To Kill a Mocking Bird - Themes - CCEA

Through Scout’s eyes, the reader gets a taste of everyday life in Maycomb but also begins to see the intolerance and bigotry that is present underneath this, particularly as Scout becomes more aware of the trial and the events surrounding it.

Within the scope of this wide-ranging storyline, there are many themes or ideas that run through the novel, but three of the main themes are:

• prejudice
• family life
• courage

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel which shows what happens to a community when it is forced to face the consequences of the racism inherent in many of its inhabitants.

Prejudice is displayed by several characters throughout the duration of the novel. Many people who live in Maycomb are racists and prejudiced against black people. For example, Tom Robinson is assumed to be guilty of sexually assaulting Mayella Ewell simply because he is a black man and she is a white woman, even when the evidence points to him being innocent. The court is astonished to hear that he felt sorry for Mayella. “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?”, queries Mr Gilmer, the lawyer charged with proving Tom’s guilt. Many white people at court are shocked by Tom’s temerity in feeling sorry for a white person and, from that moment on, his guilty verdict seemsinevitable.

Atticus has a strong belief in tolerance and equality, an attribute he would like Jem and Scout to inherit. However, his sister Aunt Alexandra is different. The reader sees this in the way she treats Calpurnia. When Aunt Alexandra arrives at the Finch house to help take care of Jem and Scout while Atticus is busy with the trial, she tells Calpurnia to take her suitcase upstairs, which is something Atticus would never do. During Aunt Alexandra’s missionary tea, the ladies of Maycomb feel pity for the Mruna tribe in Africa and show sympathy towards them, but they later condemn the black people in their own community. This is severely prejudiced and hypocritical.

The Mruna tribe never actually existed. Harper Lee created the tribe in order to use it as an example of how hypocritical women like Mrs Merriweather can be. She is capable of showing sympathy towards the Mruna people for what she believes to be their squalid lifestyle, but is unable to feel any sympathy for the black people living in Maycomb. Instead, she claims the black people of Maycomb are lazy and sulky, uses a racial slur to describe them, and does not understand their heartbreak at the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Mrs Merriweather is more interested in the Mruna tribe as they are not Christians and believes white missionaries can save their souls by turning them into Christians and introducing them to the Bible.

Dolphus Raymond pretends to be continually drunk in order to avoid questions about the choices he has made in life. He is in a relationship with a black woman and has several children with her but he knows this would be severely frowned upon by others. He and his family are treated as outcasts. As Jem says of Dolphus’ mixed race children: “They don’t belong anywhere. Coloured folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re coloured…”. When talking to Scout, Jem and Dill during Tom Robinson’s court case, Dolphus admits that he only actually drinks cola, commenting: “I try to give ‘em a reason, you see. It helps folks if they can latch on to a reason.”

However, racial intolerance is not the only prejudice to be included in the novel. Many residents of Maycomb are presented as being narrow-minded and intolerant of anyone who does not conform to their expectations. Boo Radley is persecuted and gossiped about because he has not been seen outside his house since he was a teenager. Neighbourhood gossip has resulted in Jem picturing Boo as a monster: “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging by his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were blood stained…”.

How is the theme of prejudice shown in the novel?

In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows the theme of prejudice through:

• Tom Robinson’s trial
• Aunt Alexandra’s missionary tea
• the way Boo Radley is treated
• the way the people of Maycomb react to Dolphus Raymond’s children

There are several families in To Kill a Mockingbird and all of them are very different. Harper Lee makes it clear that the Finch family is the family she most identifies with, and the one she thinks others in the neighbourhood should aspire to be like. As a father, Atticus is an ideal role model. He is just, tolerant, forgiving and fair. He treats Jem and Scout as equals and with maturity and, in return, they call him by his name rather than calling him Dad. This represents the fact that Atticus values their opinion as equals. He wants to show them that he will treat them as young adults. He encourages them to behave in a mature manner and to react to events in the way an adult might. Even when he is tired he always has time for them, such as when he teaches Scout to read: “I could not remember when the lines above Atticus’s moving finger separated into words, but I had stared at them all the evenings in my memory…”.

Atticus does not gossip about Boo in the way that the other Maycomb inhabitants do and he tries to instil in Jem and Scout the need to leave Boo alone. Atticus spends as much time with his children as he can and tries to teach them racial tolerance through his treatment of Calpurnia, who is seen as very much one of the family.

Many families have lived in Maycomb for decades and Aunt Alexandra is particularly interested in tracing people’s heritage. Unlike her brother Atticus, she does not believe in judging a person on their own merits and instead judges them on their ancestors’ behaviour. As the reader is told by Scout, Aunt Alexandra, in underlining the moral of young Sam Merriweather’s suicide, said it was caused by a morbid streak in the family. It is almost as if Aunt Alexandra believes Sam Merriweather was bound to kill himself simply because the rest of his family had always been gloomy and depressed.

