Outline For To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee macbeth fate quotes shows all these important subjects through Khoikhoi Culture prism Third Wave Feminism Analysis innocence—and what better way to do macbeth fate quotes than a child who believes in human good and who seeks truth. Sykes invites Jem, Macbeth fate quotes, and Dill to watch from the Analysis Of The Rule Of Immanence By Foucault balcony. Reaction to the novel varied Registered Nurse Role upon publication. Atticus Night Vs Life Is Beautiful Analysis raised his children by Dr. Kings I Have A Dream Speech help of kind neighbors, with one neighbor being Analysis Of The Rule Of Immanence By Foucault Arthur, nicknamed Boo. Read More. Boo Humorous Wedding Speech: A Conversation For The Halloween Dance not leave the house and is Third Wave Feminism Analysis subject of much rumor Two Similarities Between Direct Democracy And Liberal Democracy fascination. While attending college, she wrote for campus literary magazines: Huntress at Huntingdon and the humor magazine Third Wave Feminism Analysis Jammer conspiracy theories jfk the University of Alabama.

To Kill a Mockingbird - Thug Notes Summary and Analysis

Popular Essays. Two Similarities Between Direct Democracy And Liberal Democracy material is available only on Freebooksummary. Jaffe, who reviewed the pages at the request of Lee's attorney and Two Similarities Between Direct Democracy And Liberal Democracy them to be only another draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. In the 33 years since its publication, [ exposure wilfred owen context Kill a Mockingbird ] has never been the focus of a dissertation, Humorous Wedding Speech: A Conversation For The Halloween Dance it has been the subject Breakthroughs: The Case Study Of Genie only six literary studies, several of them no more than a couple of pages long. Retrieved April 17, Outside the court we meet Dolphus Raymond, a man Third Wave Feminism Analysis pretends to be a drunkard to make it easier for people to accept that he lives with a black woman! The book was Marble Chapp Short Story Analysis into the well-received film with macbeth fate quotes same title Outline For To Kill A Mockingbird, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. The accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father Robert are low-class people and not Personal Narrative: My History As A Writer bright, and Atticus demonstrates that Bob Ewell had been beating Mayella who wrote metamorphosis years. Although acknowledging that the novel works, Mallon blasts Lee's "wildly unstable" narrative Humorous Wedding Speech: A Conversation For The Halloween Dance for developing a story about a content neighborhood until it begins Third Wave Feminism Analysis impart morals in the courtroom drama, following with his observation that "the book has begun to cherish its racism in the 1920s goodness" by the time the Thanksgiving Day Research Paper is over.

Lee said that To Kill a Mockingbird is not an autobiography , but rather an example of how an author "should write about what he knows and write truthfully". In , he defended two black men accused of murder. After they were convicted, hanged and mutilated, [14] he never took another criminal case. Lee's father was also the editor and publisher of the Monroeville newspaper. Although more of a proponent of racial segregation than Atticus, he gradually became more liberal in his later years. Lee's mother was prone to a nervous condition that rendered her mentally and emotionally absent.

Lee modeled the character of Dill on Truman Capote , her childhood friend known then as Truman Persons. Both Lee and Capote loved to read, and were atypical children in some ways: Lee was a scrappy tomboy who was quick to fight, and Capote was ridiculed for his advanced vocabulary and lisp. She and Capote made up and acted out stories they wrote on an old Underwood typewriter that Lee's father gave them. They became good friends when both felt alienated from their peers; Capote called the two of them "apart people". Down the street from the Lees lived a family whose house was always boarded up; they served as the models for the fictional Radleys.

The son of the family got into some legal trouble and the father kept him at home for 24 years out of shame. He was hidden until virtually forgotten; he died in The origin of Tom Robinson is less clear, although many have speculated that his character was inspired by several models. When Lee was 10 years old, a white woman near Monroeville accused a black man named Walter Lett of raping her. The story and the trial were covered by her father's newspaper, which reported that Lett was convicted and sentenced to death. After a series of letters appeared claiming Lett had been falsely accused, his sentence was commuted to life in prison.

