Text analysis
From To kill a mockingbird (by Harper Lee)
Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.
(To kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee)
Nelle Harper Lee (born April 28, 1926) is an American author known for her 1961 Pulitzer-Prize-winning novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown of Monroeville, Alabama. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962. Lee was 34 when the work was published, and it has remained her only novel. Despite being Lee’s only published book, it led to her being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her contribution to literature.
Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her father was a former newspaper editor and proprietor, who had served as a state senator and practiced as a lawyer in Monroeville. Lee studied law at the University of Alabama from 1945 to 1949, and spent a year as an exchange student in Oxford University, Wellington Square. Six months before finishing her studies, she went to New York to pursue a literary career. She worked as an Airline reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways during the 1950s.
The Essay on Novel "To Kill A Mockingbird" By Harper Lee
The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is unique because it contains two plot lines and climaxes. Harper Lee has skilfully combined the two plots in the one story to enhance the impact of the novel on the reader. The two plots are strategically interwoven in the novel and make the novel more interesting as well as emphasising the themes and symbolism contained in the novel. ...
The famous writings are To Kill a Mockingbird (1960); “Christmas to Me” (December 1961); “When Children Discover America” (August 1965); “Romance and High Adventure” (1983).
The abstract is set in Alabama in the 1930s. Atticus Finch, a lawyer and a father, defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a poor white girl, Mayella Ewell. The setting and several of the characters are drawn from life – Finch was the maiden name of Lee’s mother and the character of Dill was drawn from Capote, Lee’s childhood friend.
The narrator is Finch’s daughter, nicknamed Scout. Scout tells the story in her own point of view. Scout and Jem were where Atticus gave his speech to the jury. Attitus decides to take up a case involving a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused in raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell. Attitus is sure in his defendant’s innocence but Tom has almost no chance to be acquitted, because the white jury will never believe the black man more than a white woman.Atticus explained that the case is very simple, because there is no medical evidence to prove Tom’s guilt. Atticus explained that Mayella had, “broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society” by attempting to seduce a black man. He explained that Mayella followed her desires even though she was aware of the social taboos against her actions. Having broken one of society’s strictest codes, she chose to, “put the evidence of her offense,” namely Tom Robinson, away from her by testifying against him.
Atticus spoke directly to the jury, earnestly reminding them that there are honest and dishonest black people just as there are honest and dishonest white people. He tells the jury that in a court of law, “all men are created equal.” A court is, however, no better than the members of its jury, and he urges the jury to do their duty.
The Essay on Tom Christian Black Hypocrisy
In my opinion theme with the most impact in 'To Kill a Mockingbird" is Hypocrisy as shown in three main incidents. These are the teachings of Ms Gates about the atrocities of Adolf Hitler whilst she hated blacks; the missionary circle trying to show how Christian they are while believing that to be a brother of Christ you must be white and finally the hypocrisy of the American court system in the ...
As the jury returned, Scout noticed that not a single member of the jury looks at Tom, and she took this as a bad sign. Every man declared Tom guilty. All the black people in the balcony stood up to honor Atticus.
The narrator and main character who told the story was Scout, Jean Louise, a daughter of Atticus Finch. Atticus is an experienced smart lawyer and an extremely morally upright man who strives to deal with everyone fairly. Then, Tom Robinson, a black man who was falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Atticus was appointed to take his case, even though he would do his best. Mayella Ewell, a girl, who broke the social rule by trying to seduce Tom Robinson, by accusing him of rape and she was against him in a court. And Jem was a son of Atticus.
The abstract could be divided into four parts. The first part, the exposition, starts with the speech of Atticus Finch to the jury in the courtroom. He is a perfect lawyer and he proves it. He speaks “easily, with the kind of detachment he uses when he dictates a letter”. With strong brevity he tries to make the jury believe that Tom is not guilty. He says that the case “requires no minute sifting of complicated facts” and compares it with black and white. This case of similily shows that Atticus uses the simplest words for people better to understand what he means. By using simple words he tries to show the complicated situation and to clear it up to all people.
