Fiction is a forgotten gem; an untapped well of knowledge. It deals with the things that make us fundamentally human, such as conflict, passion, love, lust, jealousy, and hatred. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee highlights the truths about racism and especially stereotypes. In Lord of The Flies, William Golding focuses on the darkness that lives within all human beings. In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury writes about the mistakes society makes when depending solely on technology and not allowing fiction to even exist in people’s households. These three classic novels allow readers to unlock a part of their emotions that they haven't subconsciously felt before which is important because emotion is what makes us truly human.
In To Kill a Mockingbird,
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When readers are first introduced to Boo Radley, Jem describes him by saying; “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, [...] There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 11). Although Boo Radley is considered strange to the kids, he ended up truly caring about Scout and Jem. Later in the novel, when Scout reminisces about what she and her brother found in the oak tree from Boo Radley, she says, “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it. We …show more content…
Although the boys are stuck on the island for weeks and begin to turn to savagery, one boy, Simon, makes an observation that no one else makes yet. Simon, who is an intuitive and sensitive individual eventually recognizes the darkness that hides within the human heart. When the boys argue about there being a beast on the island, Simon proposes the idea to the group that “maybe it’s only us that we’re afraid of” (Golding 195). Simon tries to suggest that the beast may be something within the boys themselves but to the boys, it’s just easier to fear the beast than to face the reality that they are actually afraid of each other. Towards the end of the novel when Simon and Piggy face death, and Jack’s savage group is about to kill Ralph, a naval officer shows up at the same time Ralph was about to give up and let himself die. When the naval officer questions the boys on what they were doing on the island and why they were turning on each other, Golding wrote: “Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of man’s heart, and the fall through the air of a true, wise friend called Piggy” (Golding 158). This is the moment Ralph realizes what Simon was talking about earlier. Similarly, in To Kill a Mockingbird, readers feel sorry for Scout and her sadness for Boo Radley, when she couldn’t give anything in return as a response to his kindness; as they are