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Theme Of Violence In To Kill A Mockingbird

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What causes one to be ignorant? What is the reason for an individual to put another down strictly because of his or her skin color? Why does racism always lead to violence? In our world today, racism has gotten extremely better but back in the 1930s it was horrible. Violence and racism play a huge role in literary works that take place in that era. In her novel, Harper Lee developes a story where violence plays into the theme as a whole but also reveals the true character of some individuals. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she uses violence to reveal the true character of Boo Radley and Scout and also shows how the cruelty within works into the themes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, violence in this story shows who Boo Radley really. Throughout the novel, Boo Radley was perceived as a lunatic or monster even. He has never been seen by any individual which essentially makes the thought of him that more frightening. In one of the final scenes of the book, Bob Ewell …show more content…

The true personality of Boo Radley is proclaimed through an act of violence where he is shown to be the good guy he really was all along. Scout is revealed through the acts of violence as maturing her way through the whole story. The main themes the book has to offer is race and the destruction of innocence. Race ties into the theme with violence because of the racism that occurred in that time period which caused violence. One can see innocence being destroyed with Tom Robinson and Scout as they lose it in opposite ways. Cruelty and violence always seem to have a big impact on most literary pieces especially in To Kill a Mockingbird. In our society today, racism is said to be virtually gone, but it still happens in the world. Violence and racism will always occur and will essentially have a big impact on the literary eras

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This conveys the idea that Scout is try to egg Jem on with her actions and pressure him into doing something much out of Jem’s comfort zone. 2. The supposed accident that suggests Boo Radley has an underlying notion of brutality involves harming his own father. The incident seems to come out of nowhere, on a day where Boo is simply just cutting things out of the newspaper. It states that

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In Harper Lee’s classic novel, ‘’To Kill a Mockingbird’’, the protagonist, and father of the narrator, Atticus Finch goes through many issues in his attempts to overcome separate forms of adversity, for many different reasons. In order to prevent these difficult situations, Atticus would have to risk his safety, reputation, and life. Finch had a distorted family life. Widowed only a few years prior to when the story takes place, Atticus worked incredibly hard as a lawyer, in order to support his two children, Jem and Scout.

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The Pulitzer Prize winning novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee portrays the life of a young girl, Scout, and her family who live together in Maycomb, Alabama circa 1930s. Scout lives next to some fascinating people that have legends and myths made about them because of their back story. One of them being Boo Radley. Boo was locked away in his house by his parents for most of his life after committing crimes that put him away for good. After the news got out about his vanishing into the Radley house forever many stories were made up about him.

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(Lee, 224) In conclusion, throughout her book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows us how life really was at that time. Racism was causing people to think badly of others that were different from them. She experienced segregation that divided people. She also showed us that we can overcome these things by including a character like Atticus.

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Everything changes after Boo Radley saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops the theme to think for yourself through diction, imagery, and symbolism. In the first place, Harper Lee uses diction to develop the theme to think for yourself. For example in this quote it said, “ He almost whispered it, in the voice of a child afraid of the dark” (372).

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Many characters throughout To Kill A Mockingbird were abused and traumatized. Harper Lee included abuse as one of the main themes in her book To Kill A Mockingbird. Boo Radley, Mayella Ewell, and Dill were all abused in different ways. Abuse happens a lot in our society, but isn’t talked about much. Abuse has a lasting impact on every person that it happens too.

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Innocence varies on the person, someone may be lying or you're actually innocent. Innocence is a big theme in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee shows many examples of innocence through characters in the novel. Innocence is a big theme that stood out to me. Tom Robinson, hard working man, helps other from the kindness of his soul and attends church.

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First and foremost, in the very beginning of the book, Scout looks back on her childhood as an adult. She talks about how Maycomb was back in the day and describes how people in the neighborhood thought about Boo Radley. Scout explains, “People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them” (Lee 10). The people of Maycomb think of the Radley’s as an urban legend.

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Such as, “Boo bit off his mothers’ fingers one night when he couldn’t find any cats or squirrels to eat,” (Chapter 4) Or the rumour of him eating cats “he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch,” (Chapter 1) This led people to believe that Boo Radley was indeed a “monster” and a malevolent person. Harper Lee aims for readers to understand that through the language devices, social prejudice is being shown. Language devices such as the metaphor used to describe Mr Radley, “he was a thin, leathery man with coloured eyes, so colourless, they did not reflect light,” (Chapter 1) This leads the reader to believe that the Radley place is a dark, confined and scary place that not even an animal would dare to go too.

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Through characters such as Jem and Scout, Lee displays the theme of social injustice while through characters such as Atticus and Bob the theme of the coexistence of good and evil is illustrated. From Tom Robinson’s trial to Mrs.Dubose and her views, Harper Lee establishes and delivers a coming-of-age story that criticizes and examines real life social issues, whilst telling it from a child’s point of view. This in conclusion, is the true nature of To Kill A

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Lee contrasts the reality of 1930s, stained by racism, prejudice, and social inequality, to the innocent view of the narrator through various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Harper Lee skillfully crafts the victims of racism and social prejudice by the use of descriptive language devices. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of prejudice through strong adjectives. The appearance that children imagined Boo Radley was like an inhumane monster. The phrase, ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ incites a threatening and violent image of Boo Radley to the reader.

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In the novel: To Kill A Mockingbird, Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman, accused Tom Robinson, an African American, of rape. The Ewell’s are very indigent and her father, Bob Ewell, gets drunk and abuses Mayella. Since Mayella is very poor, this makes her not so powerful. In Maycomb, Alabama, A poor white woman named Mayella Ewell who lives behind the town garbage dump, accuses Tom Robinson, an African American, of rape.

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The theme of law and justice is one of the most significant themes in To Kill A Mockingbird, as the setting of the novel is heavily segregated, which highlights the importance of order and equality. It starkly contrasts with the theme of racial segregation and social ranks, therefore bringing about the concepts of good and evil in Maycomb society. Although law and order is present throughout the novel, it is presented as the weaker force when compared to segregation and chaos. This is shown when Scout describes Tom, “If he had been whole, he would have been a fine specimen of a man”, the word “whole” meaning disabled literally. However, there is this symbolic meaning of “whole” describing Tom’s skin colour, making him not whole as a person.

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One of the main themes of the novel is Racism. During the time of depression, racism and poverty were a common issue. People with a dark skin tone, i.e the African- Americans were seen as derogatory and treated like dirt. Harper Lee depicts it in a very realistic way.

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