Good Vs. Evil

Author's Note: This is my essay for To Kill A Mockingbird, and I hope you enjoy reading it. I also plan to keep editing and revising it.

The most important theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is the book’s exploration of the moral nature of human beings—that is, whether people are essentially good or essentially evil. The novel approaches this question by dramatizing Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence, in which they assume that people are good because they have never seen evil, to a more adult perspective, in which they have confronted evil and must incorporate it into their understanding of the world.

As a result of this portrayal of the transition from innocence to experience, one of the book’s important subthemes involves the threat that hatred, prejudice, and ignorance pose to the innocent: people such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are not prepared for the evil that they encounter, and, as a result, they are destroyed. Even Jem is victimized to an extent by his discovery of the evil of racism during and after the trial.

The moral voice of To Kill a Mockingbird is embodied by Atticus Finch, who is virtually unique in the novel in that he has experienced and understood evil without losing his faith in the human capacity for goodness. Atticus understands that, rather than being simply creatures of good or creatures of evil, most people have both good and bad qualities. The important thing is to appreciate the good qualities and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and trying to see life from their perspective. He tries to teach this ultimate moral lesson to Jem and Scout to show them that it is possible to live with conscience without losing hope or becoming cynical.

 In this way, Atticus is able to admire Mrs. Dubose’s courage even while deploring her racism. Scout’s progress as a character in the novel is defined by her gradual development toward understanding Atticus’s lessons, culminating when, in the final chapters, Scout at last sees Boo Radley as a human being. Her newfound ability to view the world from his perspective ensures that she will not become bored as she loses her innocence.

Speak Up

Author's Note: I know this is very bad but I intend to improve and tweak it.

In the book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character, Melinda, is a normal girl in high school, but when she calls the cops during a party, everything takes a turn for the worse. Her friends won't speak to her, she's doing bad in almost every class except art, and she's afraid to speak. She needs to learn to speak up if she wants to get her friends back, or if she even wants to accomplish anything in life.

This may seem simple, however, throughout Speak, a reoccurring  theme is the negative consequences for speaking up. Every time someone speaks up, they seem to get punished. While speaking up may seem daunting to  Melinda, if she wants things to be better, she's going to have to face the consequences and speak up. At the point she is at now, what does she really have to lose? Her parents don't treat her well, she has no friends, she has bad grades, and it seems as though she might as well give speaking up a shot, because the worst  case-scenario is that there is no difference in her current life.  If she starts speaking, people will see her side of things, she will gain confidence, and she may even gain a few friends.

What Melinda really needs to do is look at her life and say, "What is the worst that can happen if I speak up?" If she does, she may realize that speaking is in her best interest, and is the first step in solving her problems.