TO+KILL+A+MOCKINGBIRD+ESSAY

In Harper Lee's novel, //To Kill a Mockingbird//, an unfortunate, yet inevitable truth is made obvious: the fact that innocent people are, more oftn than not, unjustly accused and punished. Lee describes this as the act of "killing a mockingbird", because, as she tells it, mockingbirds do not make inconvenient nestts, destroy flowers, or eat crops. They do not do anything harmful to us, but instead create beautiful songs for us to listen to. This is why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.

In Lee's novel, the main character is a young girl, who has been nicknamed "Scout" by her friends and family. Scout's father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer, in fact, one of the best and most respected lawyers in their home, Maycomb County. Maycomb county is southern, and as many already know, southern towns in this time period are extremely racist towards african americans, although Scout, and her brother Jem, hardly understand why. In this novel, Scouts father is chosen by the court to defend an inocent black man by the name of Tom Robinson, for a rape and battery charge. All of Maycomb ia aware that he is not guilty, but because white men are pleading him guilty, it is also apparent that there is no socially acceptable way that he can win. "'Given' said atticus, 'Tom Robinson's a colored man, Jem. No court in this part of the worlds going to say 'we think youre guilty, but not very' on a charge like that. It was either a straight acquittal or nothing.'" (Lee, 219) This quote protrays the lack of respect, or even aknowledgement, that colored people were given in this era. even as the jury knew that Tom Robinson was innocent, the jury, made up completley of white men, pleaded guilty, and Tom was killed in prison, because he was black, this is Lee's first portrayal of "killing a mockingbird".

in Scout ans Jem's neighborhood, there is a hermit, who has been nicknamed "Boo Radley" by the comunity, due to the fact that he has not left his house in twenty years, spiking rediculous rumors. "Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. people said he existed, but jem and i had never seen him. people said he went out at night when the mooon was down, and peeped in windows. when people's azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he breathed on them. any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work." (Lee, 9) this quote is one of the many stories that were created, out of curiosity, about "Boo". as the novel progresses, Scout and Jem begin to realize how silly and fake these stories are, as "boo" committed small actsof kindness towards the children, by leaving them small gifts, and, eventually, saving their lives from a psychotic man who is trying to get back at Atticus for defending Tom Robinson. as Scout meets "Boo" or Arthur Radley, and he speaks the only words words anyone has ever heard him say. "Will you take me home?" (Lee, 278), it finally becomes clear to Scout that the society, once again, has preformed the act of "killing a mockingbird" by alienating a man, who, in truth, is just scared.

" 'if you had been on that jury, son, and eleven other boys like you, Tom would be a free man' said Atticus, 'so far, nothing in your life has interfered with your reasoning process. those are twelve reasonable men in everyday life, Tom's jury, but you saw something come between them and reason.' " (Lee, 220) in this novel, it is well portrayed that the adults' sense of judgement is severely corrupted when social "rules" or habits are brought into play. at the same time, it seems that children in such societies are the only people who are capable of seeing the obvious: right and wrong. over the course of the story, this is shown in many different ways, by many different scenarios, one being Tom Robinson's trial, in which this was shown by Jem's crying, and Atticus replying with: "i don't know why they did it. they've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it-it seems that only children weep." (Lee, 213)

throuought her novel, //To Kill a Mockingbird//, Harper Lee has portrayed, in several ways, the corruption of the society she had grown up in. clearly, it was shown that Lee had much more common sense than most adults, even when she was seven. it was also made obvious that Lee still has more common sense than the adults of her time, in her willingness to novelize her experiences, in seeing, time and time again, her community "kill its mockingbirds".