It is also believed by some people that members of the Ewell family will always be untrustworthy. This makes it very difficult for people to break free from their family connections and be seen as individuals in their own right. It has also resulted in many residents of Maycomb becoming narrow minded and prejudiced, and unable to see the world from a wider perspective. They have become inward looking and see Maycomb, with its racist tendencies, as the centre of their universe. People tend not to move away from Maycomb and so the same ideas and prejudices are passed from generation to generation. This is why Scout tells the reader at the start of the novel that “Maycomb County had recently been told it had nothing to fear but fear itself”. “Nothing to fear but fear itself” is an allusion directly quoted from President FDR's first inaugural address in 1933, in which he tried to reassure America that the country could turn things around. The reference to fear is important given what happens in the novel – fear of what we don’t know is a driving factor in many prejudices.

Families like the Finch family, and their neighbours such as Miss Maudie and Aunt Rachel, are seen as middle class but the Ewell family are regarded as “white trash” – a term for white people, particularly those living in the southern states of America, who are poor and who have a poor standard of living. The term was first heard in 1830 and was initially used by black enslaved people to describe poor white people. Rich white people then began to use the term to describe those white people who they felt were socially inferior to them.

The Ewells live near the town dump and Bob Ewell, who is the head of the household, cannot keep a job for very long. Instead he lives on handouts from the state, money which he selfishly spends on alcohol. This leaves his children starving and it takes Mayella Ewell a whole year to save enough money to afford to buy each of her brothers and sisters an ice cream cone. The children are dirty, illiterate and covered with lice. Through them, Harper Lee presents the reader with a less than ideal family.

Dill, on the other hand, is well dressed and well cared for but there is still a sense that he is unwanted by his family, particularly when his mother remarries. His step-father promises to do lots of things with him but little of it comes to fruition: “‘…they just wasn’t interested in me’”. During the summer he prefers to stay with his Aunt Rachel in Maycomb.

At the Sunday service at Calpurnia’s church we see how the black families work together and help each other out. They contribute money to help Tom Robinson’s wife Helen during Tom’s trial and show how wrong those who are prejudiced against them actually are.

How is the theme of family shown in the novel?

In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows the theme of family through:

• Atticus' treatment of his children
• family heritage and attitudes to this
• the help Helen Robinson is given by fellow black families

Courage is displayed by several characters in the novel. Firstly, Atticus is presented as a courageous man for agreeing to defend Tom Robinson even when he knows it will cause difficulties for himself and his family. He also knows he has little hope of winning the case. He is particularly courageous when he spends the night alone guarding Tom Robinson’s prison cell because he knows it is highly likely a lynch mob will try to take Tom. Indeed throughout the novel Atticus takes a stand against racism and encourages his children to do the same, such as in chapter nine when he explicitly discourages Scout from using a particular racial slur.

Atticus also shows courage when he shoots the mad dog, as despite being referred to in his youth as “One-Shot Finch”, he has not used a gun for 30 years. If Atticus misses, there will be a mad dog running free in the neighbourhood. In attempting to shoot the dog after so many years without even holding a gun, Atticus is being extremely brave. However, Atticus has not told Jem and Scout about his ability to shoot as he does not want them to think that the ability to shoot well with a gun is what makes someone courageous.

There are also other examples of courage throughout the novel. Miss Maudie shows courage when she refuses to be upset that her house has burned down. Instead she remains optimistic and reminds everyone she will now be able to have the bigger garden she has always craved. Boo Radley shows courage when he prevents Bob Ewell from harming Jem and Scout despite the fact that this means leaving the security of his house.

Mrs Dubose is another courageous character. She has been addicted to the painkiller morphine and is determined to be free from this addiction before she dies. Without realising it, when Jem reads to her he is helping her to overcome her addiction. Her decision is even more courageous when it becomes apparent that there really is no need for her to go through the pain of being morphine-free as she is going to die anyway. However, she does it for her own personal satisfaction as she does not want to be addicted to the drug at the time of her death. Mrs Dubose is being courageous but very few people in Maycomb will even know she is going through a very difficult personal battle to beat her addiction.

Atticus feels this makes her even braver and this is why he wants Jem and Scout to witness what she is doing. He wants them to understand that being courageous sometimes means doing difficult things that other people will never understand, or will criticise you for. He is preparing Scout and Jem for the bravery they will all have to show during Tom Robinson’s trial.

How is the theme of courage shown in the novel?

In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows the theme of courage through:

• Atticus defending Tom Robinson
• Atticus’ attitude towards guns
• Mrs Dubose’s determination to be morphine-free at the time of her death