The innocence and the evil in Harper Lees To kill a mockingbird.
Essay Topic:
The confrontation of the good and the evil in Harper Lees To kill a mockingbird.
Essay Questions:
What are the moral values of the characters of Harper Lees novel?
How can the confrontation of the good and the evil be one of the major messages?
How is the spiritual innocence lost by the characters of the novel?
Thesis Statement:
In her novel Harper Lee describes how moral values are created in the confrontation of the good and the evil.
Introduction: Harper Lee in her novel “To kill a mockingbird” brings out one of the most important issues of the moral values of the nation. She reveals the true human nature with all its “dirty laundry” on a plate for the reader. She shows that life is not a fairy-tale and children loose the innocence too soon forced to make moral choices and conclusions that will influence their whole lives.
The confrontation of the good and the evil is one of the major messages Harper Lee shares with the reader. Being children, Jem and Scout, initially perceive people as good creatures, but eventually they get acquainted with the real world which is full of injustice, brutality and even death. The children learn how to see the world from the prospective of an adult and loose the moral innocence very fast. The see how people can hate each other only because they have a different skin color, how they can kill and attack each other only because they want revenge, how ignorant can people be in their blind believe that one man in innocent and another one is guilty. Jem and Scout find out what means being racists and how cruel can racists be to their innocent victims, the innocent mockingbirds.
One of the most positive messages of the novel is that Jem and Scout in spite of their disillusionment still learn the lesson is a good way, just perceiving the world as a combination of both the good and the evil.
Conclusion: Jam and Scout form their moral values on the basis of the observation the good and the evil part of the world. As they confront the evil, the hatred the racism, the ignorance and cruelty – they become grown-ups with highly moral values and respect towards human beings in the first place no matter what skin color they have.