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CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

‘American is a poem in our eyes: its ample geography dazzles the imagination, and it will

not wait long for metres.’ Says Ralph Waldo Emerson. American literature at first was

naturally like other national literature, it was shaped by the history of the country that

produced it. For almost a century and a half, America was merely a group of colonies

scattered along the eastern seaboard of the North American continent-colonies from which

hardly a few souls tentatively ventured westward. After a successful rebellion against the

motherland, America became the United States, a nation. By the end of the 19 th century this

nation extended southward, northward, westward, too, I had taken its place among the powers

of the world, its fortunes so interrelated with those of other nation that inevitably became

involved in two world wars and following these conflicts, with the problems of Europe and

East Asia. Meanwhile, the rise of science and industry, as well as changes in ways of

thinking and feeling, wrought many modifications in people’s lives. All these factors in the

development of the Unites states molded the literature of the country.

American literature at first was naturally a colonial literature and the utilitarian writings

of the 17th century included biographies, treatises, accounts of voyages and sermons. There

were few achievements in drama or fiction and popular poetry appeared and many American

writings were in the manner of British writings of the same period. John smith wrote in the

tradition of geographic literature, Bradford echoed the cadences of the king James Bible,

while the Mathers and Roger Williams wrote prose. Anne Bradstreet’s poetic style derived

from a long line of British poets, including Spencer and Sidney, while Taylor was in the
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tradition of such Metaphysical poets as George Herbert and John Donne. Both the content

and form of the literature of this first century in America were thus markedly English.

The hard-fought American Revolution against Britain (1775-1783) was the modern war

of liberation against a colonial power. The triumph of American Independence seemed to

many at the time a divine sign that America and her people were destined for greatness.

Military victory fanned nationalistic hopes for a great new literature. Yet with the exception

of outstanding political writing, few works of note appeared during or soon after the

Revolution. The 18th century American Enlightenment was a movement marked by an

emphasis on rationality rather than tradition, scientific inquiry instead of unquestioning

religious dogma and representative government in place of monarchy. Enlightenment

thinkers and writers were devoted to the ideals of justice, liberty and equality as the natural

rights of man. The revolutionary period also contained political writings, including those by

colonists Samuel Adams, Josiah Quincy, John Dickinson, and Joseph Galloway, a loyalist to

the crown. Two key figures were Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine. Benjamin Franklin

(1706-1790) whom the Scottish Philosopher David Hume called America’s “first great man of

letters”, practical yet idealistic, hard-working and enormously successful, Franklin recorded

his early life in his famous Autobiography. Writer, printer, publisher, scientist, philanthropist

and diplomat, he was the most famous and respected private figure of his time. He was the

first great self-made man in America, a poor democrat born in an aristocratic age that his fine

example helped to liberalize. Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack, begun in 1732 and

published for many years, made Franklin prosperous and well-known throughout the colonies.

Franklin was a genius at compressing a moral point in his Autobiography is, in part, another

self-help book and it lists 13 virtues and it was written to advise his son, it covers only the
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early years. A pragmatic scientist, Franklin put the idea of perfectibility to the test, using

him-self as the experimental subject. Despite his prosperity and fame, Franklin never lost his

democratic sensibility and he was an important figure during 1787. In his later years, he was

the president of an anti-slavery association. One of his last efforts was to promote universal

public education. The passion of Revolutionary literature is found in Pamphlets in that it

made a huge transformation by Thomas Paine’s pamphlet Common Sense sold over 100,000

copies in the first three months of its publication and it did much to influence the colonist to

declare their independence. Another reason for his success is his expression in impassioned

words and phrases long to be remembered and quoted.

American Revolution, with both loyalists and continentals urging their forces on stating

their arguments and celebrating their heroes in verse and songs such as ‘Yankee Doodle’,

‘Nathan Hale’, and ‘The Epilogue’, mostly set to popular British melodies and in manner

resembling other British poems of the period. The most memorable American poet of the

period was Philip Freneau, whose first well-known poems, Revolutionary was a satire, served

as effective propaganda; later he turned to various aspects of the American Scene. Although

he wrote much in the stilled manner of the Neoclassicists, such poems are “The Indian

Burying Ground”, “The Wild Honey Suckle,” “To a Caty-did” were romantic lyrics of real

grace and feeling of literary movement in the 19th century.

In the years of 18th century, both dramas and novels were produced. The first American

comedy presented professionally was Royal Tyler’s contrast (1787). The drama was full of

echoes of Goldsmith and Sheridan, but it contained a Yankee Character who brought

something native to the stage.

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William Hill Brown wrote the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy (1789),

which showed authors how to overcome ancient prejudices against this form by following the

sentimental novel form invented by Samuel Richardson. A flood of sentimental novels

followed to the end of the 19th century. Hugh Henry Brackenridge succeeded Cervantes’s

Don Quixote and Henry Fielding with some popular success in Modern Chivalry (1792-

1815), an amusing satire on democracy and an interesting portrayal of frontier life. Gothic

thrillers were to some extent, nationalized in Charles Brockden Brown’s Wieland (1798),

Arthur Mervyn (1799-1800), and Edgar Huntly (1799).

Although the colonial period produced several women writers of note, the revolutionary

era did not further the work of women and minorities, despites the many schools, magazines,

newsapers and literary clubs that were springing up. Colonial women such as Anne

Bradstreet, Anne Hutchinson, Ann Cotton and Sarah Kemble Knight had considerable social

and literary influence in spite of primitive conditions and dangers; of the 18 women who came

to America on the ship Mayflower in 1620, only four survived the first year. Philis Wheatley

(c.1753-1784) and some other women writers, were Susan Rowson (c. 1762-1824) and Hannh

Foster (1758-1840) and others.