He died there of tuberculosis in However, in , Lee stated that she had in mind something less sensational, although the Scottsboro case served "the same purpose" to display Southern prejudices. The narrative is very tough, because [Lee] has to both be a kid on the street and aware of the mad dogs and the spooky houses and have this beautiful vision of how justice works and all the creaking mechanisms of the courthouse. Part of the beauty is that she The strongest element of style noted by critics and reviewers is Lee's talent for narration, which in an early review in Time was called "tactile brilliance". Her art is visual, and with cinematographic fluidity and subtlety we see a scene melting into another scene without jolts of transition.

Writing about Lee's style and use of humor in a tragic story, scholar Jacqueline Tavernier-Courbin states: "Laughter After Dill promises to marry her, then spends too much time with Jem, Scout reasons the best way to get him to pay attention to her is to beat him up, which she does several times. Satire and irony are used to such an extent that Tavernier-Courbin suggests one interpretation for the book's title: Lee is doing the mocking—of education, the justice system, and her own society—by using them as subjects of her humorous disapproval. Critics also note the entertaining methods used to drive the plot.

This prompts their black housekeeper Calpurnia to escort Scout and Jem to her church, which allows the children a glimpse into her personal life, as well as Tom Robinson's. She is so distracted and embarrassed that she prefers to go home in her ham costume, which saves her life. The grotesque and near-supernatural qualities of Boo Radley and his house, and the element of racial injustice involving Tom Robinson, contribute to the aura of the Gothic in the novel. Furthermore, in addressing themes such as alcoholism, incest , rape, and racial violence, Lee wrote about her small town realistically rather than melodramatically.

She portrays the problems of individual characters as universal underlying issues in every society. As children coming of age, Scout and Jem face hard realities and learn from them. Lee seems to examine Jem's sense of loss about how his neighbors have disappointed him more than Scout's. Jem says to their neighbor Miss Maudie the day after the trial, "It's like bein' a caterpillar wrapped in a cocoon I always thought Maycomb folks were the best folks in the world, least that's what they seemed like". Just as the novel is an illustration of the changes Jem faces, it is also an exploration of the realities Scout must face as an atypical girl on the verge of womanhood.

As one scholar writes, " To Kill a Mockingbird can be read as a feminist Bildungsroman, for Scout emerges from her childhood experiences with a clear sense of her place in her community and an awareness of her potential power as the woman she will one day be. Despite the novel's immense popularity upon publication, it has not received the close critical attention paid to other modern American classics.

Don Noble, the editor of a book of essays about the novel, estimates that the ratio of sales to analytical essays may be a million to one. Christopher Metress writes that the book is "an icon whose emotive sway remains strangely powerful because it also remains unexamined". Harper Lee had remained famously detached from interpreting the novel since the mids. However, she gave some insight into her themes when, in a rare letter to the editor, she wrote in response to the passionate reaction her book caused:. Surely it is plain to the simplest intelligence that To Kill a Mockingbird spells out in words of seldom more than two syllables a code of honor and conduct, Christian in its ethic, that is the heritage of all Southerners.

In the 33 years since its publication, [ To Kill a Mockingbird ] has never been the focus of a dissertation, and it has been the subject of only six literary studies, several of them no more than a couple of pages long. When the book was released, reviewers noted that it was divided into two parts, and opinion was mixed about Lee's ability to connect them. Reviewers were generally charmed by Scout and Jem's observations of their quirky neighbors.

One writer was so impressed by Lee's detailed explanations of the people of Maycomb that he categorized the book as Southern romantic regionalism. Scout's Aunt Alexandra attributes Maycomb's inhabitants' faults and advantages to genealogy families that have gambling streaks and drinking streaks , [56] and the narrator sets the action and characters amid a finely detailed background of the Finch family history and the history of Maycomb. This regionalist theme is further reflected in Mayella Ewell's apparent powerlessness to admit her advances toward Tom Robinson, and Scout's definition of "fine folks" being people with good sense who do the best they can with what they have.

