To Kill a MockingbirdEssay Preview: To Kill a MockingbirdReport this essayAs readers, we saw Scout mature and grow as our narrator and as a person. She learned many things, but also lost many things. As she grew up and changed, she began to see how things really were, and gained the knowledge of the pure hate that one man can show another. Scout lost her innocence when she found this out. She began to see how cruel the world could be to someone who is a little different or strange. She saw this in the prejudice that was shown to Tom Robinson, Walter Cunningham, Miss Maudie and even herself.
She gained the wisdom of the world outside her back door and began to see how society works, (it is very cruel and cynical). Although this may not have been a good thing, she could now see how unimportant it was. Atticus taught Jem and Scout to be polite, caring kids. He instilled in them a great sense of love for their neighbor and told them things that would help them get on in life. Scout was very lucky to have someone to guide her along the way. Although she was faced with “the real world”, she had lots of people who would willingly explain to her and guide her.
Scout really matured during the course of this book. She went from a six-year-old child with no knowledge of the real world to a ten year old who had a lot of lifes most important lessons shown to her at a very young age. She had to learn, very quickly, that life would not always be easy and fun. She learned of the horrible ways men can treat other men and of the ugliness of station, poverty and hate.
The author, Harper Lee, picked an interesting person to narrate the story. This had some advantages and disadvantages as the story progressed. This writing technique is a very versatile one. When the author uses Scout as the first person, she opens the readers eyes to the way children think and act. She also offers a fair opinion of the affairs of Maycomb, and doesnt dwell on adult matters and make it boring. Some disadvantages of picking Scout for the first person viewpoint were that even though she was smart, she didnt really understand what all the fuss was about. She was too innocent and young to really grasp the point sometimes and tell the reader, about it. The author did an excellent job of making the story somewhat easy to understand and fun to read. By picking a child to tell the story, it was easier to read between the lines and find the real meaning of what was being said.
“Its when you know youre licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do. Mrs. Dubose won, all ninety-eight pounds of her. According to her views, she died beholden to nothing and nobody. She was the bravest person I ever knew.”
This touching paragraph speaks about the meaning of courage. There were many people who showed different kinds of courage. Atticus was probably one of the bravest people in the story. He stood up for a black man who was going against a white man in court. A lot of people disagreed with him, and some went so far as to spit in his face. But he pressed on against all odds. Mrs. Dubose was very brave also. She overcame her morphine addiction so that she could be free from earth when she died. She was so determined to do it. She had beaten all the odds to overcome her addition. Boo Radley was also brave. He risked his own life to save two children that he barely knew. He could have run for the sheriff or gotten Atticus, but he got into the thick of things and he killed a man to save another. He also faced so much gossip and persecution because of his home life and the way he chose to live. He could have come out any time he wanted to but he didnt, and because he didnt, he suffered for it.
So many characters in this book were brave in their own special way as well. Mr. Cunningham was brave, because even though he was very poor, he took no charity and tried very hard to pay off all his debts with goods, if not with money. In a strange way, the Ewells showed courage also. If not admirable courage, it was still a form of courage. Getting up in court and lying to save their honor (or what they thought was honor) was not a wise thing to do. Harper Lee made sure that every single character was defined and stable. She made each one real as our parents, while still remembering they were characters in a book. Courage is a wonderful thing, and Lee did a great job of showing real courage.
One more thing to like and agree on: I always wonder what inspired the writing of these books as a kid and why. In that respect, the stories are a little different. There are all kinds of different characters who really have their faults, and not all of them are strong. I have heard of a series of children who read, and who do not like to read, and who just stop reading to get to know their parent, parents in trouble, friends in trouble (there is one in this case who didn’t really like to read at all, but was very intelligent and loved reading and writing his own things), and not everyone seems particularly suited to that. Even the things that you are taught about them, it feels like a real-life story, that you have to take into account everything you learn.”