After the American Revolution, increasingly after the war of 1812, American writers in

the 19th century were exhorted to produce a literature that was truly native. As if in response,

four authors of very respectable stature appeared. William Cullen Bryant, Washington Irving,

James Fenimore Cooper and Edgar Allan Poe initiated a great half century of literary

development. Bryant, a New Englander by birth, attracted attention in his 23 rd year when the

first version of his poem “Thanatopsis” (1817) appeared. Turning to other Romantics, he

wrote nature lyrics that vividly represented the New England scene and turning to journalism,
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he had a long career as fighting liberal editor. Washington Irving, the youngest member of a

prosperous merchant family. Irving gave America something it badly needed in the brash

materialistic early years: an imaginative way relating to the new land. No writer was as

successful as Irving at humanizing the land, endowing it with a name and face and a set of

legends. He introduced a new Romantic note in The Sketch Book (1819-20). James Fenimore

Cooper won even wider fame in his work in the “Leatherstocking” tales (1823-41). Edgar

Allan Poe, his works shaped largely by analytical skill and especially his critical writings and

crafted poems such as “The Murders in the Rue Morgue”. As a poet, he achieved fame with

“The Raven” (1845).

Beginning of 20th century is the important movement in drama, poetry, fiction, and

criticism took shape in the years before, during, and after World War I. Literary forms of the

period were extraordinary varied, and in drama, poetry and fiction the leading tended toward

radical technical experiments. In this year only we see the growth of American literature to

next level and obstacles which create well skilled writers all through the year. Eugene

O’Neill, the most admired dramatists of the period. Romantic period starts with Edgar Allan

Poe, a metaphysical poet, he shows his writings in “The Raven”. And this period shows the

Rise of Realism (1860-1914) and Modernism and Experimentation (1914-1945). Some

historians, looking over the first half of the 20th century for its literary criticism and it made

the readers in face of difficult new writings. T.S.Eliot who shared their dislikes Naturalism

and Romanticism. This period in time from the end of World War II up until roughly, the late

1960s and early 1970s saw the publication of some of the most popular works and writers in

American history such as To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee.

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American writer Harper Lee is considered by many to be a literary icon. Her

controversial novel To Kill a Mockingbird, has won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Nelle Harper

Lee was born April 28, 1926, in Monroeville and she grew up in the small southwestern

Alabama town to Amasa coleman and Frances (Finch) Lee. Her Father had been born in

Butler country, Alabama in 1880 and moved to Monroeville in 1913, a former newspaper

editor and proprietor, was lawyer who also served on the state legislature (1926-39). She is

descended from Robert E. Lee, Civil war commander of the confederate Army. Nelle lee

was only five years old in when, in April 1931 in the small Alabama town of Scottsboro, Lee

studied first at Huntingdon College, a private school for women in Montgomery, Alabama,

from 1944 to 1945. She then transferred to the University of Alabama, which she attended

from 1945 to 1950. While a student at Alabama, Lee contributed to several students

publications, including the humor magazine ‘Rammer-Jammer’. In 1947, she enrolled at the

University of Alabama school of Law. Lee traveled to England as an exchange student of

Oxford University. She left the University of Alabama six months short of completing her

law degree, although she later was awarded an honorary degree by that institution. Lee’s

sister, Alice, did become a lawyer, and later took over their father’s practice. In 1949,

however, she withdrew and moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a writer.

Harper Lee has followed her own advice in writing about what she knows. In fact, critics

have noted many parallels between the novel and Lee’s early life.

While working at other jobs, Lee submitted stories and essays to publishers. All were

rejected. An agent, however, took an interest in one of her short stories and suggested her to

expand it into a novel, when friends offered to loan her enough money to write full time for a

year, she quit her job and penned the first draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. In 1957 she
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submitted the manuscript to publisher to whom she sent the novel saw its potential but

thought it needed reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a half more years revising

the manuscript. By 1960 the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with Newsweek

Magazine, Lee Commented:

Writing is the hardest thing in the world,

….. but writing is the only thing that has

made me completely happy.

To kill a Mockingbird was an immediate and widespread success. Within a year, the

novel sold half a million copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Pulitzer Prize any

of a series of annual prizes awarded by Columbia University, New York City, for outstanding

public service and achievement in American journalism, letters, and music. Fellowships are

also awarded. The prizes, originally endowed with a gift of $500,000 from the newspaper

magnate Joseph Pulitzer, are highly esteemed and have been awarded each May since 1917.

Within two years, it was turned into highly acclaimed film. Readers admire the novel’s

sensitive and probing treatment of race relations. For almost four decades, Harper Lee has

declined to comment on her popular and only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, preferring instead

to let the novel speak for itself. Today the novel continues to delight and inspire millions of

readers. On November 5, 2007 George W. Bush presented Lee with the Presidential Medal of

Freedom. In 2010, President Barack Obama awarded Lee the National Medal of Arts, the

award given by the United States government for “outstanding contributions to the excellence,

growth, support and availability of the arts”. In a 2011 interview with an Australian

newspaper, Thomas Lane Butts also shared that Lee told him why she never wrote again:
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“Two reasons: one, I wouldn’t go through the pressure and publicity I went through with To

Kill a Mockingbird for any amount of money. Second, I have said what I wanted to say, and I

will not say it again. On May 3, 2013, Lee had filed a lawsuit in the United States District

court to regain the copyright to To Kill a Mockingbird, seeking unspecified damages from a

son-in-law of her former literary agent and related entities. According to Lee’s lawyer Tonja

Carter, following an initial meeting to appraise Lee’s assets in 2011, she re-examined Lee’s

safe-deposit box and found the manuscript, she passed it on to Lee’s agent Andrew Nurnberg

in 2014. On February 3, 2015, it was announced that Harper Collins would publish Go Set a

Watchman, which includes version of many of the characters in To kill a Mockingbird and his

articles were “Love-in other words” April 15, 1961 and “Christmas to Me” December 1961

and others. Lee died on February 19, 2016, at the age of 89 in Monroeville, Alabama, United

States.

