Justice and empathy are important central ideas in the book To Kill a Mockingbird , and these central ideas appear a lot throughout the story. One example of justice in this book is in chapter 9 when Atticus explains that he is defending a black person in court. Atticus explains to Scout that if he does not defend this person, Tom Robinson, in court, he cannot tell Scout or Jem to do anything because it is simply immoral. He explained that he knew he wasn’t going to win, but it was just to do the case. “… You shouldn’t be defendin‘ him …. ‘For a number of reasons,’ said Atticus. ‘The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t represent this county in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.'” Scout believes that everybody thinks that Atticus is not doing the right thing by defending Tom, but Atticus doesn’t think so because he is showing justice. He may be connecting what he says to Scout about putting yourself in another’s skin and walk around in it to feel how they feel, so he thinks that defending Tom is just.
Another example of justice and empathy in the story is when Francis angers Scout by calling Atticus a name she doesn’t approve of. After a scene of fighting, Uncle Jack listens to Francis’s side of the brawl, making Scout have the fault of the fight (and saying bad words). Soon after, Scout tells Uncle Jack that he’s being unfair and tells him why. “’Well, in the first place you never stopped to gimme a chance to tell you my side of it—you just lit right into me. When Jem an‘ I fuss Atticus doesn’t ever just listen to Jem’s side of it, he hears mine too…'” She thinks Uncle Jack was being unjust because he never stopped to listen to her side of the brawl. She is implying that by doing so, he could have been more just and could have had more empathy.
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To Kill a Mockingbird -Growing Up Essay
Growing up is a frequently occurring, significant central idea in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the course of three years that this book takes place, the central idea of growing up is prominent.
One example of growing up in the novel is how Aunt Alexandra wants Scout and Jem to grow up by acting like grown-ups around them. She believes that one can only truly grow up if one can behave like an adult. “She asked me to tell you you must behave like the little lady and gentleman you are”(151). Aunt Alexandra tells Atticus to tell Scout and Jem that they must behave like adults. This quote proves that at this time, Scout and Jem were not able to act like grown-ups. Since Aunt Alexandra wants to preserve the reputation of the Finches, she wants the generation below her to act like adults. Growing up is indicated when your behavior changes from having a child’s perspective to an adult’s perspective of the world.
Another example in the novel of growing up is when Jem uses his and Scout’s money to support Helen rather than taking Calpurnia’s quarter. Calpurnia has taken the children to First Purchase African M.E. Church for the first time, and Reverend Skyes will not let anybody leave the church until the goal of ten dollars is met. “‘Naw, Cal,’ Jem whispered, when she handed him a shiny quarter, ‘we can put ours in. Gimme your dime, Scout’”(139) is quoted when Jem uses his and Scout’s dime instead of using Calpurnia’s quarter. Jem has grown up because he realizes the difference in class, how in Maycomb County, Calpurnia is of a lower class than he because she is a servant and also black. In the county, if you are a lower class, it means you have less money. Jem has grown up because he realizes that Calpurnia has less money and so he should put his own money in rather than taking hers again.
Another example of growing up is how Dill is angry that Mr. Gilmer was being rude to Tom Robinson during the trial when he interrogated Tom. Dill is mad because he realizes that it isn’t fair to treat somebody like they are lesser because of their skin color. Dill says, “It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em [blacks] that way”(226). He is talking to Jem and Scout about how it isn’t just to talk to somebody disrespectfully because of their skin color. Dill grew up because he figures out that it is wrong to discriminate against others unfairly based on skin color. He believes that everyone deserves politeness and everyone should be polite to everyone. Dill has grown up because he understands one of the major flaws of Maycomb County, and he discovers that it isn’t right to discriminate against blacks because of their skin color.
The idea of growing up is prominent throughout this book. Jem, Scout, and Dill have all grown up throughout the course of this novel, and so they all have better understandings of the world and can now think more deeply about things that happen in their day-to-day life.
“The Poet”
From what I understand of Tom Wayman’s poem, “The Poet,” the narrator is someone conveying negative thoughts about a person or a poet. The narrator of the poem is projecting the poet’s depressing state of mind or condition. The poet lacks a lot of the qualities that a normal person has; he has trouble doing arithmetic, reading, hearing, and remembering simple things, like what he ate for breakfast.
Some negative connotations that were repeated several times are “Has Difficulty,” “Cannot,” and “Does not understand.” One example of this is the line where the narrator states that he, “Cannot understand yes-no questions.” This is a type of question most people can answer without a second thought. The poet, on the other hand, is most likely lost in deep thought or is just plain absent-minded. Another example is, “Has difficulty recalling what he ate for breakfast, etc.” Ordinary people usually remember such mundane things.
I think the author chose to cultivate this mood because he wanted to show the thinking and characteristics of a poet. They are good at literature, but may not accustom to ordinary functions of daily life.
“believing” vs. “hair night”
Central ideas: storytelling, memory, identity
Both poems express ideas of storytelling. Both poems have a component of storytelling in them. The stories she hears and reads are a part of her. In “hair night,” she says “As my sister reads, the pictures begin forming.” The stories her sister is reading to her makes her picture the setting the stories describe. In “believing,” she is telling the stories, making them up. “Jack and Jill went up a hill, my uncle sings. / I went up a hill yesterday … ” When her uncle sings the nursery rhyme, and says she has been to a new place. These places she went to in her imagination are stories she is telling about herself and what she did.
Both poems talk about memory. Both poems are just made of what she and other people remember about what happened. She remembers when she or another talks about a story. In “hair night,” she says “Grainy black-and-white photos come slowly at me / Deep. Infinite. Remembered.” By this, she means that the stories her sister reads to her are remembered because she really enjoyed the way her sister read to her. In “believing,” she tells us that this story we’re reading consists of her relatives’ memory as well as her own. “Maybe the truth is somewhere in between / all that I’m told / and memory.” She doesn’t fully remember the event, so she is also relying on other that might remember the past better.
Both poems express feelings of identity. Both poems say that the imaginary places she goes are places she really went to. The places in the stories she hears and reads are a part of her. In “hair night,” she says ” … I have never seen the ocean / but this, too, I can imagine—blue water pouring / over red dirt.” By this she means that the stories her sister is reading to her makes her imagine a new place. In “believing,” she herself is telling the stories, making them up on the fly. After her uncle reads a nursery rhyme, she chimes in saying, “I went up a hill yesterday … ” She hears her uncle start the nursery rhyme, and says she has been to a new place. These places she went to in her imagination are part of her identity, because she becomes a storyteller (author) with her uncle’s encouragement and the ability to come up with stories on the fly.