To kill a mokingbird

Essay by EssaySwap ContributorHigh School, 10th grade February 2008

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The main theme in this book To Kill a Mocking Bird is predjudiceprejudice and apartheid, and how easy it is for children to take right conclusions and how they see the difference between right and wrong. It can’t be helpful for a kid to be raised up in anenvironmenta enviorment that is full of hate and racism wardsto the black americansAmericans and those who are outsiders in the society. The book it self could be a instructions to human nature, that is howwho people can behave cruelly.

Scout or Jean Louise Finch, the main character was heavily affected by these lessons in human nature and they put ithere mark on her. Those three years the book takes place she learned many importantimpact things whothat will ofallow her the rest of her life.

One of the persons who eaffected Scouts life the most, except Atticus, was Boo Radley or Arthur Radley. He brought fear and then finally relief to her life. In the beginning kids thought that he was evil and mean, because there was this rumours that he once “drove the scissors into his parent’s leg, pulled them out, wiped them on his pants, and resumed his activities.”1 that is he tried to kill them. Even though it was just a rumour, both Jem and Scout were terrified ofwith the Radleys. Jem describes him as a monster “six-and-a-half-feet tall, judging from his tracks”2 and with “blood-stained”3 hands. He was said to eat “raw squirrels and any cats he could catch”4 . The rest of the book Scout, Jem and occasionally Dill tried to meet Boo (Arthur) and trying to get over the fear of him. They did not succeedinsucceed that but he showed them that he was well aware of what they were doing and left them a gifts in a hole of a tree. Finally, in the end of the book, Boo proves he is a good person when he saves Scout and Jem’s lives when Bob Ewell was going after them. Then Boo proved that he is a good citizen and Scout learned that it is wrong to prejudge someone before you get to know him.+ Scout also learnt about the ugly things in life. She learned aAbout pain and death. That lesson took place when her brother Jem had to read to a sick and ydieing lady named Mrs. Dubose. She had been a morphine addict and had decided to come clean till her death. To die as a free woman, to die knowing she had won. Scout describes her as ana ugly lady and during their reading sessions she would have some kind of spasm-fits. Her head moved from side to side and she drooled. “Her mouth seemed to have a private existence of its own. It worked separareseparate and apart from the rest of her”5 . After many reading sessions with her makinghaving a nasty comments toon Scout each time, she died.

Probably the most important person in Scout’s life was the one who tried to give her a good example. That was her father, who she never called dad. She called him Atticus, probably because everybody else did. He taught Scout and Jem how to deal with people. One of his lessons was about to be the bigger and wiser person. When Bob Ewell (evil) spit in Atticus’s face and threatendthreatened his life, he didn’t do anything about it and walked a away. All he had to say later was, “I wish Bob Ewell wouldn’t chew tobacco.”6 Atticus reacts with his brain not his emotions, and he encourages Scout to do the same.+ Another thing he teaches is respect. Respect for people who are diffrentdifferent, like. People such as Boo Radley. The kids had been acting out a play which involved Boo’s scissor incident. They also tried to give him a letter, so he would come out to meet them. But Atticus found out about both incidents and made them stop it. And told them themthat “What MrMr. Radley did was his own business.”7 Atticus also toughttaught them to respect the black people. He once told Jem that if a white man cheats a black man, “no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine family he comes from, that man is trash.”8 There were two more things that really helped the kids out. The first was a valuable example that was set by Atticus. He had been told to defend Tom Robinson. The case was lost because he was beaten before he started, and it would bring a hate over the kids and himselfhim. Atticus knew that but he didn´didn’t give up, as he told his brother, “do you think I could face my children otherwise”9 Scout heard this conversations and understood it in later years. This toughttaught her to stick to what she belivedbelieved in.+ A lesson in effort and commitment was also demonstrated by Mrs. Mrs. Dubose also demonstrated a lesson in effort and commitment. After she found out that she would die soon she decided to quit on morphine. That must have been very hard for her, to just quit one day.

And finally a warning for Scout. The warning came from Boo Radley, a man who keeptkept away from society because he seemed to fear it. His life is a prefect testimony tofor all the bad and uglynessugliness of our world.

It became aparentapparent that the things that the kids learnt are all very important some maybe the most important during their lifetime. This is why these years may have been some of the most important years of their lifeslives. And that all the experinecesexperiences that they went through were essential.

I do think that Atticus was giving his reallygiving hisreally best shot, raising his kids up. His wife died when Scout was very young and I admire Atticus as a person. He tried to be both parents plus he worked a lot. This story is not a fiction, but a story based on Lee Harpers life. So she must have had aa lot of difficulties when she was a youngster. This was the only book she ever wrote and it turned out to be a master piecemasterpiece