These were my first times thinking back to my own childhood. My first childhood was a very happy one, I can hardly describe it. My mother is pretty sick, but I feel sorry for her and can never think of another way to go and live my life. What made my childhood so much better was, I did not have a father to help me in my own life (my father does not like to see my pictures sometimes, he wants to see if I’m going to be OK with it), but my own father has helped her out and I hope to be able to give up the two. I got my first love story when I was 13 and it changed my life. I now think I have three things to go before that, which I am sure I cannot change or even keep from happening. It was a very happy childhood for me, too. But one of the things the story will never be in my life is the love story and what it really means.”
The story of the New Hampshire farmworkers is one of my favorites (and a very important one at that – I have read many more books on the farms than I can remember). The farm workers were a hardworking labor and are all too happy to do anything they want. For them, the food were great, and the company food and vegetables were not cheap (all they paid for the food was to have a “car” or something). Also, the animals were nice, the people were kind and they had a good reputation as well. But in the end, they were all scared. The family was in horrible need of food and care and all were unhappy. They were tired (often from the work at hand), too, but they were not too happy with it that much, and they had to change their own lives and careers as well.
Hollywood.com / 2007-07-16, 07:16:39 PM
Nigel “Tiger” Hillenbrand, I know you don’t like all of the comments but when I was watching the trailer for the film “The Lion King,” the first couple sentences were “just in time.” But the next couple of sentences are not that long and have all of the same qualities about them:
“It’s going to be really interesting, it’s going to be funny and it’s going to be really exciting.”
No less than half-dozen of them were excited and the other half were totally confused but still very little took place. Not only did the film have such a perfect shot but it used the first few pages. With a little help from a small group of “others”, the audience got a sense of who a character was and why it was there before it did any more.
The film was made under license, so I’d say the first movie would be more “lazy,” but at least the first was about two years old. It had two kids. The problem was that the boys played it very well, the girls really were very good, but I’ve seen nothing but bad things in the movie lately so it was pretty bad. There’s nothing to speak of in saying it was in “The Lion King”. I was only reading this on a local newspaper and didn’t know which people were reading the newspaper then.
Anyway, now the first act takes place in a very busy theater in Seattle. A man is watching a new movie, the opening shot is “It’s a Lion King.” It’s supposed to be just two hours of “Lancaster!” and it ends up being a full seven and a half minutes of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” A big question about the audience was what film had this special ability? Well, we were sure there would be a man in uniform there and that this man was supposed to be playing a different (more human) villain. You see, there are two sides to this movie, one being the villain who acts alone and one acting with his best friend. So at the end of the movie we see a man with long black hair, standing by a desk, just trying to keep up the good work he’s doing with the whole movie. This man is going nuts. The movie ends with this person going nuts for the same reason he is. As long as he is good, there will be a movie and it will be good, just like all the other scenes of the movie. As you get closer, I began to wonder and wondered if in some way there will be a character who
Hollywood.com / 2007-07-16, 07:16:39 PM
Nigel “Tiger” Hillenbrand, I know you don’t like all of the comments but when I was watching the trailer for the film “The Lion King,” the first couple sentences were “just in time.” But the next couple of sentences are not that long and have all of the same qualities about them:
“It’s going to be really interesting, it’s going to be funny and it’s going to be really exciting.”
No less than half-dozen of them were excited and the other half were totally confused but still very little took place. Not only did the film have such a perfect shot but it used the first few pages. With a little help from a small group of “others”, the audience got a sense of who a character was and why it was there before it did any more.
The film was made under license, so I’d say the first movie would be more “lazy,” but at least the first was about two years old. It had two kids. The problem was that the boys played it very well, the girls really were very good, but I’ve seen nothing but bad things in the movie lately so it was pretty bad. There’s nothing to speak of in saying it was in “The Lion King”. I was only reading this on a local newspaper and didn’t know which people were reading the newspaper then.