His contemporaries Alice Malsenior Walker (born February 9, 1944) is an American

novelist, short story writer, poet, and activist. She wrote the critically acclaimed novel The

Color Purple (1982) for which she won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for

fiction. She also wrote Meridian and The Third Life of Grange Copeland among other works.

Williams Timothy “Tim” O’Brien (born October 1, 1946) is an American novelist best

known for his work of fiction. The Things They Carried (1990), a critically acclaimed

collection of semi-autobiographical, interrelated short stories inspired by O’Brien’s

experiences in the Vietnam War. In addition, he is known for his war novel, Going After

Cacciato (1978), also written about wartime Vietnam.

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Truman Garcia Capote (born September 30, 1924-August 25, 1984), was an American

novelist, screenwriter, playwright, and actor, many of whose short stories, novels, plays and

nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1958)

and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a “nonfiction novel”. At

least 20 films and television dramas have been produced of Capote novels, stories, and plays.

Capote rose above a childhood trouble by divorce, a long absence from his mother and

multiple migrations. He had discovered his calling as a writer by the age of 11, and for the

rest of his childhood he honed his writing ability. Capote began his professional career

writing shorts stories. The critical success of one story, “Miriam” (1945), attracted the

attention of Random House publisher Bennett Cerf, and resulted in a contract to write the

novel Other Voices, Other Rooms (1948). Capote earned the most fame with In Cold Blood, a

journalistic work about the murder of a Kansas farm family in their home. Capote spent four

years writing the book aided by his lifelong friend Harper Lee, who wrote To Kill a

Mockingbird (1960). A milestone in popular culture, In Cold Blood was the peak of Capote’s

literary career, it was to be his final fully published book. In the 1970s, he maintained his

celebrity status by appearing on television talk shows.

Harper Lee was an amazing woman. Her contributions to the American society in

general in the mid-1900’s are still highly viewed today. She is most known for her

contributions to American Literature, however she also was a well-known airline reservation

clerk. Her greatest novel to date is To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960. This novel

received great critical attention when it was written and even up to today. The novel is about

a court case in which a black man (Tom Robinson) is wrongly accused of raping a girl. The

story is narrated from the point of view of Tom’s lawyer’s daughter, Scout. Perhaps the
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greatest reason as to why this novel is a great contribution to American literature is because it

was written and published during the Civil Rights Movement, and the entire novel is about a

black man who does not receive proper treatment from others because of the color of his skin.

Three most important aspects of To Kill a Mockingbird:

The title of To Kill a Mockingbird refers to the local belief, introduced early in the novel

is referred to again later, that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Harper Lee is subtly implying

that the townspeople are responsible for killing Tom Robinson and that doing so was not only

unjust and immoral, but sinful.

The events of To Kill a Mockingbird take place while Scout Finch, the novel’s narrator, is

a young child. But the sophisticated vocabulary and sentence structure of the story indicate

that Scout tells the story many years after the events described when she has grown to

adulthood.

To Kill a Mockingbird is unusual because it is both an examination of racism and

bildungsroman. Within the framework of a coming-of-age story, Lee examines a very serious

social problem. Lee seamlessly blends these two very different kinds of stories.

The reason the candidate has chosen this novel, it teaches the moral values such as no

discriminations and its hilarious moments despite the solemn scenes and fabulous writing

style of Harper Lee that make the captivating and thus makes it worth our time to read it and

this make the different from others writings of novels. To Kill a Mockingbird deals with

compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving and story it takes the readers to the roots of

human behavior to innocence and experience, kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor

and pathos.
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CHAPTER-II

A COMPLETE STUDY OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

The Second chapter deals with the plot, summary and theme. In declaring the plot,

Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird during a very tense time racially in her home state of

Alabama. The South was still segregated, forcing blacks to use separate facilities apart from

those used by whites, in almost every aspect of society. The Civil Rights Movement began to

pick up steam when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery,

Alabama, in 1955. Following her bold defiance, Marin Luther King, Jr., became the leader of

the movement, and the issue began to gain serious national attention. Clearly, a prime subject

of To Kill a Mockingbird, namely the injustice of racism and inequality in the American

South, were highly relevant at the time of its publication.

Interestingly, Harper Lee decided to set the novel in the Depression era of the 1930s.

The main character, Scout, is based on Lee's own childhood, and Dill is most likely based on

her childhood friend and neighbor, Truman Capote. By placing her novel in the 1930s, Lee

provided her readers with a historical background for current events of the time, and in doing

so she exposed the deeply rooted history of the civil rights struggle in the South.

In addition to a biting analysis of race relations, To Kill a Mockingbird is also a story

about Scout's maturation. Coming-of-age stories are also known as members of the genre

Bildungsroman, which tends to depict main characters who take large steps in personal

growth due to life lessons or specific trauma. In Lee's novel, Scout Finch works to come to

terms with the facts of her society, including social inequality, racial inequality, and the

expectation that she act as a "proper Southern lady." Scout is a tomboy who resents efforts to
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alter her behavior in order to make her more socially accepted. In the 1930s, gender inequality

also reigned, and women were not given equal rights.

Women in the South were expected to be delicate and dainty, concepts that Scout

abhors; and women were not allowed to serve on juries in Maycomb, according to the novel.