The second part is the development of his speech to the jury. According to his provided evidence Mayella Ewell was guilt, but not Tom. The author compares her with “a child, who hides stolen contraband”. Using this simile the author tries to explain her wrong behavior.
In this part of the extract there are a huge amount of different stylistic devices, which make the text more vivid and understandable for the reader. For example, there are rhetorical questions which Atticus asks and answers himself (what did she do? She tempted a negro), then such device as anadiplosis “I have nothing but pity… but my pity does not extend so far as to her putting a man’s life at stake”, or repetition “She has broken a code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live”. These words underline the general passage atmosphere. Speaking about Mayella, Atticus repeats the verb “must” to express the situation from Mayella’s point of view: “…she must put him away from her — he must be removed from her presence, from this world. She must destroy the evidence of her offense.” Atticus characterizes Tom Robinson from his point of view, using adjectives: quiet, respectable, humble. He proves the fact that the Negro is not worse and in some way even better than many of white people. To show his idea he uses repetition (anaphora): “some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around the women – black or white”.
The Essay on Black man and white women
The story "Black Man and White Women in Dark Green Rowboat”, written by Russell Banks, is about an interracial relationship on the brink of disaster. The story opens up on an extremely hot day in August at a trailer park that is right next to a lake with a variety of people who live there. I was not immediately aware that the black man and the white woman were the focus of the story, but those ...
Atticus ends his speech with Thomas Jefferson’s words – “all men are created equal”, and there is one institution where all are equal – it is a court. The court is “one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president”. Here, the author used the parallel construction which emphasizes the effect of statement. But Atticus understands that the jury can make a mistake because:”The court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up”.
The third part, the climax, is the waiting for the decision. Here we feel a strong tension, because what was possible to do Atticus did, and nothing could help to change the decision of the jury. “The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge.” To emphasize Atticus’s feelings the author uses the repetition.
Atticus’s children were very attentive and wait for the result as all people in the courtroom and especially as their father: “Jem’s hands were white from gripping the balcony rail”. Here we see the repetition of the word “guilty”, which shows the tightness in the air, and describing the Jem’s feelings – a comparison: each ““guilty” was a separate stab between them”.
The forth part, the denouement of the abstract, is the great respect that was shown by all people who stood up, because everybody understood that Atticus did his best to protect the innocent. “I looked around. They were standing. All around us and in the balcony on the opposite wall, the Negroes were getting to their feet”.
According to reading the abstract we can easily understand that the author Harper Lee is a lawyer, because the abstract is written with use of law terminology, making reader a participant of the events: medical evidence, witness, court-room, jury, case, guilt of the defendant, cross-examination.
The Essay on All Men Are Created Equal
The statement, “All Men Are Created Equal” is an understanding that there is no natural class of rulers among the people. Which means everyone is equal by law. The United States Declaration of Independence says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the ...
Having read this abstract we observed many important themes here. The first theme is Good and Evil. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exploration of human morality, and presents a constant conversation regarding the inherent goodness or evilness of people. Atticus believes that people usually contain aspects of both good and evil, but that good will usually prevail. The proof of this is the fact that he works to defend Tom Robinson, an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. Atticus struggles on, because he believes that one day, goodness will prevail over the evils of racism and racial equality will exist.
The second theme is Social Inequality. Everyone should be treated the same, no matter what family, what races, what religion or what country they are from.
The most complicated theme in this story is the theme of Racism. Obviously, racism is a major theme of the novel. Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird during a very tense time racially in her home state of Alabama. Clearly, a prime subject of To Kill a Mockingbird, namely the injustice of racism and inequality in the American South, was highly relevant at the time of its publication. Throughout the novel, we noticed the differences between black people and white people. Tom Robinson is convicted purely because he is a black man and his accuser is white. The evidence is so powerfully in his favor, that race is clearly the single defining factor in the jury’s decision.
In conclusion, I would like to say that the words which I wrote in the beginning of the whole the analyses are directly tell us to be more attentive to people who are near, to distinct bad and good sides of our everyday life, to be helpful and friendly to people and the most significant is to have a real bravery to speak about things which are not accepted in the society, but to believe that you are really true.
