To Kill A Mockingbird Comparison Essay

TKAM Compare and Contrast The novel To Kill A Mockingbird is a complex and interesting story. It takes place in the 1930s in Maycomb County, Alabama (a very small and desolate town). It follows a young girl named Scout Finch and her family, consisting of her brother, father, and cook. The biggest conflict in this book is Scout’s father, Atticus, is trying to defend a black man in a court case against a very prejudiced town. The novel excellently shows us Scout and her brother, Jem, growing up and exploring the unfairness of the world. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird is widely regarded as one of the greatest pieces of literature of its generation. It was so great that a movie was even made about it. However, the movie was not a perfect representation

Part of Scout growing up and maturing is realizing her identity as a woman. In the book, this theme is shown by having many feminine influences in her life. On the other hand, the movie excludes these characters. An example of this would include Aunt Alexandra. Other characters’ roles were minimized in Scout’s life, like Miss Maudie and Calpurnia. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra was very adamant about Scout being lady-like and the book mentions many times how she hates how much of a tomboy she is. “Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life.” (81). Although Aunt Alexandra is depicted as a protagonist to Scout, she shows Scout what it looks like to be a lady in the face of adversity. Excluding Aunt Alexandra from the movie took away an element from the story and a key development for

This theme is shown through two characters mainly, Boo Radley and Dolphus Raymond. Let’s start with Boo Radley, he has never shown his face in Maycomb as long as the kids have been alive. His whole family is a mystery to the rest of Maycomb. Many rumors and gossip depict him as a crazy psycho that’s heartless. For example, one rumor they talked about in the book is that he stabbed his parents in the leg with a pair of scissors. Everyone just assumes the rumors are true. Until we find out at the end of the book that Boo is truly a kind person, as he saves the children from Bob Ewell. The film does not focus on Boo nearly as much as the book. The other case, Dolpus Raymond, is about a man that is not like the rest of town. He is one of the few people in Maycomb that is not racist. He knows that others won’t like this about him, so he pretends to be an alcoholic. “Secretly Mrs. Finch, I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live” (200). He figures that they can use the excuse of him being an alcoholic as the reason they don’t like him. The reader can observe the lives of these characters and learn a lesson not to judge others. By reducing the roles of these characters you lose some important lessons that the watcher could