The Concept Of The Other In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

In Harper Lee’s winning novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the concept of the other is a big theme that runs throughout the book. The novel explores how society treated those who are different from their morals and beliefs compared to others in the community, such as Mr. Dolphus Raymond, the town drunk that fakes his antics, the mob attempting to kill Tom Robinson in jail, and Atticus Finch the town lawyer that often differs from the likes and opinions of society. William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize winning speech similar to the reasoning to why he is so important in society to help notice and acknowledge the other. William Faulkner in his Nobel Prize winning speech and Harper Lee’s how to kill a Mockingbird allow for dark areas and discussions

Examples of reflection, responsibility, and leadership prove so in the novel.

Harper Lee uses society to reflect roles through hard truths to reflect on the other. In the novel from Lee; Scout, Jem, and Dill are taking lunch during the trial of Tom Robinson. While they are out they run into the town drunk Mr. Dolphus Raymond. He interacts with the children and when doing so offers them a drink of coca cola, handing them the beverage in his hand wrapped in a bag to cover up its contents. With Scout reluctant to offer Jem drinks from the bag to find it had been Coca-Cola just as Mr. Raymond had said. Scout, surprised , asks Mr. Raymond, why does the man do what he does? Mr Raymond Replied, “It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason” (Lee 200). Connecting to Faulner’s idea to the other, Mr. Raymond acts like a drunk so that people will believe that him having mixed children with a black woman is because of his addiction with alcohol. Instead he notices that his ideas will never be noticed into the world, so he gives people in the

When Scout, Jem, and Dill sneak out of the house to see what their father had left so late for, the kids see Atticus sitting in front of the jail with a newspaper reading. The kids, confused and not impressed, begin to go back home. Then four dusty cars pulled in the front of the jail and multiple men got out of each vehicle. A mob formed from the men there at the jail to lynch Tom, leaving Atticus the only one to protect him. Confused and intrigued, the children ran to the back of the crowd to see what the gathering had been about. Bickering between Atticus and men from the mob goes back and forth, with conversations for him to leave and Tom Robinson getting killed. Scout yells hello to Atticus from the back of the crown and feels embarrassed immediately. Atticus, taken by surprise, orders all of the children to go home immediately. Scout surveys the mob and the crown and takes into account that "their sleeves were unrolled and buttoned at the cuffs. Some wore hats pulled firmly down over their ears" (Lee 153). Every man had done what he could to cover himself up and become unrecognizable. The idea of the act went along with the mob because the blame and responsibility of whatever actions had been committed was put onto the shoulders of the mob. There had been no such thing as individual responsibility because they were not recognized and it was a group