Life Lessons

Throughout the book Scout and Jem have learned some important life lessons. These life lessons are racial discrimination, gender issues and social discrimination. Scout and Jem begin the book as care free innocent young children but as the story and their maturity progresses they realize it isn't quite what they had thought it was. A big example of the racial discrimination that goes on in the book is when Tom Robinson is sentenced to death even though there is evidence supporting that he could not have raped Mayella Ewell.

Jem seems to be most affected by the court's decision because he was so confident that his father had the case in winning reach and wasn't aware of the cruel reality of racism. A example a gender issue is that Tom Robinson, a black male was accused of rape by a white woman and her father, Mayella and Bob Ewell even though they both knew that Tom was an innocent man they assumed they could win in court going up against an African American. An example of social discrimination is the whole town of Maycomb thinks that Arthur 'Boo' Radley is crazy just because he chooses to stay in his house. At the end of chapter 23 Jem says "I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all thistime...it's because he wants to stay inside." This shows that Jem understands that Boo Radley stays inside his house because he is sickened by the racial descrimination and cruelness of the real world outside of his house.

Mockingbird Themes

The main theme in To Kill A Mockingbird in my opinion was racism. I thought this played an important part during the trial of Tom Robinson because he was innocent but sentenced to death because he "raped" a white woman. Racism was showed here because there was conclusive evidence proving that Tom Robinson was physically incapable of doing the sin he was convicted of yet the jury, after lengthly consideration found him guilty. Another example of racial prejudice is when an angry mob storms to the jailhouse where Tom Robinson is being held and nearly beats Atticus in the process before his children make Walter Cunningham see things from Atticus' point of view.

My third and last example of racism in this book is when Calpurnia takes Scout and Jem to the colored church she attends. Automatically the new addition is noticed by a colored member of the church and wants them to leave. Segregation at that time was nothing out of the ordinary and the children were ready to leave when other members said it was alright for the children to stay.

Changing perceptions of Boo Radley

My first impression of Boo Radley was that he was just a old fart that cared so little for the world outside of his rundown house that he chose to be kooped up in it until he withered away. But as the book progressed i realized that it wasn't his choice to be trapped inside the house and that he might be missperceived by the children. He attempts to show this multiple times by leaving peices of gum in the old oak tree for Scout, Jem, and Dill. I think that as the story unwindswe will find that Boo Radley is not as crazy as he seems and has a more compassionate side.

Atticus as a Father

My opinion on Atticus's parenting skills is that he is a good parent in that he lets his children explore and discover new things on their own. I think that he loves his children he just chooses not to show as much emotion and feeling as most parents would. He seems to be very stoic to me and not willing to show any sort of emotion towards anything. He shows this stoicness on page 96 when he shoots the diseased Tim Johnson. This also reaveals that there may be things about Atticus that could be waiting to be reavealed(much like his keen ability to shoot).