To Kill a Mockingbird

Written by Nelle Harper Lee, the themes evolved throughout the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird", bore a resemblance to The Scottsboro Trials, a court case that took place in Alabama during the Great Depression. In 1931, the fact that nine black boys were convicted for raping two white girls had drastically aggravated the debate of racism in America. Based on the trial, Lee had set her novel in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, during a time of economic depression when the blacks and whites shared a common poverty. As a reader, I found that the interesting part of this novel's brilliance lay in the fact where its themes developed from the point of view of an innocent child. Along the course of the story, the writer unveiled the themes objectively by having Scout, an innocent girl, made touching and intelligent remarks against racism and hence, observed the community in a way that an adult would usually sidestepped. In that way, the writer had successfully convinced most readers because an innocent child's perception would more likely to be forgiven, but an adult making those remarks would serve as an offensive and racist assertion. The themes and issues raised throughout this novel have remained relevant on several levels, and this essay shows how it has held a place in today's public discourse on the coexistence of good and evil, as well as racial injustice.

First and foremost, To Kill a Mockingbird has been predominantly acclaimed in terms of its exploration on human morality, in which Good and Evil coexisted in the story. In my opinion, the novel had successfully presented the theme by thoroughly exploring the moral nature of human beings shown by the citizens of Maycomb, which consisted of a complicated mixture of good and bad people. The moral voice was embodied in both Atticus Finch and Boo Radley, but in different ways. Boo preserved his goodness by hiding from the evil people and their world. "I think I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time. It's because he wants to stay inside." Jem claimed as he realized that the myths about Boo were not true. Instead, he preferred to stay alone, away from the "corrupted" man. Unlike him, Atticus, who understood that most people have both good and bad qualities, engaged in the real world, fought against the evil and tried to instill the good values in his children. In this story, Atticus had played his role well as a teacher to both his children and the people of Maycomb town as he worked his way to defend Tom Robinson and reveal the truth. In spite of all the challenges he had to face in his effort to prevail goodness over Maycomb's deeply rooted racism, Atticus struggled on so that goodness would prevail as he told his children that the main reason he took the case was to protect human rights. Instead of forcing Maycomb's people to alter their social views, Atticus believed that everyone has a basic human morality. Hence, he held on to the belief that good values will overcome the evilness of racism, as he said to Jem, "It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

As the story developed, both Jem and Scout were forced to undergo a classic transition from innocence to maturity. Both children approached life innocently with their belief that goodness existed in all human beings in the beginning. Nevertheless, they learned that not everyone in Maycomb would adhere to the same beliefs they and their father did. At this point, I totally agree with the Flynt (2007), who complimented Harper Lee for the simplicity of her style, her almost mystical evocation of childhood, and her sensitive portrayal of children as they slipped the bounds of innocence, discovered the existence of evil in adulthood and were put in a situation where they must reevaluate their understanding on human nature. At the end of the trial, both children were faced with