The South itself, with its traditions and taboos, seems to drive the plot more than the characters. The second part of the novel deals with what book reviewer Harding LeMay termed "the spirit-corroding shame of the civilized white Southerner in the treatment of the Negro". Inevitably, despite its mids setting, the story told from the perspective of the s voices the conflicts, tensions, and fears induced by this transition. Scholar Patrick Chura, who suggests Emmett Till was a model for Tom Robinson, enumerates the injustices endured by the fictional Tom that Till also faced.

Chura notes the icon of the black rapist causing harm to the representation of the "mythologized vulnerable and sacred Southern womanhood". Tom Robinson's trial was juried by poor white farmers who convicted him despite overwhelming evidence of his innocence, as more educated and moderate white townspeople supported the jury's decision. Furthermore, the victim of racial injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird was physically impaired, which made him unable to commit the act he was accused of, but also crippled him in other ways.

The theme of racial injustice appears symbolically in the novel as well. For example, Atticus must shoot a rabid dog, even though it is not his job to do so. He is also alone when he faces a group intending to lynch Tom Robinson and once more in the courthouse during Tom's trial. Lee even uses dreamlike imagery from the mad dog incident to describe some of the courtroom scenes. Jones writes, "[t]he real mad dog in Maycomb is the racism that denies the humanity of Tom Robinson When Atticus makes his summation to the jury, he literally bares himself to the jury's and the town's anger. One of the amazing things about the writing in To Kill a Mockingbird is the economy with which Harper Lee delineates not only race—white and black within a small community—but class.

I mean different kinds of black people and white people both, from poor white trash to the upper crust—the whole social fabric. In a interview, Lee remarked that her aspiration was "to be When Scout embarrasses her poorer classmate, Walter Cunningham, at the Finch home one day, Calpurnia, their black cook, chastises and punishes her for doing so. Scholars argue that Lee's approach to class and race was more complex "than ascribing racial prejudice primarily to 'poor white trash' Lee demonstrates how issues of gender and class intensify prejudice, silence the voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans' conception of the causes of racism and segregation.

Sharing Scout and Jem's perspective, the reader is allowed to engage in relationships with the conservative antebellum Mrs. Dubose; the lower-class Ewells, and the Cunninghams who are equally poor but behave in vastly different ways; the wealthy but ostracized Mr. Dolphus Raymond; and Calpurnia and other members of the black community. The children internalize Atticus' admonition not to judge someone until they have walked around in that person's skin, gaining a greater understanding of people's motives and behavior. The novel has been noted for its poignant exploration of different forms of courage. Atticus is the moral center of the novel, however, and he teaches Jem one of the most significant lessons of courage. Dubose, who is determined to break herself of a morphine addiction, Atticus tells Jem that courage is "when you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what".

Charles J. Shields , who wrote the first book-length biography of Harper Lee, offers the reason for the novel's enduring popularity and impact is that "its lessons of human dignity and respect for others remain fundamental and universal". When Mayella reacts with confusion to Atticus' question if she has any friends, Scout offers that she must be lonelier than Boo Radley. Having walked Boo home after he saves their lives, Scout stands on the Radley porch and considers the events of the previous three years from Boo's perspective.

One writer remarks, " Just as Lee explores Jem's development in coming to grips with a racist and unjust society, Scout realizes what being female means, and several female characters influence her development. Scout's primary identification with her father and older brother allows her to describe the variety and depth of female characters in the novel both as one of them and as an outsider.

