To Kill A Mocking Bird Essays (817 words) - To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mocking Bird "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point-of-view -until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," these are the words spoken by Atticus Finch when giving advice to his little girl, Jean Louise, "Scout." This theme, "do not judge a person before you get to know them," is something most children, during this day and age, are taught when they are very young, and is the reoccurring theme in To Kill A Mocking Bird. The two clear examples of this theme are with Arthur "Boo" Radley and Tom Robinson. When the characters are first met, they are introduced as bad and maybe even evil people. However, when the characters start to develop, it can be noticed that they are actually good people. In To Kill A Mocking Bird, from the time Arthur "Boo" Radley was a small boy until the time he was a grown adult he was a very misunderstood character. When the children of Maycomb, like Jem and Scout, were young, people would tell horror stories about Boo. One of them was when Boo allegedly stabbed his father with scissors, but throughout the book, it was foreshadowed that Boo really was not a bad person. The first example of the foreshawdowing was when Jem got his pants stuck on the fence, and Boo sewed them up and folded them for when Jem came back to claim them. Then, when Miss Maudie's house caught on fire, Scout was standing outside watching, and Boo put a blanket around her shoulders, so she would not get cold. Finally, Boo kept giving Jem and Scout "gifts." "Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives." The greatest thing Boo Radley did, that definitely made him a good person was he saved Jem's and Scout's lives from a crazy Bob Ewell. To both Finch children, Boo was a very scary person at first, but in the end, he was a kind and caring person. "I don't know, but they did it. They've done it before and they did it tonight and they'll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep. Good night," declared Atticus about Tom Robinson's verdict. Tom Robinson was a character who was found guilty of raping a white women. In the South there was a hierarchy, based on name and race, like a caste system. Tom Robinson was at the very bottom of this hierarchy, because he was black. Even with the overwhelming evidence that pointed to his innocence, he was found guilty. In a way Tom Robinson was found guilty even before he walked into the courtroom because of his race. Many people, including Atticus, knew that verdict would be "guilty" even before the trial started, unless a miracle happened. Tom Robinson was "judged" before anyone knew anything about him. If the jurors would of kept in mind, "do not judge people before you get to know them," an innocent man probably would not of lost his life. A book similar to To Kill A Mockingbird is Walk Two Moons. This is because the theme in Walk Two Moons is "don't judge a person until you've walked two moons in their moccasins." In both books, this is the reoccurring theme. In Walk Two Moons a girl judges her neighbor before she even gets to know her. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson and Arthur "Boo" Radley are both judged before anyone actually gets to know them too. The books were written at two completely different times in history, referring to how life was for everyone, but yet the themes are the same. This shows throughout history people have looked at and written about not judging people. Therefore, making it a very important moral and topic through the years. "Well, it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, wouldn't it?" These are the words spoken by Jean Loise Finch about turning in Boo Radley for Bob Ewell's killing. "Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing butsing their heads out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." "Its a sin to kill a mocking bird," and "do not judge people before you get you know them" are