Themes In 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

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Theme 1. High focus on morals/ and the education of morlas. A major theme throughout the novel To Kill A Mockingbird is the importance on having high morals. Jem and Scout learn these lessons through their father, Atticus, Mrs.Dubose, Tom Robinson’s trial, and Boo Radley. In the book they learn things such as it is important to not judge people based on their race, or even by the hurtful words people can say. In a more detailed case Atticus asks Scout to not fight when she hears people degrading him, more typically when we are talking about the Tom Robinson case and being called a “nigger-lover.” The 19994 movie The War starring Elijah Wood, and Kevin Costner is what I believe to be an adaptation of To Kill A Mockingbird, but set near the…show more content…
His experience with Tom Robinson, Bob Ewell and Mrs. Dubose shape him into the rigid, and smart boy he becomes by the end of the book, and again Bob Ewell, and Boo Radley shape him into the cautious, outgoing side that we also see emerge within the last few chapters of the book. All of these characteristics help us form Jem’s final character, and help lead the bildungsroman that is To Kill A Mockingbird. The character that most closely represents Jem in my mind is Gordie Lachance from the movie Stand By me. Stand By Me is actually classified as a bildungsroman movie itself and, is based off of a writer recounting the journey he and his friends take one summer to go and find a dead body of a kid that was their age. Gordie in the movie is dealing with a loss of his own brother a year prior to the boy getting killed. Gordie sets off as a twelve year old boy but is changed by this couple day long journey and transformed into a man. At the beginning of his journey he has a run in with a deadly junkyard dog (named chopper) that has been known to be trained to “sick balls” as the boys put it in the movie. Now this part is rather humorous but I believe that this dog is what Boo Radley is to Jem. Jem has many misconceptions about what Boo looks like and what he has done, and the same goes for chopper. Jem never meets Boo but he learns from talk about him to not always believe what you hear. Gordie, however meets chopper, but also learns to not always believe in what you hear. After Gordie outruns chopper he scales a fence and regroups with his buddies, and when he turns around the first thing he says is “thats chopper?!” in a tone of disbelief. At the near end of the movie they come across the dead boy, and the effect it has on all the boys is extreme. As they come across the dead boy, a group of older and thug like boys come the side

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