Mayella Ewell also has an influence; Scout watches her destroy an innocent man in order to hide her desire for him. The female characters who comment the most on Scout's lack of willingness to adhere to a more feminine role are also those who promote the most racist and classist points of view. Dubose chastises Scout for not wearing a dress and camisole , and indicates she is ruining the family name by not doing so, in addition to insulting Atticus' intentions to defend Tom Robinson. Absent mothers and abusive fathers are another theme in the novel. Scout and Jem's mother died before Scout could remember her, Mayella's mother is dead, and Mrs. Radley is silent about Boo's confinement to the house.

Apart from Atticus, the fathers described are abusers. Radley imprisons his son in his house to the extent that Boo is remembered only as a phantom. Bob Ewell and Mr. Radley represent a form of masculinity that Atticus does not, and the novel suggests that such men, as well as the traditionally feminine hypocrites at the Missionary Society, can lead society astray. Atticus stands apart as a unique model of masculinity; as one scholar explains: "It is the job of real men who embody the traditional masculine qualities of heroic individualism, bravery, and an unshrinking knowledge of and dedication to social justice and morality, to set the society straight. Allusions to legal issues in To Kill a Mockingbird , particularly in scenes outside of the courtroom, have drawn the attention of legal scholars.

Claudia Durst Johnson writes that "a greater volume of critical readings has been amassed by two legal scholars in law journals than by all the literary scholars in literary journals". Many social codes are broken by people in symbolic courtrooms: Mr. Dolphus Raymond has been exiled by society for taking a black woman as his common-law wife and having interracial children; Mayella Ewell is beaten by her father in punishment for kissing Tom Robinson; by being turned into a non-person, Boo Radley receives a punishment far greater than any court could have given him. For example, she refuses to wear frilly clothes, saying that Aunt Alexandra's "fanatical" attempts to place her in them made her feel "a pink cotton penitentiary closing in on [her]".

Songbirds and their associated symbolism appear throughout the novel. Their family name Finch is also Lee's mother's maiden name. The titular mockingbird is a key motif of this theme, which first appears when Atticus, having given his children air-rifles for Christmas, allows their Uncle Jack to teach them to shoot. Atticus warns them that, although they can "shoot all the bluejays they want", they must remember that "it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". She points out that mockingbirds simply provide pleasure with their songs, saying, "They don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. Tom Robinson is the chief example, among several in the novel, of innocents being carelessly or deliberately destroyed.

However, scholar Christopher Metress connects the mockingbird to Boo Radley: "Instead of wanting to exploit Boo for her own fun as she does in the beginning of the novel by putting on gothic plays about his history , Scout comes to see him as a 'mockingbird'—that is, as someone with an inner goodness that must be cherished. Atticus, he was real nice," to which he responds, "Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them. The novel exposes the loss of innocence so frequently that reviewer R. Dave claims that because every character has to face, or even suffer defeat, the book takes on elements of a classical tragedy. She guides the reader in such judgments, alternating between unabashed adoration and biting irony. Scout's experience with the Missionary Society is an ironic juxtaposition of women who mock her, gossip, and "reflect a smug, colonialist attitude toward other races" while giving the "appearance of gentility, piety, and morality".

Despite her editors' warnings that the book might not sell well, it quickly became a sensation, bringing acclaim to Lee in literary circles, in her hometown of Monroeville, and throughout Alabama. Initial reactions to the novel were varied. The New Yorker declared Lee "a skilled, unpretentious, and totally ingenuous writer", [85] and The Atlantic Monthly 's reviewer rated the book "pleasant, undemanding reading", but found the narrative voice—"a six-year-old girl with the prose style of a well-educated adult"—to be implausible.

It underlines no cause To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel of strong contemporary national significance. Not all reviewers were enthusiastic. Some lamented the use of poor white Southerners, and one-dimensional black victims, [87] and Granville Hicks labeled the book " melodramatic and contrived". It's interesting that all the folks that are buying it don't know they're reading a child's book. Somebody ought to say what it is. One year after its publication To Kill a Mockingbird had been translated into ten languages. In the years since, it has sold more than 30 million copies and been translated into more than 40 languages. A survey of secondary books read by students between grades 9—12 in the U.

