"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee shows, through the use of irony and characterization, that ignorance is present in the town of Maycomb and how determination can combat prejudice.

Essay by 415farberHigh School, 10th gradeA-, March 2006

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Literary Analysis

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader of the civil rights movement that took place in the United States. This quote is one of his most famous ones, it signifies what he was trying to accomplish through all of his speeches and marches. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about Scout and her brother Jem growing up in the racist town of Maycomb, Alabama. The message that Harper Lee is trying to get across is that ignorance causes prejudice, but can be defeated through the determination of others when they stand up for what is right. Through the use of irony and characterization Lee shows the ignorance that is present in the town of Maycomb and how determination can combat prejudice.

With the use of irony Harper Lee shows that the people of Maycomb are ignorant. Maycomb is split into three different types of communities. There is the poor black community. There are the white farmers who are as poor as the black community. There is also the middle-class white community. In the town there is a building and the "Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays."(Lee 118). This is very ironic. The blacks use the building as their church and the whites use it as their casino. For some, people believe that it is gods command for people not to gamble. The whites don't care if this may be what the blacks of Maycomb believe. The whites are being ignorant of what the blacks...