To Kill Mockingbird essays

To Kill Mockingbird essays One theme of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird is the transition from innocence to experience. At the beginning of the story To Kill A Mockingbird Scouts world is limited to the boundaries of immediate neighborhood. She feels safe and secure, and totally confident that the way things are done in her home is not just the right way, but also the only way. The arrival of Dill, who comes from a broken home and has lived in another state, gives Scout her first hint of a variety of many experiences beyond her narrow horizons. Then, Scouts first day of school in Maycomb is not necessarily correct. She also learns that sometimes it is necessary to compromise in order to get along. Even though Scouts teachers ideas about how to teach reading may be wrong, Scout must respect her teachers authority. Her own father advises her to ignore the teachers ban on reading at home, but to pretend to go along with the teachers methods in the classroom. This kind of social hypocrisy is new to Scout, and sh e is surprised to hear her very own moral father Atticus advocating it. As the story progresses, Scout encounters other numerous examples of the complexity of human motivation. Sometimes characters that do evil things, such as Mayella Ewell, are nevertheless more pitiful than hateful. On the other hand, it is possible for some individuals to do the right thing for quite unexpected reasons. Mr. Underwood does not like blacks and is a mean-spirited person in general, yet he alone helps Atticus during the quarrel at the jail. By the final chapters of the novel, Scout has learned that good and justice do not necessarily triumph every time. Harmless individuals such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley can become victims through no fault of their own. Sometimes the system can do nothing to defend them. In one of the final scenes of the story, the sheriff puts compassion ahead of the letter of the law so th...