Similarities Between To Kill A Mockingbird And Animal Farm

Nathan Chan Mr. Collyer English 1 Honors 10 June 2024 Written Analysis - Manipulation and Societal Pressures within To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm The two texts, To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm share a key theme and issue within their respective stories, the manipulation of individuals through social pressures. Throughout the novels, we see individuals be driven to blind faith, hatred, and ignorance due to their surrounding social environments. This issue is ever present in today’s world and is displayed deeply in both texts. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Animal Farm, the authors Harper Lee and George Orwell explore and dissect the theme of manipulation through societal pressure, illustrating how individuals are driven to blind

WIthin the story of To Kill a Mockingbird, we follow the lives of citizens in Maycomb, Alabama, a town facing issues of segregation and division among the majority white community and the minority black community. This issue of ingrained racism within the town is confronted multiple times within the story, with the main characters Jem and Scout Finch experiencing the effects of racism within the town as their father Atticus defends a black man in court. Within the events leading up to and during this court case, we see how racism, a social construct dividing the citizens of Maycomb, blinds them from seeing the inherent humanity within other people, disregarding their character and opting to base their perceptions off of race. However, as stated before, racism wasn’t a natural phenomenon occurring since one’s birth. In To Kill a Mockingbird, racism was, as stated by Atticus, “Maycomb’s usual

Walter Cunningham, a man friendly with the Finches, was present. After the incident, Atticus explains to the children about Walter’s behavior, saying that, “Mr. Cunningham’s basically a good man,” and that, “he just has his blind spots along with the rest of us”(179). In this statement, Atticus reveals the notion that the hate within Walter was not an ingrained trait, but a lack of consideration and empathy caused by the environment he was raised within. The cause of this massive spread of this disease, racism, was the overwhelmingly present existence of racism in the town. The presence of this belief in Maycomb put pressure on new citizens, children and adults, to conform, fueling the fire burning with hatred against others, tossing empathy aside into the inferno. Overall, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the overwhelming presence of racism in Maycomb led to residents being pressured to conform, this pressure led to citizens blindly attacking those they were taught to hate, viewing those that bear a different skin color not with a lens of humanity and empathy, but with a blindfold stimulating