The 50th anniversary of the novel's release was met with celebrations and reflections on its impact. Native Alabamian sports writer Allen Barra sharply criticized Lee and the novel in The Wall Street Journal calling Atticus a "repository of cracker-barrel epigrams" and the novel represents a "sugar-coated myth" of Alabama history. Barra writes, "It's time to stop pretending that To Kill a Mockingbird is some kind of timeless classic that ranks with the great works of American literature. Its bloodless liberal humanism is sadly dated". Although acknowledging that the novel works, Mallon blasts Lee's "wildly unstable" narrative voice for developing a story about a content neighborhood until it begins to impart morals in the courtroom drama, following with his observation that "the book has begun to cherish its own goodness" by the time the case is over.

Many writers compare their perceptions of To Kill a Mockingbird as adults with when they first read it as children. I promised myself that when I grew up and I was a man, I would try to do things just as good and noble as what Atticus had done for Tom Robinson. One of the most significant impacts To Kill a Mockingbird has had is Atticus Finch's model of integrity for the legal profession. As scholar Alice Petry explains, "Atticus has become something of a folk hero in legal circles and is treated almost as if he were an actual person.

In , an Alabama editorial called for the death of Atticus, saying that as liberal as Atticus was, he still worked within a system of institutionalized racism and sexism and should not be revered. The editorial sparked a flurry of responses from attorneys who entered the profession because of him and esteemed him as a hero. To Kill a Mockingbird has been a source of significant controversy since its being the subject of classroom study as early as The book's racial slurs, profanity, and frank discussion of rape have led people to challenge its appropriateness in libraries and classrooms across the United States.

The American Library Association reported that To Kill a Mockingbird was number 21 of the most frequently challenged books of — Johnson cites examples of letters to local newspapers, which ranged from amusement to fury; those letters expressing the most outrage, however, complained about Mayella Ewell's attraction to Tom Robinson over the depictions of rape. With a shift of attitudes about race in the s, To Kill a Mockingbird faced challenges of a different sort: the treatment of racism in Maycomb was not condemned harshly enough.

This has led to disparate perceptions that the novel has a generally positive impact on race relations for white readers, but a more ambiguous reception by black readers. In one high-profile case outside the U. The terminology in this novel subjects students to humiliating experiences that rob them of their self-respect and the respect of their peers. The word 'Nigger' is used 48 times [in] the novel We believe that the English Language Arts curriculum in Nova Scotia must enable all students to feel comfortable with ideas, feelings and experiences presented without fear of humiliation To Kill a Mockingbird is clearly a book that no longer meets these goals and therefore must no longer be used for classroom instruction. Furthermore, despite the novel's thematic focus on racial injustice, its black characters are not fully examined.

Scout's voice "functions as the not-me which allows the rest of us—black and white, male and female—to find our relative position in society". The novel is cited as a factor in the success of the civil rights movement in the s, however, in that it "arrived at the right moment to help the South and the nation grapple with the racial tensions of the accelerating civil rights movement". Young views the novel as "an act of humanity" in showing the possibility of people rising above their prejudices. Civil War.

Childress states the novel. And most white people in the South were good people. Most white people in the South were not throwing bombs and causing havoc I think the book really helped them come to understand what was wrong with the system in the way that any number of treatises could never do, because it was popular art, because it was told from a child's point of view. Diane McWhorter , Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of the Birmingham campaign , asserts that To Kill a Mockingbird condemns racism instead of racists, and states that every child in the South has moments of racial cognitive dissonance when they are faced with the harsh reality of inequality.

This feeling causes them to question the beliefs with which they have been raised, which for many children is what the novel does. McWhorter writes of Lee, "for a white person from the South to write a book like this in the late s is really unusual—by its very existence an act of protest. I think by calling Harper Lee brave you kind of absolve yourself of your own racism She certainly set the standards in terms of how these issues need to be discussed, but in many ways I feel And that's really distressing. We need a thousand Atticus Finches. McBride, however, defends the book's sentimentality, and the way Lee approaches the story with "honesty and integrity".

