|
|
|
 
To Kill A Mockingbird: Prejudice
Miss Harper Lee has chosen Scout as a first person narrator in this story.
This narrative technique has many strengths and some weaknesses. Scout is
a bright, sensitive and intelligent little girl. For all her intelligence,
she is still a child and does not always fully understand the implications
of the events she reports. This is sometimes amusing, as the time she
thinks Miss Maudie's loud voice scares Miss Stephanie. Scout does her best
to inform us of the happenings at the Tom Robinson trial. Yet, she is not
certain what rape is, and is neither aware of the prejudice state
surrounding her. Ultimately she represents the innocence within society.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout Finch, a little girl growing up in a small
Southern town, tells the story of her childhood, when she witnessed the
trial of a Negro falsely accused of raping a white woman. The Negro's
lawyer is Scout's father, Atticus Finch. He defends the Negro vigorously,
though he expects to lose the case. As well as being the story of childhood,
it is also the story of the struggle for equality of the American Negro.
To Kill A Mockingbird can be read as the story of a child's growth and
maturation. Almost every incident in the novel contributes something to
Scout's perception of the world. Through her experiences she grows more
tolerant of others, learning how to " climb into another person's skin and
walk around in it." On her first day of school she finds that there are
both social and poor classes in society, some are respectable and others
not. She also learns that her father is an extra-ordinary man, fighting
for a Negro's rights in court. At the trial of Tom Robinson Scout learns
about equality and inequality, about justice and injustice and finally
about racial prejudice.
Many times during the course of the novel the idea of the mockingbird comes
to mind. We first hear of the bird when the children are given there first
air rifles for Christmas, There father warns them to never shoot the
songbird, saying to do so would be a sin. During the trial of Tom Robinson,
it occurs to the reader that the Negro has many characteristics he shares
with the mockingbird, He is a gentle man, who has never harmed anyone and
only tried to help. His murder is as much a sin as the killing of any
innocent creature. By the end of the novel we see that the hermit Boo
Radley is also like the mockingbird. He is shy and gentle, living quietly
and harming no one. Near the end of the novel, Boo saves the children from
being killed. Scout realizes that bringing Boo into the limelight would
only be like killing the songbird. Many themes and ideas are presented in
this novel, the sympathy theme is one of the main ones.
Throughout the novel, Atticus repeats to Scout an Jem the importance of
seeing things from another point of view in order to understand what the
other person is feeling. The theme of childhood is also another important
one. The story takes place over a period of years, and the reader takes
part in the adventure of the child growing up in a small Southern town.
To Kill A Mockingbird is a fascinating story about a trial of a Negro man
in a small Southern town. This novel is a must for every person to read
because it not only displays the racial tensions in a small town and the
effects it has on it's citizens, but it displays it through the eyes of a
young innocent, six year old child.
|
|
|
