Answer to Question #198120 in English for Maria

Question

Your assignment is to write a passage analysis of a key coming-of-age scene from To Kill a Mockingbird. After annotating chapter three to analyze Harper Lee’s use of literary elements, such as, characterization, point of view and conflict, write an essay explaining how the literary elements in this passage help develop a theme of the novel. What is the author trying to convey through the characters and events of TKAM? Good vs. Evil, Innocence, moral education, social inequality, Prejudice, Coming of age.Your essay will follow MLA format. Make sure to double space, include a title for your essay. You will provide 5 paragraphs – introductory paragraph, 3 body paragraphs and a concluding paragraph Make sure to support your argument with textual evidence – at least 3 textual citations 1 textual citation per body paragraph. 1) Define what a coming of age novel is. 2) Give background on To Kill a Mockingbird 3) Discuss how the literary elements in the passage help to develop the theme of the novel

Answer 1

 

 To Kill a Mockingbird

Student name

Institution affiliation

Due date

 

Everyone goes through different changes as they grow up. Maturing, coming of age, and doing the right thing are important themes in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This theme is most often seen in the character Jeremy “Jem” Finch. He portrays this theme when he begins to enter puberty and becomes a young man. Jeremy starts to become more independent, wiser and more able to comprehend adult situations; Jem begins to get a better grasp on things. Other characters that demonstrate this theme are Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Arthur “Boo” Radley. <span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">Harper Lee</span> shows how Scout comes of age in similar ways to Jem. Scout begins to grow up and become more tolerant of others by “putting herself in another person’s skin”. Boo displays his “coming of age” in a somewhat different way than Jem and Scout. There’s a scene in <span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">To Kill a Mockingbird</span> where Boo has the chance to do the right thing by putting himself in harm’s way in order to save lives, and he takes the chance. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that is overflowing with the theme “coming of age”. This theme is important to the story because these characters are a small example of the changes that Maycomb needs to undergo. Jeremy Finch is the character in which this theme is most represented in.

At the start of Part Two, Jem starts to grow to be a more mature person and develop a want for wisdom and knowledge. “In addition to Jem’s newly developed characteristics, he had acquired a maddening air of wisdom.”  In this quote, Calpurnia is speaking to Scout letting her know that the reason for Jem’s sudden changes is that he is growing up and is almost a young man. Jem is beginning to mature mentally. Bob Elwell and Tim Robinson. Both men died due to a chain of event leading from the court case which was based upon racism. Although it was different from the rest of the characters, Arthur Radley had his own way of maturing and doing the right thing. What then can we learn from Scout, Jem, and Boo, that sometimes to understand things better or to do what’s right we need to become more mature. Boo shows that maturing to do what is right is something that Maycomb needs to do in order to save lives the way he did. Scout supports this idea by learning from Atticus and walking around in Boo’s skin and completely understanding his reasoning for his actions. Think of the last time you made a harsh or crude judgment upon someone, trying being a little more mature and put yourself in their skin; maybe you would have done the same thing Harper, (2010).

To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. The book is set in Maycomb, 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, Mayell Elwell. Harper Leeway an American writer, famous for her race relations novel To Kill a Mockingbird, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screening 1962. Lee was 34 when the work was published, and it has remained her only novel. "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. “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. During the 1950s, she worked as an airline reservation clerk with Eastern Air Lines and British Overseas Airways. In 1959 Lee accompanied Truman Capote to Holcombe, Kansas, as a research assistant for Capote's classic 'non-fiction' novel in Cold Blood (1966). To Kill a Mockingbird was Lee's first novel. The book is set in Maycomb, 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, Mayell Elwell. 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 trial itself has parallels to the infamous "Scottsboro Trial," in which the charge was rape. In both, too, the defendants were African-American men and the accuser’s white woman.

One of the most important themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is the <span style="color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">conflict</span> between good and evil. The writer deals with the idea of good and evil by highlighting the <span style="color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">transition</span> of Jem and Scout from the <span style="color:windowtext;text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">perspective</span> of innocence. They believe that people are good because they do not realize the evil side of human nature. However, their viewpoint is changed when they learn that evil, once unleashed, refuses to be bottled up. This leads to the destruction and emotional death of people like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Therefore, the theme of the conflict between good and evil runs deep in the novel as Atticus acknowledges that there some goodness in bad people Meyer, (2016).

The theme of education in To Kill a Mockingbird is not only evident but also very pervasive. Despite the fact that the educational system in Maycomb leaves much to be desired, Atticus instills love and benefit of good education in Jem and Scout. He nurtures the element of positivity in their minds so strongly that no evil can uproot it. Atticus also takes pride in instilling <span style="color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">the roots</span> of <span style="color:windowtext; text-decoration:none;text-underline:none">moral</span> education in his children. He not only treats them as adults but also encourages them to grow intellectually and morally Harper, (2010).

in conclusion the author stress about the mockingbird. Throughout the novel, a mockingbird has been a symbol of innocence, of someone who has done no harm. When Scout and Jem receive guns for Christmas one year, Atticus tells Jem that he can, ‘shoot at all the blue jays he wants, if he can hit them, but remember that it is a sin To Kill a Mockingbird.’ You see that Scout understands not only this, but it’s deeper meaning, when she talks to Atticus about Boo Radley. In a way, she says, convicting Boo Radley would be like shooting a mockingbird. additionally, the themes portrayed and the literature devices to portray the themes in the book. More so the author is particularly focusing on the main theme of the story line.

Works cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Random House, 2010.

Meyer, Michael J., ed. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: New Essays. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Kelley, James B. "Reading To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman as Palimpsest." The Explicator 74.4 (2016): 236-239.

Haggerty, Andrew. Harper Lee: To Kill a Mockingbird. Marshall Cavendish, 2010.