To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a wonderful example of fiction at its best. The novel is the story of Scout Finch, but it also the story of many other characters. Jem, Boo, Tom, Cal, Maudie, Atticus, Alexandra, and the Ewells all add to Scout's world, and our perception of them is essential in understanding the main themes of this book. Although many themes are provoked from this novel, the most prominent are love and hate, courage and weakness, the obvious and the hidden, the old and new ways, morals, maturity, and prejudice. The new way, morals, and courage are what motivate most of the actions of Atticus, the "conscience" of the book. The old way is what drives Aunt Alexandra to try to make Scout into a "southern lady." Bob Ewell, and the decision of the jury in the trial portray weakness and hate. Maturity is what Scout and Jem struggle with throughout the novel. Tom Robinson is in the book to enforce the extreme prejudices against blacks at the time. And while Cal and Maudie represent the obvious good in everybody, Boo represents the hidden good.
I think that although this book was written in the 1960s, the height of the civil rights movement, it is still very much applicable to the lives we all lead today. The aforementioned themes are always present. There’s always prejudice in the world, though it may not be to the same thing or for the same reason. Along with prejudices come the “new way,” in which we try to eliminate such thoughts, and it is always a slow change from old to new. Love, hate, courage, weakness, and morals are things that we all have inside ourselves, and we are always in an internal battle to make the love, courage, and morals conquer the hate and weakness. Another "battle" we all endure is the one to try to find the hidden joys of life, and to not just accept and enjoy the obvious but to be curious and find the hidden as well. For if we all settle for the obvious joys, the obvious problems, and the obvious solutions, we will never enjoy life for what it truly has to offer. And lastly, we all struggle with maturity. This struggle is one that starts the day we are born and does not end until the day we die; there is always something we can't understand yet, or someone who we can't connect to. There is not just one moment when we finally become mature, it is lots of little moments, little decisions, little realizations, and little actions that help us to mature. Harper Lee does an amazing job of showing us these little moments in all the characters' lives. There are still a few questions i have after reading this book. Why do you think Harper Lee chose to have Jem go through his moody and withdrawn phase? Also, why did Harper Lee make it so that only Scout meets Boo, when Jem and Dill spent so much time trying to meet him?
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I agree with Caroline's reflection of the book. To Kill A Mockingbird has many morals and themes that we take into consideration each passing day. This aspect of the novel makes the book timeless and brilliant. I believe Harper Lee decided to have Jem go through his moody and withdrawn phase because it is a perfect example of change: "old ways and new ways," (as Caroline said above) which is a major theme in the book. Also Jem is a perfect way to portray the books morals and lessons. Lessons of maturity and and morals can be taken from this book and those lessons are shown through the children, Jem, Scout and Dill. I feel it was the most important to have Scout meet Boo, considering throughout the book the legend of Boo was a way Harper Lee portrayed Scouts change in maturity. Scout being the protagonist and the narrator it is important she met Boo because through that seen it really shows how far Scout has come from being scared of Boo to escorting him home. A question that came to mind as i read this final chapter is, how would the end have been different if Dill was around when Scout met Boo Radley?
ReplyDeleteI agree with both of the above statements. I think that because Scout was the protagonist she had to focus in on her. I also believe that Scout's attitude towards Boo differed a bit from the boys. Scout had thoughts about Boo that were more civilized. Another reason Harper Lee may have included this detail in addition to that. As a young person you are heavily influenced by the people around you. Especially your parents, siblings, and people close to you. I think that this was important because it made Scout her own individual person. Though we as the reader see her as Scout, most people in Maycomb probably looked at her as Atticus's daughter or Jem's sister. I was also intrigued by the fact that Scout walked Boo home. Why is this important? Why is it that when she looks down from the porch she sees things differently? Why is this important?
ReplyDeleteGood job on the reflection, Caroline--I agree that all of the characters in the book helped to shape Scout as she grew up. Her growth is more significant than Jem's because while Jem has Atticus to look up to as a father, Scout had to find a mother figure, and she found it in various different people. Throughout the book, her relationships with Calpurnia, Miss Maudie and Aunt Alexandra grow, and she's influenced by three very different examples of strong women. To answer Karissa's question, I think the porch scene is symbolic in showing how she sees things from his perspective. Atticus told Scout to put herself in other people's shoes, and when she stood on Boo Radley's porch, she could see things from his eyes and noted the daily things he must see Jem and Scout do everyday. As Brace commented, it shows the change in Scout from being afraid and in awe to wanting to be friends to walking Boo home and standing on his front porch. "I had never seen our neighborhood from this angle," (373) shows how not only had she never physically seen his view, but she hadn't pictured what he must see every day. Scout also talked about how she felt badly that she hadn't given Boo anything in return for all the gifts and for saving their lives, but then she realizes that she gave him the ability to love and care about them as if they were his own children. He even "refers" to them as "his children"...why do you think?
ReplyDelete{ Comment: I really, really liked this book :) }
I think that Boo only meets Scout, because they are mentally equal at this point in the novel. This is portrayed by Boo's fear of walking home alone and his inability to communicate, which are childish traits. While with Boo, Scout exceeds his abilities when she creates the illusion that he was escorting her, rather the reality. After she dropped him off, she saw the world through his eyes, and as Atticus suggested, put herself in his shoes. This gives her a greater understanding of life, and is a major step in her maturity. As she walks back home, she realizes that she has learned pretty much everything that there is to learn. Also, I think that she only sees Boo this one time, because she doesn't need him anymore; and if she ever were to, he would be watching over her from his post.
ReplyDeleteMy final question: Do you think that Atticus will act differently towards Jem and Scout after the incident or not? Why?
I agree with all of the comments said above. Harper Lee does an incredible job in pointing out the not so obvious truth about racism, and it makes me wonder what she had experienced to write such a clever novel to touch upon every single key aspect that symbolizes a deeper meaning trying to be put out into the open. This novel makes me wonder if characters such as Scout or Boo are supposed to reflect off of Harper Lee herself. She ended the novel by making several simple and clear morals: Never judge anyone until you have stepped into their shoes and seen their point of view.... and simply that racism has to stop one day and it will be better if it was sooner than later. One question that I was left with was: When Scout says on page 370, 'Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?' and then Atticus says to Arthur, 'Thank you for my children, Arthur,' does it mean that Boo/Arthur was really the one who killed Bob Ewell but Heck and Atticus just don't want to drag him into the heat? Is it not that they feel that he's done so much to stay out of trouble for his whole life and one of the few nights he comes out of his house he would be accused of murder. They would feel that it would be like the title of the book, they feel that it would be like to kill a mockingbird, so they leave him out of it. That is my analysis, anyway. Another point I wanted to add to the discussion was the scene when Scout accompanied Arthur back to his house. In this scene Scout says that she has never seen the neighborhood in the view of Arthur's front porch. It shows that Arthur never needed to come out of his house because he could witness everything he needed to in the comfort of his own house. It shows that all of these years he's chosen to stay inside his house and out of the line of fire. He was never the crazy monster like Scout, Jem, and Dill had thought of him to be. He was just an anxious quiet man observing the monstrous deeds of others. This is like what Atticus had said: You can never judge a person until you have stepped into their shoes for a while.
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