Why Is Universality So Important In To Kill A Mockingbird
An Examination of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird According to Mortimer Adler’s Criteria
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee took place in the segregated southern United States of the 1930’s during the time of the Civil Rights. Throughout her novel, Lee displayed racism through the standpoint of Scout Finch. I want to pick apart her novel and explain to you what makes a book “great” according to Mortimer Adler. Does the book stand the test of time, does it have universality, does it show the power of the written word, is it enlightening, is it honest, does it deal with unsolved problems of human life, is it inexhaustible, and last but not least, does it leave you the same as when it found you?
To Kill a Mockingbird was officially …show more content…
What was true today was true yesterday, and will be true tomorrow. One of the main themes Lee’s novel possesses is the affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil. The book explores whether a human being is essentially good or essentially bad. When kids are young, they believe that everyone is in essence all good. All of their stories growing up have those ‘happy endings’ and everything quintessentially is good. But once Scout and Jem started to grow up and realize that there is evil in the world, they took that along side of the fact that no one is perfect and they had to start making their own opinions on life in general. Being good outweighs being bad in any situation that they are faced and that is true in today’s society. ‘Liars never prosper’ and ‘cheaters never …show more content…
Although I may not accept the “truth” as my own, I see that the author has arrived at it through her own experiences. When Lee was five years old, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women. Because of the time period, racial prejudice was a key factor to almost every event that occurred with multicultural people. This novel seems to be very honest to me and I believe most people feel the same way. The author went through many experiences that affected her and made her who she is today. Though racial prejudice does occur now, I feel that it affected those in the 1930’s more so. The characters that Lee composed got the point across and made each individual who read this story feel and understand the heartache that she dealt on a different
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee took place in the segregated southern United States of the 1930’s during the time of the Civil Rights. Throughout her novel, Lee displayed racism through the standpoint of Scout Finch. I want to pick apart her novel and explain to you what makes a book “great” according to Mortimer Adler. Does the book stand the test of time, does it have universality, does it show the power of the written word, is it enlightening, is it honest, does it deal with unsolved problems of human life, is it inexhaustible, and last but not least, does it leave you the same as when it found you?
To Kill a Mockingbird was officially …show more content…
What was true today was true yesterday, and will be true tomorrow. One of the main themes Lee’s novel possesses is the affirmation that human goodness can withstand the assault of evil. The book explores whether a human being is essentially good or essentially bad. When kids are young, they believe that everyone is in essence all good. All of their stories growing up have those ‘happy endings’ and everything quintessentially is good. But once Scout and Jem started to grow up and realize that there is evil in the world, they took that along side of the fact that no one is perfect and they had to start making their own opinions on life in general. Being good outweighs being bad in any situation that they are faced and that is true in today’s society. ‘Liars never prosper’ and ‘cheaters never …show more content…
Although I may not accept the “truth” as my own, I see that the author has arrived at it through her own experiences. When Lee was five years old, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women. Because of the time period, racial prejudice was a key factor to almost every event that occurred with multicultural people. This novel seems to be very honest to me and I believe most people feel the same way. The author went through many experiences that affected her and made her who she is today. Though racial prejudice does occur now, I feel that it affected those in the 1930’s more so. The characters that Lee composed got the point across and made each individual who read this story feel and understand the heartache that she dealt on a different