Themes, To Kill a Mockingbird
Kylie Amling
Coming Together
The small community of Maycomb everybody is always watching out for one another. When Ms. Maudie's house burnt down the town came together and got some things out of her house. It was in the middle of the night but they didn't care, all the neighbors came together to get the furniture and Ms. Maudie out of her house until the fire department came. When Tim Johnson got sick all of the neighbors were warned to keep safe and to watch out and make sure they didn't go outside. A big reason when the community came together was during Tom Robinson's case. Yes, everyone came together for different reasons, some people believed that Tom Robinson should be executed and some people didn't. When he was announced guilty the black community was really upset but they appreciated Atticus Finch for trying to help and prove to the judge and the people that Tom Robinson was not guilty.Once Atticus Finch lost his case and was walking out of the courtroom some people especially the black section stood up for him showing respect towards Atticus for trying to prove Tom not guilty. Also the black community came and gave Atticus and his family food to show that they were thankful for his job that he tried to do even though he lost the case. Then when Tom Robinson tried to escape from prison and was shot 17 times his family received gifts as well to show that they cared and they were sorry for there loss. When Atticus called out Bob Ewell on trial saying that he was the one to rape his own daughter made him angry. Later on when Mr. Ewell tried to attack Atticus' children when they were walking home one dark night Boo Radley helped save the children he helped them out in there time of need.
2nd Theme
Social Inequality
Even though Maycomb is a small community there is a lot of social inequality. There is the Ewell's who don't have a lot of money they don't have a nice house, they also don't use proper grammer. This results into people looking down on them. Then there could be in inequality of blacks and whites. During this time blacks are still treated as unequal and most of the white people don't want anything to do with them, sometimes even blaming there own crimes on them without getting into trouble. When Mayella Ewell was raped her father Bob Ewell came up with the idea to blame it on a black man and that turned out to be Tom Robinson which was a lie and actually Bob Ewell raped Mayella but he didn't want to get into trouble so he blamed Tom knowing that he could get away with it because Tom is black and Bob is white. Even though in the end everyone knew Bob was the one to rape his daughter but because Tom was black and it made it easier to blame things on him and get away with it.
It's a sin to kill a mockingbird
Atticus had once told his children that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. It is a sin to kill a mockingbird because you shouldn't harm something that has not done anything to you. Mockingbirds only make music for us to listen to, killing them for not doing anything would be wrong. This refers back to the Tom Robinson case because he was an innocent man but because he was black he was guilty for raping a young woman. He was found guilty by a white jury and was sent to prison. While he was at prison he tried to escape because he didn't do anything. Trying to escape he was caught and was shot 17 times. If i do say so myself that was a little dramatic and unnecessary. That should be a sin for killing Tom Robinson because he was innocent. Miss Caroline thought it was wrong for Hilter to kill innocent people who have never done anything to hurt him but she thinks it's okay for Tom Robinson to be executed even though he is an innocent man.