To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a fiction movie that drew an affectionate and detailed portrait of Maycomb, Alabama, a small sleepy, depression-era town during the 1930’s. The main plot of the movie surrounds the trial of an unjustly accused black male who was defended by Scout’s father, a respected lawyer in the town of Maycomb. Covering a period of time during Scout’s and Jem’s childhood in Alabama, the movie reflects the details of a southern small town life and examines the painful unjust consequences of ignorance, prejudice, and hate as well as values of courage, honor, and decency.Harper Lee tries to display that what appears may not always be real by implementing life like situations throughout his movie.
One of the main themes in To kill a Mockingbird is “racism. ” Racism is described in Interpersonal Messages book on (page 116, chapter 5) as a discrimination against one another based on skin color. The word racism can be divided into two groups as explained in Interpersonal Messages in the same chapter one being Individual racism and the other Institutional racism all these roles were displayed in the movie.First, discrimination based on the color of someone’s skin, Tom Robinson was accused of a crime he did not commit and found guilty of raping a white woman, Named Mayella Ewell not because he committed the crime, the evidence as we saw them on the movie was very much contrary, but because of the color of his skin, not because he actual raped her. Apparently in Maycomb courtroom when it came to a black person word verses a white person’s word, the black person always lost the battle.However, most of the people of the white origin thought and believed within their hearts that Tom was guilty just because of the color of his skin.
Second, Individual racism this consist of negative attitudes and belief that someone hold about specific races or ethnic group, in the movie the town was segregated by what they believed, and as a result; of this the town was always feuding against each other mainly whites challenging black.Third, Institutional racism is known to the human race as an organizational behavior, example of his is as follow: School segregation, members of minority groups, banks etc. and this type of racism can be noticed in any neighborhood depending where they live; just like it was displayed in Maycomb’s county courtroom; the blacks was seated upstairs in the balcony and the whites were seated on the floor which appeared to be the main entrance to the courtroom. Inference was another topic that appeared in the movie, inference is based on a conclusion about, but not provable. Chapter 5 page 123) For example in the movie the Finch children, Dill their friend and residents of Maycomb County had an inference about the Radley’s property, the children believed that everything that came from the Radley’s soil was poison, Jem berated Scout once saying, “Don’t you know that you are not suppose to touch the house? You will be killed if you do.
Jem even went as far as to insinuate that if Dill wanted to get killed that all he had to do was knock on the door. Basically in reality everyone knew that children or anyone else was not going to be killed by touching something on the Radley’s property.This come from the town’s envision of Boo, the Finch’s neighbor who barely came out of the house nor did he socialize with any of his neighbors, but he was still portrayed as being this horrible person who eats rat and squirrels with his bare hands and love to kill children. Yet the children or the people of Maycomb County did not know Boo nor did they understand him, so rumors were started about the Raley’s property that made the property appear to be some evil and life threatening place.
Deception: another word for lying is when a person intends to mislead another person deliberately without notification or being asked to. Chapter 2 page 107) During Tom Robinson’s trial Mayella had lied under oath that Tom had raped and beat her, Mayella’s father Bob Ewell had also lied under oath in Maycomb County court during Mr. Tom’s trial about Tom raping and beating his daughter; when he knew that he was the who had done these bad things to Mayella himself.These are examples of how people mislead people into believing the untruth, and even though Mr. Ewell and his daughter were found to have been lying in court Mr. Robinson was still found guilty of a crime e did not commit.
Mr. Finch was a well respected, upright citizen and an excellent lawyer who is trying to raise his two children properly. One day after court a man who lived in Maycomb approached Mr. Finch with a negative attitude and spitted in Mr.
Finch’s face and Mr. Finch used silence to forestall anything larger from developing out of angry that he may have regretted later. This also gave him a chance to have a period of cooling down time so that he would be able to make a professional decision on how to handle the situation.Silence is the absence of vocal communication as described in the Interpersonal Message book.
(Chapter 6 page 148) I had notice that the people of Maycomb County possessed ethnocentrism; this is when you believe that your culture is superior over another culture (Chapter 2 page 44) this was reflected in the movie when the people of Maycomb County felt as though Mr. Robinson was guilty just because he was black and they felt as though all black people told lies. This town appeared to look down on all blacks as if they had no reason to exist; at least not in their town. Mr.
Finch was a father who took time out of his busy day to sit with his children and talk to them about the reality of life during most of these discussions Scout and Jem learned some lessons that they could implement in their lives as they grow and develop into adults, for example Mr. Finch told the children not to worry about small things in life because there will be bigger things to worry about a sample of this was when one of the neighbor’s house was on fire and Scout ask did they need to go into their home and try to save some of their possessions; at that time Mr.Finch explained to her not to worry about small things because there will be bigger things to be more concerned about. Another lesson that the children learned was that people were different on the inside than they are on the outside. The another thing Scout and Jem learned was about empathy, Mr.
inch explained to Scout what empathy was one afternoon after they had finished eating lunch while sitting on the porch of their home. Empathy is quoted in the Interpersonal Message book as the ability to feel or perceive from others point of view. Mr.Finch explained it to her in this exact manner, letting them realize it is alright to have empathy for someone. In conclusion To kill a Mockingbird should be a teaching tool for children as well as adult simple because the movie defines topics such as prejudice, racism, discrimination, and the negative attributes of people in general.
For example during Tom Robinson’s trial anyone who watches the movie will vicariously experience the hatred that the whites had for the blacks, and how all the evil doings over powered the good that could have been in the people of Maycomb County.My first concept that I acknowledged from the movie was that justice to me still remains ambiguous, elusive bound within the confines of political, social and cultural contexts of this world in which we live and for someone to use the words clemency, mercy, and justice I really want to know when is justice ever done in society; since from the beginning of time through history injustice have prevailed; making justice an idea for imperfect human beings to try to achieve.Mr. Harper Lee helped me to realize people with differences are not always doing wrong or are wrong it is the majority that maybe going at it all wrong by stereotyping, having bias and using prejudice to judge others. The way the people of Maycomb had displayed their social class, racial and gender prejudice make me really feel glad that I did not grow up in the 1930’s or lived in Maycomb, Alabama.