Scout loves adventure and can punch as well as any boy in her class. She finds it hard to fit

into the mold of a Southern lady. Miss Maudie is a strong role model for her in that Miss

Maudie also defies some of their society's expectations and maintains her individuality as a

Southern woman. But Scout eventually succumbs--in her own way--to social pressure. The

novel's characters are forced to examine the world (or at least the town) in which they live.

Through observing their society and interacting with people such as Tom Robinson and Boo

Radley , they come to understand more about true bravery, cowardice, and humanity.

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Alabama during the Depression, and is narrated

by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise "Scout" Finch. Her father, Atticus

Finch, is a lawyer with high moral standards. Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill are

intrigued by the local rumors about a man named Boo Radley, who lives in their

neighborhood but never leaves his house. Legend has it that he once stabbed his father in the

leg with a pair of scissors, and he is made out to be a kind of monster. Dill is from Mississippi

but spends his summer in Maycomb at a house near the Finch's.

The children are curious to know more about Boo, and during one summer, they create

a mini-drama they enact daily, which tells the events of his life as they know them. Slowly,

the children begin moving closer to the Radley house, which is said to be haunted. They try

leaving notes for Boo on his windowsill with a fishing pole, but are caught by Atticus, who
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firmly reprimands them for making fun of a sad man's life. Next, the children try sneaking

over to the house at night and looking through its windows. Boo's brother, Nathan Radley,

who lives in the house, thinks he hears a prowler and fires his gun. The children run away, but

Jem loses his pants in a fence. When he returns in the middle of the night to get them back,

they have been neatly folded and the tear from the fence roughly sewn up. Other mysterious

things happen to the Finch children. A certain tree near the Radley house has a hole in which

little presents are often left for them, such as pennies, chewing gum, and soap carved figures

of a little boy and girl who bear a striking resemblance to Scout and Jem. The children don't

know where these gifts are coming from, and when they go to leave a note for the mystery

giver, they find that Boo's brother has plugged up the hole with cement.

The next winter brings unexpected cold and snow, and Miss Maudie's house catches

on fire. While Jem and Scout, shivering, watch the fire from near the Radley house, someone

puts a blanket around Scout without her realizing it. Not until she returns home and Atticus

asks her where the blanket came from does she realize that Boo Radley must have put it

around her while she was stunned by watching the burning house.

Atticus decides to take on a case involving a black man named Tom Robinson who

has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell, a member of the

notorious Ewell family, who belong to the layer of Maycomb society that people refer to as

"trash." The Finch family faces harsh criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of

Atticus's decision to defend Tom. But, Atticus insists on going through with the case because

his conscience could not let him do otherwise. He knows Tom is innocent, and also that he

has almost no chance at being acquitted, because the white jury will never believe a black

man over a white woman. Despite this, Atticus wants to reveal the truth to his fellow
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townspeople, expose their bigotry, and encourage them to imagine the possibility of racial

equality. Because Atticus is defending a black man, Scout and Jem find themselves

whispered at and have trouble keeping their tempers. At a family Christmas gathering, Scout

beats up her cloying relative Francis when he accuses Atticus of ruining the family name by

being a "nigger-lover". Jem cuts off the tops of an old neighbor's flower bushes after she

derides Atticus, and as punishment, has to read out loud to her every day. Jem does not realize

until after she dies that he is helping her break her morphine addiction. When revealing this to

Jem and Scout, Atticus holds this old woman up as an example of true courage: the will to

keep fighting even when you know you can't win.

The time for the trial draws closer, and Atticus's sister Alexandra comes to stay with

the family. She is proper and old-fashioned and wants to shape Scout into the model of the

Southern feminine ideal, much to Scout's resentment. Dill runs away from his home, where

his mother and new father don't seem interested in him, and stays in Maycomb for the

summer of Tom's trial. The night before the trial, Tom is moved into the county jail, and

Atticus, fearing a possible lynching, stands guard outside the jail door all night. Jem is

concerned about him, and the three children sneak into town to find him. A group of men

arrive ready to cause some violence to Tom, and threaten Atticus in the process. At first Jem,

Scout and Dill stand aside, but when she senses true danger, Scout runs out and begins to

speak to one of the men, the father of one of her classmates in school. Her innocence brings

the crowd out of their mob mentality, and they leave.

The trial pits the evidence of the white Ewell family against Tom's evidence.

According to the Ewells, Mayella asked Tom to do some work for her while her father was

out, and Tom came into their house and forcibly beat and raped Mayella until her father
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appeared and scared him away. Tom's version is that Mayella invited him inside, then threw

her arms around him and began to kiss him. Tom tried to push her away. When Bob Ewell

arrived, he flew into a rage and beat her, while Tom ran away in fright. According to the

sheriff's testimony, Mayella's bruises were on the right side of her face, which means she was

most likely punched with a left hand. Tom Robinson's left arm is useless due to an old

accident, whereas Mr. Ewell leads with his left. Given the evidence of reasonable doubt, Tom

should go free, but after hours of deliberation, the jury pronounces him guilty. Scout, Jem and

Dill sneak into the courthouse to see the trial and sit in the balcony with Maycomb's black

population. They are stunned at the verdict because to them, the evidence was so clearly in

Tom's favor. Though the verdict is unfortunate, Atticus feels some satisfaction that the jury

took so long deciding. Usually, the decision would be made in minutes, because a black man's

word would not be trusted. Atticus is hoping for an appeal, but unfortunately Tom tries to

escape from his prison and is shot to death in the process. Jem has trouble handling the results

of the trial, feeling that his trust in the goodness and rationality of humanity has been

betrayed.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ewell threatens Atticus and other people connected with the trial

because he feels he was humiliated. He gets his revenge one night while Jem and Scout are

walking home from the Halloween play at their school. He follows them home in the dark,

then runs at them and attempts to kill them with a large kitchen knife. Jem breaks his arm, and

Scout, who is wearing a confining ham shaped wire costume and cannot see what is going on,

is helpless throughout the attack. The elusive Boo Radley stabs Mr. Ewell and saves the

children. Finally, Scout has a chance to meet the shy and nervous Boo. At the end of this

fateful night, the sheriff declares that Mr. Ewell fell on his own knife so Boo, the hero of the
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situation, won't have to be tried for murder. Scout walks Boo home and imagines how he has

viewed the town and observed her, Jem and Dill over the years from inside his home. Boo

goes inside, closes the door, and she never sees him again.

