Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” explains the ways in which individuals are limited and trapped by the assumptions of others.
In the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” Tom Robison, Scout, Jem, Boo Raddley are all individuals that are limited or confined, due to the difference in their looks others assume they are different. Individuals are labelled by others in their society by how they are different from the “in” crowd. They are not considered equal to everyone else due to who they are and what they look like.These differences make others assume that they are inferior to them, so that they don’t quite fit in with society.
Characters in To Kill It Mockingbird such as Tom Robinson, Jem Finch, Scout Finch and Boo Radley are all individuals that are limited by others assumptions. Scout Finch is a rough and tough tomboy that does not let anyone push her around. She was her own person with no aspiration to be anyone else. As Scout became older her Aunt Alexandra taught her and made her become more like a lady and less like herself.Jem, who was Scout’s older brother, was her constant companion. He grows apart from his sister as he gets older in the book.
He starts to avoid playing Scout’s childish games, but becomes very aware of the cruelty in society by what happened to Tom Robinson. Another big character who was limited is Tom Robinson. He is a 25 year old black man with a family; he is being accused of raping and assaulting Mayella Violet Ewell. Tom Robinson has no chance of being found not guilty due to his skin colour and race because black people are not thought of as equal to white people.Tom Robinson was trapped, in the courtroom with people asking him questions that he didn’t know how to answer, he was not guilty.
Tom Robertson was found guilty for a crime he did not commit; he was not treated as an equal. “There is one human institution that makes a pauper equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein”(205). This quote is stating that all humans should be treated equally and not confined into being treated as anything less.Boo Radley was a man that lived in a cruddy old ricked house; he hadn’t left his house for 25 years. He is thought of as a scary villain and he is not treated with the same respect, due to him being so different. Boo is trapped in his house, afraid to be seen by society because he will be judge by his appearance.
Scout and Jem showed compassion towards Boo so he decided to be compassionate back. As a reaction to being accepted for who he was, he was able to help his neighbours.For example, when Miss Mandies house caught on fire, Boo put a blanket over Scout to protect her. Also Boo stabs Bob Ewell when he tries to attack the kids.
“If there’s just one kind of folks then why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike, why do they go out of their way to despise each other? “( ) In the end, Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird shows the ways in which characters from the book are trapped or limited from being themselves. Due to others assumptions, that they are wrong and all be the same and not different.
