To+Kill+A+Mockingbird+Essay

In the classic novel __To Kill A Mockingbird__ by Harper Lee, we’re taught of the cruelty and racism going on during the 1930’s. Innocent people were blamed for other’s actions, when in reality they’re just good people that enjoy doing nice things for others. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are the two relations to mockingbirds in this book because they don’t do anything but nice things for other people. Prejudice and ignorant people are who to blame for the horrible things that happen to these good people in Maycomb. The first mockingbird in this book is Tom Robinson, a colored man who works for Miss Mayella Ewell out of the pure kindness of his heart. After being accused of raping Mayella, he is sent to court where he explains he didn’t do anything to harm her and that Mayella’s father, Bob Ewell, was the only person who harmed her on that night. After Tom did chores for Mayella for free, she still blamed him because she knew that the people would believe her and Mr. Ewell instead of a colored man. “You did all this chopping and work from sheer goodness, boy?” “Tried to help her, I says.” “You’re a mighty good fellow, it seems-did all this for not one penny?” This quote stated on page 197 of the book, shows a conversation between Tom Robinson and Mr. Ewells lawyer, Mr. Gilmer. Tom’s a mockingbird because he did nothing but good things for Mayella, and in the end he was the one to be blamed. Boo Radley is another great example of a mockingbird in this novel. Every person in Maycomb thinks that Boo Radley is some crazy rebel who causes all of the crimes in Maycomb. At the beginning of the book, I think that Jem and Jean Louise thought that Boo was just like everybody had said he was throughout the years. But, towards the end they came to realize that he was just a quiet person who liked to keep to himself and at the same time do good things for Jem and Jean Louise. On page 9 Jean says, “Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.” At the end she realized that this wasn’t true, and how people in Maycomb didn’t go ahead and get to know a man before judging them. In this book, we also learned how children and adults both have different concepts of right and wrong. On page 213, it quotes, “How could they do it, how could they?” “I don’t know but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again when they do it-seems that only children weep. Good night.” These words by Atticus can well relate to the difference of children’s and adult’s concepts of right and wrong. In conclusion, To Kill A Mockingbird is a book filled with unfairness and racism. After reading it, we get a better understanding of how badly African Americans were treated in the 1930’s. Sometimes the nicest people are the one’s who are treated the worst, whether it’s because of their skin color or false rumors that people have made up. People like Tom Robinson and Boo Radley can be compared to mockingbirds in this book because they both do things for others out of the kindness of their heart. This novel portrays the fact that society is too quick to judge others.