Themes In Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

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The story “To Kill a Mockingbird,” really teaches you a lot of life lessons. It’s narrated by Scout, and mainly focuses on her a few topics. Jem, Scout, and Dill trying to see Boo Radley. Atticus, Jem and Scout’s father, defending Tom Robinson, who is wrongly being accused of raping Miss Mayella. The story also exposes Jem, Scout, and especially Dill to cruel racism. An example world be when Mr. Gilmer was cross-examining Tom. Mr. Gilmer was calling Tom boy and talking to him in a hateful manner as Dill described it. This book had three major themes that really stood out, especially in the setting of the1930s. The three major themes that stuck out to me were in this essay, racism, love, and fear. I will identify and discuss three themes central to the understanding of the novel. The first theme that I feel can help you understand the novel is racism. I said rascism because of the setting of the story. This story took place in Maycob, Alabama during the 1930s, which was a time when segregation was high. According to Miss Maudie, “Mokingbirds 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…show more content…
There are a lot of things to fear in this novel as they get exposed to things such as rasicim and cruelty. One example is when Mr. Gilmer was cross-examining Tom Robinson. Mr. Glimer was calling Tom boy and speaking to him without respct, and Dill didn’t understand why. Dill was scared and felt sick because Mr. Gilmer was talking to Tom so bad. Another example would be when Dill dared Jem to try and get Boo Radley to come out. When Jem said to Scout “If I got killed, what’d become of you?” In my opinion, Jem said this with little thought to Scout. I feel like he said that because he was scared. Jem also said "It's just that I can't think of a way to make him come out without him gettin' us." That proved that he was
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