Later, Scout feels as though she can finally imagine what life is like for Boo. He has

become a human being to her at last. With this realization, Scout embraces her father’s

advice to practice sympathy and understanding and demonstrates that her experiences with

hatred and prejudice will not sully her faith in human goodness.

And at last the theme of To Kill a Mockingbird by concluding the plot and summary and

the theme which the mockingbird flies with many themes and in the novel there were some

other major themes which entitled as good and evil, social inequality, the mockingbird,

perspective and racism. To Kill a Mockingbird is an exploration of human morality, and

presents a constant conversation regarding the inherent goodness or evilness of people.

Atticus, father of Scout and Jem, also plays the role of teacher, for his children and his town.

Atticus believes that people usually contain aspects of both good and evil, but that good will

usually prevail. Atticus teaches this to his children, but also to the town, as he works to

defend Tom Robinson, an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. In the racist

town of Maycomb in the heart of America's South during the Depression era, this is a

Herculean task. Despite the challenge of overcoming the town's deeply ingrained racism and

forcing people to change their social perspectives, Atticus struggles on, because he believes

that one day, goodness will prevail over the evils of racism and racial equality will exist.

Throughout the book, Scout and Jem make the classic transition from innocence to

maturity. Jem leads this change, as he is older than Scout, but both children experience it. At
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the beginning of the novel, they approach life innocently believing in the goodness of all

people, thinking everyone understands and adheres to the same values they and their father

do. During Tom Robinson's trial, the children are sorely disappointed when the jury, made up

of their fellow townspeople, convicts the obviously innocent Tom Robinson simply because

he is a black man and his accuser is white. The realization that there is true evil within their

society shakes Jem to the core. He held a strong belief in the goodness of all people, but after

the trial must reevaluate his understanding of human nature. The challenge of this struggle

causes him great emotional pain as he tries to come to terms with disappointing realities of

inequality, racism, and general unfairness. Scout also struggles to understand these things, but

even following the trial is able to maintain her belief in the goodness of human nature. At the

end of the novel, both children are faced with true evil, as Bob Ewell tries to kill them. True

goodness, embodied in Boo Radley, saves them. In this final conflict between these opposing

forces, goodness prevails.

Along with struggling with concepts of good and evil, Scout and Jem spend a great deal

of time trying to understand what defines and creates social strata. Scout tends to believe that

"folks are just folks", while Jem is convinced that social standing is related to how long

people's relatives and ancestors have been able to write.

Scout elucidates the town's social strata quite clearly on her first day at school

when Walter Cunningham does not have lunch or lunch money. Her classmates ask her to

explain to the teacher why Walter won't take a loaned quarter to buy lunch, and she lectures

the teacher on the Cunningham's financial situation and how they trade goods for services.

Scout and the other children have a very clear understanding of the social inequalities in their

town, but see these inequalities as natural and permanent. The Finch family falls rather high
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up in the social hierarchy, while the Ewell family falls at the bottom. However, this hierarchy

only includes white people. Maycomb's black population fall beneath all white families in

Maycomb, including the Ewells, whom Atticus labels as "trash". Scout understands this social

structure, but doesn't understand why it is so. She believes that everyone should be treated the

same, no matter what family they are from. For instance, when she wants to spend more time

with Walter Cunningham, Aunt Alexandra objects saying no Finch girl should ever consort

with a Cunningham. Scout is frustrated by this, as she wants to be able to choose her own

friends based on her definition of what makes a good person: morality.

When Scout and Jem receive airguns for Christmas, Atticus tells them that although he

would prefer that they practice their shooting with tin cans, if they must shoot at living things,

they must never shoot at mockingbirds. Atticus explains that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird.

Clearly, this is the title scene, but the theme continues throughout the book. Miss Maudie

explains why Atticus is correct - mockingbirds never do anyone any harm, and are not pests in

any way. All they do is sing beautifully and live peacefully. Therefore, it is a sin to kill them.

The mockingbird comes to represent true goodness and purity. Tom Robinson is one example

of a human "mockingbird". He stands accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell, but is

innocent of the charges. The town commits the ultimate sin by finding him guilty and

sentencing him to death. In effect, they have killed a mockingbird. Boo Radley is another

example of a human "mockingbird". He has spent his entire life as a prisoner of his own home

because his father was overzealous in punishing him for a childhood mistake. Boo Radley

observes the world around him, causing no harm to anyone, and then saves Jem and Scout's

lives when Bob Ewell attacks. The sheriff determines that Ewell's death will be ruled an

accident to avoid forcing Boo to go to trial, even though Boo killed him to protect the
 19

children. Atticus agrees, and wants to make sure Scout understands why this little white lie

must be told. She replies saying of course she understands, putting Boo on trial and in the

public sphere would be like killing a mockingbird. The mockingbird represents true goodness

and innocence that should always be protected.

