Hughes

First published in 1960, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has become an all-time classic, safely securing a place in TIME Magazine’s ‘All-TIME 100 Novels’ due to its enduring relevance to today’s society. The novel, though being set in the fictitious town of Maycomb County during the 1930s, still manages to encapsulate society’s prejudice and ignorance in the modern world. The message of the novel hits home with readers all across the globe as it attempts to outline the hypocrisy of the situation through the eyes of a young girl. (Img:http://livearts.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/TKAM.jpg)

Taking place through the eyes of six-year-old Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, over three summers, this …show more content…

We must instead, consider whether they themselves, are victims of social injustice because if we don’t, how are we any different to the folk of Maycomb County?

Harper Lee uses metaphor throughout the text as a means to expose the discriminative nature of man, framing the importance of empathy. An example of this is when Atticus states,
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." (Lee 1960, p.33).
This challenges not only Scout, but us as the readers to practice empathy or we will become a society of prejudice and hate.

The mockingbird is intentionally layered throughout the novel as a symbol of innocence and peace, in a world filled with violence and hate. The title ‘To kill a mockingbird’ is used as a symbol of the destruction of innocence. The mockingbird is used as a symbol of characters who act out of pure selflessness such as Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch and Boo Radley. The novel states on several occasions

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