To Kill A Mockingbird Color Analysis

Seeing Maycomb in Color

In the film adaptation of the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the scene where Scout and Dill have a talk with Dolphus Raymond is not shown. The scene takes place at Tom Robinson’s trial, when Dill and Scout go outside after Dill becomes upset with how Tom Robinson was being treated. Scout has a hard time understanding why Dill is so upset, but an infamous man from town, Dolphus Raymond, comes to console Dill and says he agrees. Him and Scout proceed to have a very eye opening conversation, where Scout discovers Dolphus Raymond is not a drunk like everyone thought, but is just pretending to be one to put others at ease. This scene should have been included in the movie because it opened up Scout’s eyes to

She thought she could identify what was good and what was bad easily. Though she is still a little close minded after this scene, she does show a huge change in how she judges people. Going into this scene, she was still in her rigid mindset of good and evil. As Mr. Raymond approaches Dill, she thinks to herself, “As Mr. Dolphus Raymond was an evil man, I accepted his invitation reluctantly” (267). This is an example of her usual thought process; people are evil based on superficial things like rumours, judging people without even speaking to them. She perceives everything he does as harmful or furtive; “‘Hee hee,” said Mr. Raymond, evidently taking delight in corrupting a child” (267). Even though all Mr. Raymond did was laugh, she takes it as something evil and conniving. When she learns that it is not whisky that he drinks, but coke, her thoughts about him begin to be mixed. This is her first time perceiving someone as neither 100 percent good or bad. She then thinks some positive things about him; “I liked his smell. It was of leather, horses, cottonseed” (267). And then she thinks some mixed things about him; “I had a feeling that I shouldn’t be here listening to this sinful man who

Through Scout’s newly opened eyes, we start to see how almost every person in Maycomb has their bad side and good side, pushing the point to home. One instance of many includes Scout’s questioning of Miss Gates’ ways. We learn that Miss Gates is considered a “nice person” after Scout asks, “Miss Gates is a nice lady, isn’t she?” (330) and Jem responds with, “Why sure… I liked her when I was in her room” (330). Scout goes on to say, “She hates Hitler a lot… she went on today about how bad it was him treating the Jews like that… coming out of the courthouse that night… I heard her say it’s time somebody taught them a lesson, they were getting way above themselves, next thing they think they can do is marry us… how can you hate Hitler so bad but be so ugly to folks at home--” (330-331) This is a person who is considered “nice”, has the right and kind view on one subject, but also has a terrible stance on another. This shows that even “nice” people aren’t entirely good or pure, which helps portray the theme of people not being all one thing or another. Another example of Scout’s change in perceiving things helping show us the theme is her change in opinion on Arthur “Boo” Radley. At first, she sees him as scary and dangerous, and even believes a story about him stabbing his own mother. He is definitely evil in her mind. But throughout the story and especially after the scene