Throughout the novel, Atticus urges his children to try to step into other people's shoes to

understand how they see the world. Whenever Scout doesn't understand Jem, Atticus

encourages her to try to understand how he might be feeling. Usually, Scout finds this advice

helpful, and her attempts to gain insight into other people's perspectives on life and the world

broaden her moral education and social understanding.

When Mrs. Dubose, the mean old woman who lives down the street from the Finch

family yells insults at Jem and Scout on her way to town, Jem reacts by returning and cutting

up all the flowers in her front yard. His punishment is to read to Mrs. Dubose for a specified

time period every day. He complains to Atticus that she is an awful woman, but Atticus tells

Jem and Scout to try to understand Mrs. Dubose's point of view. She is an old woman, very

set her in ways, and she is entirely alone in the world. Jem and Scout agree to visit her. After

Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus reveals that by reading to her each day, the children were helping

her break her morphine addiction. Atticus explains that Mrs. Dubose was fighting to regain

sobriety, even as she stood on the brink of death. Because of this, to Atticus, she is the bravest

person he has ever known. He explains this to the children to try to make them understand the

terrible pain she was experiencing, and how their presence helped her through the process.

Although she might have said some horrible things, Atticus encourages the children to try to

see the world from her perspective and to understand how brave and strong she was.
 20

At the end of the book, Scout escorts Boo Radley back to his home. After Boo closes

the door, she turns around and surveys the neighborhood from his perspective. She imagines

how he has witnessed all the happenings of the recent years, including her and Jem running by

the house on their way to and from school, her childhood Boo Radley games, Miss Maudie's

fire, the incident of the rabid dog, and finally, Bob Ewell's attack. As she steps into Boo's

shoes, Scout gains a new respect for his life, and understands that his experience is just as

valid as hers. With this understanding, she is humbled.

Obviously, racism is a major theme of the novel. During the Depression era, blacks were

still highly subjugated members of society. Blacks were not permitted to commingle with

whites in public settings, as exemplified in the courthouse physical separation of races and in

the clearly distinct black and white areas of town. Moreover, things like intermarriage were

almost unheard of, and sorely looked down upon.

Throughout the novel, Scout explores the differences between black people and white

people. She and Jem attend church with Calpurnia and Scout truly enjoys the experience.

Afterwards, she asks Calpurnia if she might be able to visit her house sometime because she

has never seen it. Calpurnia agrees, but the visit is never made, largely because Aunt

Alexandra puts a stop to it. Jem, Scout and Dill also sit with the black citizens of the town in

the balcony of the court house to observe the trial. In addition, Scout and Dill have a lengthy

conversation with Mr. Raymond, a white man who married a black woman and has mixed

children. Mr. Raymond reveals that he pretends to be an alcoholic by carrying around a paper

bag with a bottle of Coca-Cola inside in order to let the town excuse his choice to marry a

black woman.
 21

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. Atticus fights against racism, and a few other townspeople are on his side,

including Miss Maudie and Judge Taylor. Jem and Scout also believe in racial equality, but

are obviously in the minority. When Atticus loses the trial, he tries to make his children

understand that although he lost, he did help move along the cause of ending racism as

evidenced by the jury's lengthy deliberation period. Usually, such a trial would be decided

immediately.
 22

CHAPTER-III

JUSTIFY THE RACISM AND CULTURAL CLASHES IN TO KILL A

MOCKINGBIRD

Harper Lee, one of the greatest writers of 20 th century, came into limelight with just a

single work To Kill a Mockingbird. A work that deals with fall of Harper Lee’s childhood

and influence of racism in accordance with cultural conflicts.

Harper Lee’s novel deals with her life in a small town in the American South when

racism remained embedded in the regional psyche. To Kill a Mockingbird has numerous

examples of such racism directed against the town’s like Maycomb, Alabama consulting the

population of desperately poor blacks.  In fact, the novels central plots involves the father of

the story’s narrator, Scout, a lawyer representing a black man accused of raping and beating a

white girl despite a paucity evidence pointing to the black man’s guilt.  In the Deep South of

the 1930s, where and when Lee’s novel takes place, racism against blacks is endemic, often

manifesting itself in overt verbal and physical attacks. 

For example, Tom Robinson, the kindly, meek and physically disabled black accused

of molesting, is the target of innumerable racial taunts and is regularly referred to by angry

white town folks as a “nigger.”  So ingrained in the culture portrayed in Lee’s novel is the

prejudice and legacy of discrimination directed against blacks that the black community even

uses that word to describe elements of its own community, as when the Scout, her older

brother Jem, and their friend Dill discuss local superstitions.  Jem, the older and wiser of the

children, warns his sister about ignoring the scary stories Dill relates and which frighten

scout: "Don't you believe a word he says, Dill," I said. "Calpurnia (the Finch family’s
 23

African-American housekeeper) says that's nigger-talk." (37) Similarly, later when the kids

are attempting to build a snowman without an adequate supply of snow, they substitute dirt

instead, resulting in a dark-complexioned snowman, to which Scout, a sweet, conscientious

and non-judgmental girl innocently remarks, "’Jem, I ain't ever heard of a nigger snowman,’ I

said.” These racist comments by non-racist children typify the culture in which they are

growing up.  Lee does not suggest that there is any animosity in Jem and Scout with regard to

blacks.  On the contrary, their father, Atticus, a socially liberal educated lawyer, has raised his

children to view individuals as eminently decent until evidence suggests otherwise – a

practice that will similarly prove beneficial towards the novel’s end when the mysterious

figure of Boo Radley emerges from the shadows a heroic and kind person. 