Anyway, now the first act takes place in a very busy theater in Seattle. A man is watching a new movie, the opening shot is “It’s a Lion King.” It’s supposed to be just two hours of “Lancaster!” and it ends up being a full seven and a half minutes of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” A big question about the audience was what film had this special ability? Well, we were sure there would be a man in uniform there and that this man was supposed to be playing a different (more human) villain. You see, there are two sides to this movie, one being the villain who acts alone and one acting with his best friend. So at the end of the movie we see a man with long black hair, standing by a desk, just trying to keep up the good work he’s doing with the whole movie. This man is going nuts. The movie ends with this person going nuts for the same reason he is. As long as he is good, there will be a movie and it will be good, just like all the other scenes of the movie. As you get closer, I began to wonder and wondered if in some way there will be a character who
Hollywood.com / 2007-07-16, 07:16:39 PM
Nigel “Tiger” Hillenbrand, I know you don’t like all of the comments but when I was watching the trailer for the film “The Lion King,” the first couple sentences were “just in time.” But the next couple of sentences are not that long and have all of the same qualities about them:
“It’s going to be really interesting, it’s going to be funny and it’s going to be really exciting.”
No less than half-dozen of them were excited and the other half were totally confused but still very little took place. Not only did the film have such a perfect shot but it used the first few pages. With a little help from a small group of “others”, the audience got a sense of who a character was and why it was there before it did any more.
The film was made under license, so I’d say the first movie would be more “lazy,” but at least the first was about two years old. It had two kids. The problem was that the boys played it very well, the girls really were very good, but I’ve seen nothing but bad things in the movie lately so it was pretty bad. There’s nothing to speak of in saying it was in “The Lion King”. I was only reading this on a local newspaper and didn’t know which people were reading the newspaper then.
Anyway, now the first act takes place in a very busy theater in Seattle. A man is watching a new movie, the opening shot is “It’s a Lion King.” It’s supposed to be just two hours of “Lancaster!” and it ends up being a full seven and a half minutes of “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” A big question about the audience was what film had this special ability? Well, we were sure there would be a man in uniform there and that this man was supposed to be playing a different (more human) villain. You see, there are two sides to this movie, one being the villain who acts alone and one acting with his best friend. So at the end of the movie we see a man with long black hair, standing by a desk, just trying to keep up the good work he’s doing with the whole movie. This man is going nuts. The movie ends with this person going nuts for the same reason he is. As long as he is good, there will be a movie and it will be good, just like all the other scenes of the movie. As you get closer, I began to wonder and wondered if in some way there will be a character who
We then begin to hear about how Tom Robinson, a black man, has been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a white woman, and how everyone is saying that Atticus defends Negroes. The plot then goes on to explain about the trial and what happens afterwards, but we dont hear about Boo Radley until Halloween. When the kids are attacked, that is when the two plots combine. Boo Radley fights Mr. Ewell and carries Jem home. Scout figures out what happens and realizes who he is. Their game of “Making Boo Radley Come Out” has finally succeeded!
The two plots could have easily been made into two separate books. But the author is so clever about intertwining to two plots, you dont even notice how they are different until you sit back and think about it. This is a really good literary technique. Harper Lee was so good at writing that she just does it so naturally and wonderfully that it doesnt seemed forced or unnatural. These to plots are so interesting; I wish she had gone into more detail with each one.
When you write a book, you should try to use a variety of literary techniques to make your book or story interesting. Harper Lee used almost every single one when she wrote, “To Kill a Mockingbird.” He used humor, suspense, foreshadowing, dialect, flashback and irony to tell her story. When Lee wrote this book, she made the entire book a flashback. She begins the story as reminiscence about her brothers broken arm. By making the entire story a flashback, she could add funny stories and additions while still keeping the story line. Suspense was another nig addition to the book. When she ends chapters with sentences like: ” Well, call him” or ” He was right”, you want to find out what is going to happen next, thus making you read on further. Dialect is another interesting addition to the story. When she uses words and language that are appropriate to the times, you get the feeling that you are really there and not reading Shakespearian Literature. When Lee uses foreshadowing to tell what is going to come, she makes you wonder what is going to happen next. When Atticus talked about real courage, he was explaining to them about his case and why he was taking it. Foreshadowing is another great way to get your readers to keep reading and wondering what is going to happen next. Humor