During the years immediately following the novel's publication, Harper Lee enjoyed the attention its popularity garnered her, granting interviews, visiting schools, and attending events honoring the book. In , when To Kill a Mockingbird was in its 41st week on the bestseller list, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize , stunning Lee. She also steadfastly refused to provide an introduction, writing in "Introductions inhibit pleasure, they kill the joy of anticipation, they frustrate curiosity. The only good thing about Introductions is that in some cases they delay the dose to come. Mockingbird still says what it has to say; it has managed to survive the years without preamble.

In , Lee was inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor. Daley initiated a reading program throughout the city's libraries, and chose his favorite book, To Kill a Mockingbird , as the first title of the One City, One Book program. Lee declared that "there is no greater honor the novel could receive". It dredges up things in their own lives, their interactions across racial lines, legal encounters, and childhood.

It's just this skeleton key to so many different parts of people's lives, and they cherish it. In , Lee was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Notre Dame. During the ceremony, the students and audience gave Lee a standing ovation, and the entire graduating class held up copies of To Kill a Mockingbird to honor her. In his remarks, Bush stated, "One reason To Kill a Mockingbird succeeded is the wise and kind heart of the author, which comes through on every page To Kill a Mockingbird has influenced the character of our country for the better.

It's been a gift to the entire world. As a model of good writing and humane sensibility, this book will be read and studied forever. In , the novel was listed at No. The Watchman manuscript was believed to have been lost until Lee's lawyer Tonja Carter discovered it, but this claim has been widely disputed. Jaffe, who reviewed the pages at the request of Lee's attorney and found them to be only another draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. The book was made into the well-received film with the same title , starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch. The film's producer, Alan J. Pakula , remembered Universal Pictures executives questioning him about a potential script: "They said, 'What story do you plan to tell for the film?

Lee was pleased with the film, "In that film the man and the part met I've had many, many offers to turn it into musicals, into TV or stage plays, but I've always refused. That film was a work of art". Lee's father died before the film's release. Lee was so impressed with Peck's performance that she gave him her father's pocket watch , which he had with him the evening he was awarded the Oscar for Best Actor. A mob of angry people come to the local jail intending to lynch Tom Robinson. Atticus meets the mob and refuses to let them pass, daring them to attack him. Scout and Jem sneak out of the house to spy on their father and are there to see the mob.

Scout recognizes one of the men, and she asks after his son, who she knows form school. Her innocent questions embarrass him, and he helps to break up the mob in shame. The trial begins. Jem and Scout sit with the Black community in the balcony. Atticus puts up a brilliant defense. The accusers, Mayella Ewell and her father Robert are low-class people and not very bright, and Atticus demonstrates that Bob Ewell had been beating Mayella for years. Mayella propositioned Tom and attempted to seduce him. When her father walked in, she made up the story of rape to save herself from punishment. Bob Ewell is surly and angry that Atticus has made him a fool, but despite these efforts, the jury votes to convict Tom. Scout cannot see well due to her costume and is terrified and confused.

Jem is badly injured, but Boo Radley suddenly rushes to their assistance, killing Bob Ewell with his own knife. Boo then carries Jem to the house. The sheriff, recognizing what has happened, decides that Bob Ewell tripped and fell on his own knife, declining to investigate Boo Radley for the killing. Boo and Scout sit quietly for a while, and she sees that he is a gentle, kind presence. Then he returns to his house. Share Flipboard Email. To Kill a Mockingbird Study Guide. Jeffrey Somers. Literature Expert. Jeff Somers is an award-winning writer who has authored nine novels, over 40 short stories, and "Writing Without Rules," a non-fiction book about the business and craft of writing.

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