If these instance of the use of a word the use of which by various elements of the

American public remains contentious and hotly debated today is employed in a relatively

benign context in the above quote, however, it is later scenes involving Tom Robinson and the

angry white mobs that aim to lynch him that reveal the real depth of the racism permeating

this Alabama town.  When word gets around that Atticus will defend Tom Robinson in the

emotionally and racially-charged rape case, Jem and Scout are forced to endure racist taunts

from their schoolmates, as in the following comment:

“Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day

before that Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem.”(77)

The next day in the schoolyard, the taunting from the children of white racists assumes

a more intimidating form, as when Scout is again confronted by Cecil Jacobs:

 24

“. . .I faced Cecil Jacobs in the schoolyard next day: "You gonna take that back,

boy?"

"You gotta make me first!" he yelled. "My folks said your daddy was a disgrace

an' that nigger ought a hang from the water-tank!”(79)

This sentiment, uttered by a child, is clearly representative of the views of the town’s

adult population.  Scout describes a Christmas Dinner with her extended family, during which

her cousin, Francis, makes clear that Atticus’ liberal attitudes towards blacks are not

welcome:

"If Uncle Atticus lets you run around with stray dogs, that's his own business, like

Grandma says, so it ain't your fault. I guess it ain't your fault if Uncle Atticus is a

nigger-lover besides, but I'm here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of

the family-"

"Francis, what the hell do you mean?"

"Just what I said. Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now

he's turned out a nigger-lover we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb

again. He's ruining' the family, that's what he's doing'."(85)

In Chapter Eleven, the Finch children are accosted by Mrs. Dubose, a particularly

unpleasant and virulently racist member of the community who takes it upon herself to school

Jem and Scout about the ways of the world and where the Finch family ranks by virtue of

Atticus’s decision to defend Tom Robinson:

 25

"Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising?

I'll tell you!" She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a

long silver thread of saliva. "Your father's no better than the niggers and trash he

works for!"(105)

 The novel’s most tense scene takes place in Chapter 15, outside the town jail, where

Tom is being held pending his trial.  An angry mob of racist whites descends on the jail with

the intention of breaking in and lynching the black suspect.  No racist words are used; none

are needed.  The men make clear by their presence and demeanor and demand that Atticus

step aside that they plan to lynch Tom.  It is a scene that portrays the racism native to the

region without employing what we now refer to as “the ‘N’ word”.

Finally, Tom’s conviction on the charge of rape, despite his being physically incapable

of having committed the crime and the “victim’s” father clearly being the more likely

perpetrator, and his later killing while allegedly trying to escape prison place the novel’s

depictions of racism in a very revealing and entirely credible light.  To Kill a Mockingbird is

about racism and prejudice, and the depths to which many people will sink to enforce their

own perverted views of humanity.  Atticus Finch is not entirely alone in his town in seeking

objective justice, but he represents a very small minority. 

African Americans in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird are treated as second-

class citizens in numerous ways, including the following:

 Many white citizens of Maycomb think that blacks are not entitled to competent defense

when they are accused of crimes.

 Even lower-class “white trash” feel entitled to look down on black people.
 26

 Any white persons (such as Dolphus Raymond) who associate intimately with black

persons are likely to suffer from discrimination themselves. One of the most common terms of

abuse in the book is “nigger-lover.”

 Even the slightest bit of African-American genetic heritage is enough to cause a person to

be classified as entirely an African American. As Jem puts it, “once you have a drop of Negro

blood, that makes you all black.”  

In short, practically every white person in Maycomb, whatever his or her own flaws, feels

entitled to look down on blacks, abuse them, accuse them, and even kill them if so inclined.

Blacks have almost no protections against such abuse, especially if the abuse is not

technically “illegal.” They must, for the most part, simply endure the discrimination they face.

Perhaps the most surprising thing about many of the African Americans depicted in the

novel is that they have managed to preserve their dignity despite such frequent and

widespread discrimination.  Calpurnia is a perfect example of a black person who is at least as

dignified, wise, and decent as any white person in the book. Despite her low social status, she

easily “out-classes” many of the whites the book describes. Equally impressive is Reverend

Sykes, the pastor of the local black church, who acts as a representative and spokesman for

the African American community. Just as Calpurnia acts as a kind of substitute mother for the

motherless Finch children, so Reverend Sykes, at least in the courtroom, acts as a kind of

surrogate father. Thus, when testimony at the trial becomes fairly graphic, the narrator reports

that Reverend Sykes leaned across Dill and me, pulling at Jem’s elbow. “Mr. Jem,” he said,

“you better take Miss Jean Louise home. Mr. Jem, you hear me?” Similarly, later the narrator

describes how, tired from fighting sleep, I allowed myself a short nap against Reverend
 27

Sykes’s comfortable arm and shoulder. And it is Reverend Sykes, of course, who instructs

Scout to join the blacks in the courtroom in paying proper respect to Atticus, even though

Atticus has technically “lost” the case: “Miss Jean Louise, stand up. Your father’s

passing’.”(215)

In short, the black citizens of Maycomb suffer from various kinds of oppression and

discrimination, but they often maintain their dignity even in the face of such suffering. This is

especially true of Tom Robinson, but it is true, as well, of nearly all the other black persons

depicted.

To Kill a Mockingbird invites attention from "archetypal" literary critics. Analysts

who adopt the "archetypal" approach assume that all human beings are motivated by the same

basic desires, fears, and instincts. Such analysts assume that human beings are far more alike,

in fundamental ways, than they are different. Thus, Calpurnia is almost an archetypal "mother

figure" (almost an ideal mother), and Reverend Sykes functions in some ways almost as an

archetypal "father figure" (as does Atticus Finch). Despite their differences in skin color,

Sykes and Atticus are greatly similar. As the chapter clearly identifies and elaborates the

Racism and cultural conflicts.

