A good To Kill a Mocking Bird Thesis

I'd chuck fear in the mix.

What would you say the overriding theme of the book was? In ten words or less.

Ignorance breeds racism and religion, fear, and sterotypes strengthen it
??
OR>>

Only with the innocence of a child . . . i dont know?

http://www.lausd.k12.ca.us/Belmont_HS/tkm/

http://www.homework-online.com/tkamb/index.asp

I thought it was 'don't judge a book by its cover' - only read it two years ago.

Themes are notoriously simple.

I'm just not sure if ignorance is what created the attitudes of the white majority or if ignorance is the label we place on them because of their attitudes.

I thought the parallels between what the community wanted to believe of the black defendant neatly parallelled the kid's views of Boo Radley - it was just easier to expect the worst, and not to look for reasons and underlying causes. It's a call for empathy in my book. And I think the community's attitude must also have an underlying cause and they too are deserving of empathy - even the father and the daughter accusers have their reasons for lying (to themselves and to the court).

I remember the community's caste system that our narrator/protagonist uncritically describes; this family's progeny will always do this etc. Biological determinism.

This won't help you at all, but it's damn funny. It requires flash and sound: http://www.stanford.edu/~scodary/tkam.htm

What happens at the end Cav? It hung just as the ninjas were attacking the castle in the rain to get the last copy of the book that explains how to kill the giant robot bird that stole the treasure from the pirate...

hingehead, I had the same problem when trying to watch it through A2K, so I just saved the link to my hard drive, and it ran fine.

No. Simply base your thesis on the flash movie. You shall win.

You may be right kelly.

For all to see, here is my finished TO KILL a MOCKING BIRD ESSAY:

