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To What Extent Is To Kill A Mockingbird Still Relevant Today

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Rethinking or Retaining To Kill a Mockingbird
The astonishing literary art of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been a staple in the literary world for over half a century and has been praised for its significance and impact on society. However, many debates have sparked due to the novel's themes of racism, injustice, morality, and family values that are still relevant today. Harper Lee's novel is a masterpiece that has been recognized as a work of art, and it's essential to educate and inspire future generations of students by introducing them to this novel. The novel's central character, Atticus Finch, is an excellent role model for young people and teaches valuable lessons about respect, empathy, and the importance of standing up for …show more content…

To Kill a Mockingbird is a timeless and valuable novel that should be retained as part of English ten literature. The novel's symbolism, characters, and storytelling are still relevant today, and it's essential to educate and inspire future generations of students by introducing them to this novel.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel full of symbolism, with the ‘mockingbird’ being the most prominent one. The mockingbird is a symbol of innocence and represents those who are unfairly targeted or persecuted. In the novel, Tom Robinson, a black man who is wrongly accused of rape, is considered a mockingbird. With the courage of Atticus Finch, he believes that it is a “sin to kill a mockingbird” (93-online copy) simply because they only make music for people to enjoy. After the trial is over the reader can infer that Tom Robbinson is innocent, but because of his race, he is found guilty and sentenced to death. Boo Radley, is a recluse who is also unfairly targeted by …show more content…

It tells the story of a young girl named Scout Finch who grows up in a small town in Alabama during the 1930s. The novel deals with themes such as racism, prejudice, and the loss of innocence, making it a valuable resource for teaching young adults about the complexities of life and society. First, To Kill a Mockingbird provides valuable lessons about the importance of empathy and compassion. The novel is held up as an “early attempt to deal with racism.” (Geoffrey Glover). The novel's protagonist, Scout, also learns about the world around her through the eyes of her father, Atticus Finch. Scout learns from Atticus that “race is a problem that can be addressed through multiple generations” (Geoffrey Glover). The text recognizes that white America needs to own up to this problem. Also through her father's example, Scout learns to see beyond the color of a person's skin and to treat everyone with respect and dignity. This message is particularly relevant in today's society, where we are often bombarded with messages of hate and intolerance. Second, this novel provides a powerful critique of the justice system and how it can be used to perpetuate inequality. The novel indicates how the justice system fails to protect the innocent and how it can be manipulated to serve the interests of the powerful. While this novel may promote an early form of racism, it is also an “early step in formulating an

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718 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a timeless, touching novel that examines stereotyping and its consequences. The novel follows Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white women in Maycomb, Alabama. The novel also shows how the lives of Atticus' children, Scout and Jem, are effected and how what they experience influences the way they grow up. It allows us to see characters like Boo Radley and Bob Ewell as they add to the theme of racism and prejudice as well. To Kill a Mockingbird deals most obviously with racial prejudice but the greater lesson has to do with class differences and how a person's inherited social status unfairly determines how individuals are treated by others.

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930 Words | 4 Pages

The main characters Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Bob Ewell face moments that deal with racism all told from the perspective of a six year old girl, Scout. The intended purpose of expressing racial relations in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,”

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792 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a story that takes the reader on a journey through the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the mid 1930’s. The story revolves around a young white girl named Jean Louise Finch, more commonly known as Scout. Scout’s life is filled with many events, like the Tom Robinson trial, that play a key role in her character development as she grows up in the racist community she is a part of. Throughout the novel, Scout learns that the society she lives in is filled with people who are dangerously influenced by racial prejudice. She matures from a naive girl who could not even comprehend the idea of racism to a knowledgeable person who realizes how unfair the racial justice system is.

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448 Words | 2 Pages

"To Kill a Mockingbird" is a classic novel written by Harper Lee that explores the themes of racism, injustice, and morality through the eyes of a young girl named Scout Finch. The novel's protagonist, Atticus Finch, serves as a moral compass for Scout and her brother Jem, teaching them valuable lessons about life and humanity. In this essay, I will discuss the three main lessons Atticus teaches the kids in the novel. The first lesson Atticus teaches the kids is the importance of empathy and understanding.