Thus shows the novel of Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird as a Racism and Cultural

clashes.
 28

CHAPTER IV

SUMMATION

To Kill a Mockingbird brought Harper Lee to limelight. It is the only work written by

her which deals with the conventional cultural aspects that portrait the psychological maturity

of the 1930’s. The novel deals with variety of themes. The major aspect is introducing the

evolution from childhood to adulthood and the surrounding which inspire them. Harper Lee

uses the character of Jem and Scout to spot the immaturity of the society that causes immoral

behaviours in the matured adulthood. These immoral behaviours lead to the factor of cultural

conflict and racism. As cultural conflict is defined as a type of conflict that occurs when

different cultural values and beliefs clash, where as racism is the belief that a particular race is

superior or inferior to another, that a person’s social and moral traits are predetermined by his

or her in born biological characteristics. These factors play a vital role in Harper Lee’s work.

The work of Harper Lee is considered to have a prominent title To Kill a Mockingbird

for in the novel Lee refers Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. The reason for referring to the

characters to the mockingbird for it is considered as sin to kill a mockingbird as it is a bird

without no voice but lives in the sound of other birds.

Harper Lee’s focus is purely white. Her narrator is a child, growing up in the 1930s

segregated south, maybe that is inevitable. Perhaps nothing else would be plausible. But one

of the book’s central themes is that one need to walk around in someone else’s skin to

understand them and Harper Lee doesn’t actually get under the skin of any of the black

characters.
 29

The closest character is Calpurnia, the family’s cook, but it is never known what she’s

thinking or feeling. Only once, she does express an opinion – an event so startling that Scout

remarks on it. Calpurnia is in the fictional tradition of the “happy black”, the contented slave

– the descendent of the ever-loyal Mammy. And the rest of the black community is depicted

as a group of simple, respectful folk – passive and helpless and all touchingly grateful to

Atticus Finch – the white saviour. It is never seen any of them angry or upset. The effect of

Tom Robinson’s death on his family is not witnessed and doesn’t seem up close – Helen,

Tom’s wife, grieving and Scout never wonders about his children. Their distress is kept at

safe distance from the reader.

Although the book touches on the horrors of racism in the Deep South, it’s a strangely

comforting read one. A terrible injustice is done, but at the end the status quo is reassuringly

restored. The final message is that most (white) people are nice when you get to know them.

The book closes with Atticus sitting by Jem’s bed, solid and safe and reliable. It makes

readers, sleep easy in their beds because the father figure is watching over them and the

readers remain in a state of childlike innocence.

Thus To Kill a Mockingbird many be considered a profoundly racist novel there is a

collective sharp intake of breath and some very stony stares. But what follows – once they

have recovered from the shock of having a beloved book described that way – is an extremely

considered and thoughtful discussion. Of course, it helped that Go Set a Watchman  had been

published by then. The book Harper Lee had originally set out to write is a slap in the face not

only for Scout but for white society as a whole.

 30

Racism is not a thing of the past that was solved back in the 1930s by Atticus Finch.

Slavery has cast a very long shadow and everybody is still living with the consequences. To

Kill a Mockingbird gives an insight into the subject, but the way in which it is still read

demonstrates that we have a very long way to go before we can declare ourselves to be truly

“colour blind”.

In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee uses the mockingbird symbolize of Tom and Boo.

Boo Radley is an outcast in the neighborhood, and Lee is trying to show that every

neighborhood has a Boo in it. She relates Tom Robinson to Boo Radley, and shows that Tom

reflects society on a larger scale. He is representative of the outcast in society throughout the

United States. But in reality, there are Tom Robinson’s in all of our neighborhoods or

communities, whether they are black or white. When Atticus tells Jem and Scout that it is a

sin to kill the mockingbird, this refers to the actions directed towards Tom and Boo. It was a

sin to dislike Tom and Boo based on what others say about them. They were punished by the

people in Maycomb because they did not have their own voice. Lee is trying to explain to her

readers that there are many people without their own voice in our society.

At the time, Black Americans did not have a voice. But, as it is a sin to kill the

mockingbird, it is a sin to kill those without a voice. The message of the novel is to stop

knocking those people down who do not have a voice. Scout realizes that it was wrong to

assume evil things about Boo Radley. Furthermore, it was unfortunate that the people of

Maycomb country did not realize their unfair treatment of Tom Robinson. But most

importantly, it is tragic that the American society did not recognize the injustice done to the

black race.
 31

At last by Identifying, the Racism and Cultural clashes in the work of To Kill a

Mockingbird, it justifies it as a social novel which Harper Lee shows her responsibility as a

socialist. Even Johnson found a survey that ranked To Kill a Mockingbird “second only the

Bible in being most often cited as making a difference in people’s lives”. That rings

especially for attorneys, Johnson wrote, who in large numbers cited Atticus Finch as having

inspired them to pursue the study of law. Thus it is considered that To Kill a Mockingbird as

a social novel dealing with the problems of the society.

 32

WORKS CITED

Primary source

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Warner Bros Publishers, 1982. Print.

Secondary Sources

Vanspanckeren, Kathryn. Outline of American Literature. The Unite states Department of State

Publishers, 2008.Print.

Web sources

http://www.gradesaver.com/to-kill-a-mockingbird/study-guide/summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Kill_a_Mockingbird

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/to-kill-a-mockingbird/book-summary

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_literature

http://www.enotes.com/homework-help/can-u-give-me-some-quates-some-rascim- kill-467731

http://lordmacktitan.weebly.com/uploads/9/0/9/7/9097399/t...

http://www.enotes.com/topics/to-kill-a-mockingbird

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