I.S.U. Essay
To Kill a Mocking Bird
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee is an excellent depiction of how ignorance breeds intolerance. In the racially divided county of Maycomb, Alabama, religion, lack of education, and cultural stereotypes strengthens racially motivated hatred. In this, Scout is a beacon of hope as she sees past the skin colour to what is truly inside each individual, in contrast to the jury and other residents of Maycomb, a quality that the world should appreciate, but history has, regrettably, shown it does not.
Religion has always created dividing lines between people. This holds true in To Kill a Mocking Bird. In Maycomb, there are symbolical walls of misunderstanding separating black and white society, and religion adds another line of bricks. When Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church, First Purchase, they are not well received by a church member, Lula. "You aint got no business bringin' white chillun here?-they got their church, we got our'n" (Lee119). Church is a dividing point between the two races, even though its biblical purpose is unification under the Christian faith. Each church represents itself in a proper manner towards the other in order to keep the status quo, and appear righteous, yet in truth, there is racial tension between congregations. At the hypocritical missionary tea party, which Aunt Alexandra hosts, Mrs. Merriweather cries for the oppressed indigenous Mrunas of Africa, "Mrs. Merriweather's large brown eyes filled up with tears when she considered the oppressed" (Lee 230), shows this. She goes on a rant of how crucial it is to help the native black people become Christians, and yet, in the same conversation, she makes demeaning comments about the black people who live in Maycomb. "Gertrude, I tell you there's nothing more distracting than a sulky darky. Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one of ?'em in the kitchen" (Lee 232). The duplicitousness of the missionary group is apparent, as they are ready and willing to help native black peoples from a distance; however helping the black community at home is not a priority. It seems to cleanses their collective conscience to help the black people who are far away, notwithstanding their poor treatment of local black people. True feelings toward black people are uttered when Mrs. Merriweather states that she does not think black people are as good as white. "At least we don't have the deceit to say to ?'em you're as good as we are" (Lee 234). Actually making black people feel as though they belong in the community, and are equals to the white citizens, is not of priority. Mrs. Merriweather states it best: "Down here we just say you live your way and we'll live ours" (Lee 234). It is plainly shown that religion is a flash point between the two races and that underlying resentment between white and black people in the town goes deeper than a pleasant exterior.
Sir Francis Bacon said "knowledge is power" but in To Kill a Mocking Bird, an antithesis to the statement is displayed as an ignorant and uneducated fool had the power to kill an innocent man, and exercised it. Maycomb is a fairly uneducated town as most people are poor and need their children to help out at home so they can make ends meet. This is especially true for the Ewells. The children show up for the first day of school and then never come back. "He's one of the Ewells ma'am, . . . They come the first day every year and then leave" (Lee 27). The father of the Ewells, Bob Ewell, is so uneducated he cannot even hold a job. Mr. Ewell needs to receive welfare cheques and special hunting allowances. "Mr. Bob Ewell, Burris's father, was permitted to hunt and trap out of season" (Lee 31). This man with no education perceives black people as inferior, people whose lives he can just toss away by lying under oath. Bob Ewell claims that Tom Robinson, a local black man, raped and beat his daughter Mayella. Bob Ewell believes that black people are made to be his scapegoat, so that he can escape the consequences of his actions. "Why don't you tell the truth child, didn't Bob Ewell beat you up?" (Lee 187). Tom Robinson's defence lawyer, Atticus Finch, cuts down Bob Ewell's accusations with every question, revealing the truth. It becomes apparent that the racism is not confined to Bob, Mayella, too, contains her father's ideals or lack thereof. "That nigger yonder took advantage of me" (Lee 188). Her use of profane language is evidence of her lack of education, previously in the book using the word ?'nigger' was considered common. "Don't say nigger Scout, that's common" (Lee75). It seems palpable that lack of education creates a breeding ground for racist thoughts. Theoretically, more educated people seem to lack a racial bias because the have achieved compassion through understanding; the greatest and most revealing comparison can be made between Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell.
In To Kill a Mocking Bird there are apparent social and cultural stereotypes about black people that white people hold. The misconception is that black people are a threat to white society, whether it is violently or socially, more so than a white person and that they are less intelligent on average as compared to a white person. Although this is simply not true, the characters that live in Maycomb County at this time truly believe in stereotyping and use it as a perverse justification for their actions. At one of the ladies' missionary meetings, Mrs. Farrow proclaims her thoughts about the education and danger black men present: "We can educate ?'em till we're blue in the face, we can try till we drop to make Christians out of ?'em, but there's no lady safe in her bed these nights" (Lee 232). It is apparent that Mrs. Farrow thinks that black men pose a threat to the well-being and general safety of women, which, by any standard, is an outrageous idea. When Tom Robinson is accused of rape, Atticus tries his absolute lawyerly best to defend Tom and keep him out of jail. Since the people in Maycomb already have their twisted dispositions toward black people, they assume Tom is guilty and do not even want Atticus to defend him. "You know the court appointed him to defend this nigger. Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That's what I don't like about it" (Lee163). In his heart, Atticus knows that because of black stereotyping a white jury would never acquit a black man. "In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins." (Lee 220). Despite Atticus' predisposed knowledge of the trial's outcome, he tries valiantly to defend Tom. Even Tom knows the racist stereotyping of blacks, "Mr. Finch, if you was a nigger like me, you'd be scared too" (Lee195). After the biased white jury releases the guilty verdict, the utterly polite and well-meaning Tom is extremely shaken and tries to escape from jail. This results in his untimely and ultimately unfair death, but to the jury Tom was certainly "only black" and their conscience remains clean.
Despite Atticus' awe-inspiring and convincing cross-examinations, the jury convicted Tom Robinson. The jury was racially biased against blacks because of religion, lack of education and cultural stereotypes and because the jury was all white. A fundamental concept of any fair justice system deems that a jury should consist of your peers; in this case, twelve white men are certainly not an equal reflection of Tom's peers. One could suppose that the cause of this gross injustice was the separation of black and white culture in the community. It is reminiscent of Brown vs. The Board of Education, Kansas 1954 where it was finally established that "separate but equal is inherently unequal". After being entrenched in a racist world for their whole lives, one can expect that, at this point in The United States' social history, the all white jury would convict a black man, no matter what the evidence is.

Holy crap, sorry about formatting issues . . . why doesnt it go on exactly the way you copied it?

Excellent report, Etruscia! Does your school require APA or MLA conventions for your submissions?

The text box doesn't copy formatting, unfortunately - just text.

yes, MLA formatting, I have it in perfect MLA form on Word, but unfortunately the formatting didnt work on the forum. Thanks, I had to write and excellent essay considering my English Teacher wrote her Thesis on To Kill A mocking Bird.

I must say, especially as a former professor myself, that I am disappointed to se absolutely no reference to the flash animation... :-)

Aww, well i did my best.

Hey, Thumbs up! I got a 96% on it.

"Things aren't always as they appear" pretty much works for anything.