To Kill A Mockingbird Significance

To Kill a Mockingbird is obviously one of the most representative American literature books. It focuses on controversial topics like the life in the South of the United States, where racial discrimination and strong gender roles were a norm. The book was written by Nelle Harper Lee and won a Pulitzer Prize; its impact is undeniable.

The title — “To Kill a Mockingbird” — is explained by a passage in the text where Miss Maudie says “Mockingbirds don 't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don 't eat up people 's gardens, don 't nest in corncribs, they don 't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That 's why it 's a sin to kill a mocking bird.” This is relevant to the main topic of the book, the story of how a black man

At first, the story goes into the peculiarity aroused in the children by stories about their neighbor Arthur Radley (Boo). Together with the nephew of one of the neighbors — Dill — that is also their best friend, they try to tease him out of his home. The house, however, is inhabited not only by Boo, but also by his father who soon passes away and Boo’s brother (Nathan) moves in, keeping everything even more secretive and almost shooting Jeremy to death in one of their attempts to make contact with Boo Radley. This, however, is not the most important topic of the story. It soon digs deeper into gender roles and education when Scout goes to school for the first time. It tells of how Scout was sometimes ostracized by her brother and Dill for being more feminine since her personality is described as more masculine at the beginning. Moreover, she gets into school fights when someone from her class calls her father “a negro-lover”. Her teacher criticizes her for being able to read and write. The children soon find out exactly why people around them are talking about their father behind his back (even his own family). Arthur Radley was tasked by the judge to

He was, fortunately, saved by the children, wo guilt-tripped the people into leaving their father and Tom alone. However, their relatives constantly act condescending towards them, especially their aunt, who always makes comments about Scout’s boyish appearance and behavior, or their black nanny — Calpurnia. The children actually discover the life of the black community of Maycomb thanks to her, when she took them to church (and had to live through feeling ostracized because they were white). They meet Rev. Sykes, who is going to help them get a seat at the trial of Tom Robinson, even though their father explicitly forbade them from coming. On the day of the trial, they watch as almost every person who lives in Maycomb makes their way towards the courtroom. Scout also notices Dolphus Raymond, a wealthy white man who lives with a black woman and has mulatto children. She discovers that he only pretends to be white to give an explanation to the community as to why he decided to live this way, because they fail to comprehend it otherwise. During the trial, even though the children believe in their father and almost everyone in the room is convinced that the Ewells (the alleged victim’s