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858 Words | 4 Pages

Over 150 years ago slavery became illegal in the US but racism still lives on. Harper Lee’s book “To Kill a Mockingbird” shows how the main character Scout get to experience the racism towards African Americans in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout lives with her brother, Jem and father, Atticus. The story is told from Scouts perspective as her older self, how during the years of her childhood takes place starting school and spending the summer. Scout’s father, Atticus is the best lawyer in town and is a much respected man.

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647 Words | 3 Pages

Think back to when you were little kid around 7 or so and you had no worries about life or anything. All you would think about is candy and toys and nothing about the world of adults. No worries of the weather or what the grown ups would talk about. Scout’s childhood innocence takes a turn from her care free days to the real world of racism and bad people. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout witnesses the trial of Tom Robinson and how racism is taught to her unknowingly from it.

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428 Words | 2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird a story about the prejudice faced in the 1930s and the daily struggles, A novel written by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird is about how racism influenced people in the early 1900s and how scout is learning how people really are and what it is like in the real world. In To Kill a Mockingbird there are many coming of age moments using setting characters for scouts, for example they are shown in chapters 3,6,12. in Chapter 3 of To Kill a Mockingbird Scout gets in a fight with Walter Cunningham because he got her in trouble and Atticus makes her think about what she did. ``folks.

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that explores the ideas of injustice towards “mockingbirds” people of minority difference in the 1930’s that were charged guilty for just living. During this novel, there is a man named Tom Robinson who is being falsely accused of raping a privelliged white woman from a racist family. This white family is a prime example of racism during this terrible American era. Tom represents a mockingbird because he did nothing wrong, brought the normalized racism out into the light to be questioned and he was a victim of a cruel reality that is still being portrayed in today's world. Tom Robinson resembles a mockingbird because he is not a harmful man and he was truly innocent.

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439 Words | 2 Pages

A mockingbird is a symbol of innocence, and to kill it would mean the demolishment of one’s innocence—hence the personified title “To Kill a Mockingbird.” A dominating theme depicted in the novel is the destruction of one’s innocence. In this novel, Scout, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley are portrayals of mockingbirds through their development and innocence. In the beginning, Scout, our protagonist, is innocent, naive, and confident; due to facing the issues of injustice and racism, she has matured significantly.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

Should To Kill a Mockingbird still be widely read and taught in schools? Many different views support and invalidate the perspective about whether or not it is suitable for students to read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird is a rape trial from the eyes of a six-year-old girl named Scout Finch.

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498 Words | 2 Pages

We should not remove Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird" from the school curriculum. It serves as a necessary reminder of racial injustices. Set in the 1930s. It was written in the 1950s and published in the 1960s. Lee’s novel explores a historical period of racial injustices.

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803 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about a young girl by the name of Jean Louise Finch and her relatively anti- racist family. The Finch Family is facing the segregation of a man named Tom Robinson. A lot goes on in this story, a lot is seen from the Finch family's point of view of their world at this point in time. Reading the book a lot of heat is seen to come from the differentiation struggles between race, money and living styles. These few things bring a lot of tension between the different characters in the book seemingly relating to the real world.

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801 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of those books that almost everyone reads at some point in their lives. Whether you've been forced to read it at school, or you've had a look because everyone's been urging you to, most people have their own personal experience of reading Mockingbird. The book is about Atticus Finch, who appears as an unconventional hero and role model due to his morality rather than his physical ability. The theme of morals is apparent throughout the whole novel, especially in relation to religion and perception of sin.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.

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446 Words | 2 Pages

He is falsely accused of rape and stands trial, with the evidence overwhelmingly in his favor. However, he is convicted due to the deep-seated racism in the community. Tom is an innocent man who only helped Mayella Ewell, the woman who accused him, out of kindness. His trial and conviction represent the loss of innocence and the destruction of someone who did not deserve it. Boo Radley is also compared to the mockingbird, representing vulnerability and the need for protection.

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