To Kill a Mockingbird

Introduction

Harper Lee portrays Scout as a younger her, seeing that she was too a tomboy growing up. Scout is ridiculed for such actions. Boo Radley is teased just because people don't know him. Discrimination doesn't have to just be about race, it can also be because people don't know you; or because you don't fit in to the 'social norm'. The racism however, can be reversed to the same race when one feels as if your procuring another race, and that's is what happened in "To Kill a Mockingbird". Atticus Finch and his family received threats because Atticus defends Tom Robinson, simply because he is a black man and Atticus is white. The society they are in doesn't approve of such behavior. In the novel " To Kill a Mockingbird" author Harper Lee channels her childhood growing up in Monroeville, Alabama, as she grew up observing racism first-hand; while racism may be the prevalent form of discrimination and the most obvious theme there is in "To Kill a Mockingbird", there are many other themes and forms of discrimination present.

To Kill a Mockingbird confounds the relationship between whites of conscience and the struggles of the Black community. The novel is set in the 1930s and portrays Blacks as somnolent, awaiting someone from outside to take up and fight for the cause of justice.

Apart from racism, some other themes are also discussed in the novel. In this section, the author will focus on the religious theme of the novel. Lee also writes within a deep religious tradition. This tradition enabled her to endow To Kill a Mockingbird with a thematic depth, technical complexity, and cultural resonance that have helped to make it a remarkable achievement in modern American fiction. Although much discussion of the novel has focused on its ...