To Kill A Mockingbird Literary Analysis

Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” tenaciously attempts to reveal the conflict within social classes and the perspectives of the white majority on the responsibility of the American justice system. Utilizing the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama the author enables herself to displace the harsh realities of her past on empty canvas, illustrating the racism and cruelty of the deep South during the 1930s. Below serves a short summary of Harper Lee’s transformative story. Atticus Finch, one of the few attorneys in his small, rural hometown, is directed by the county court to defend Tom Robinson, a Black laborer. Robinson is falsely accused of having raped Mayella Ewell, a white female. In reality, Mayella Ewell had committed the intolerable

The father’s sole purpose was to nurture the minds, conscience, and individuality of his children while extending their perspective to unconditionally accept the world and fight for what they personally believed. Similarly, his permissive parenting style afforded Scout with the ability to express her individuality to its full potential, resulting in her choice to ignore the pompous, feminine lifestyle of wearing dresses and learning manners. This forced her to learn to effectively express her thoughts and emotions through her words rather then through external reactions, explaining her profound nature to read, write, and communicate her emotions and questions she had for

“ (5). However, as their commotion began to attract attention, her older brother “Jem tells [her] to stop and invites Walter over to [their] house for lunch” (6). Harper Lee brilliantly includes this excerpt in a way to represent the duality of justice, for Scout can either displace her anger or resolve its cause, paralleled to the actions of the tempted mob throughout the novel. The author consistently presents the reader and characters alike with two distinct choices; one procures justice while the other extinguishes humanity. As depicted by Lee, Scout can be viewed as an omniscient force relating the horrors of racism to the injustice of mankind, for as Scout develops her presence entices the reader to reflect on the callous nature of man and accept life in its true form: innocent, yet