Extending the Theme To Kill A Mocking Bird

To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee was an eye opening story designed to show the effects of ignorance and prejudice on society through the eyes of Scout. It is very clear to anyone who has read the novel that this isn’t a book you can just put down after reading. Instead, you’re left pondering the subjects of growing up, prejudice, and society. Thoughts start rolling around in you head like, how could society possible get so corrupted? Is it just human nature that people assume superiority over others? Memories come flooding back into your mind of your childhood. You can’t quite grasp the horror of growing up in the traditional south in 1930’s as Scout did.

These are precisely the thoughts thought crossed my mind as I read the novel. It was impossible for me to look at the old south through my naïve eyes any longer. In truth, the south in the 1930 was a time of a cruel narrow minded society, to arrogant to even see past the color of ones skin. While reading this book it became very clear that the trivial matter of ones skin color does not define you. The matter that the south seemed to overlook was that what actually divine you is your actions. We have all herd the saying you are what you do, and this statement rings true. That’s why today you are put in jail because of your poor actions and not because of your skin color. It seems almost impossible to picture a society who is so set in their ways that and can’t see the folly of their actions until its to late. But has society really changed? The south was only like this a little less than a hundred years ago. Do you think that America has learned its lesson from it’s brutally past, or is American history going to repeat itself? Or has America become paranoid of its past and is now afraid to take a stand on anything?

This is why I can’t help but wonder if theirs issues today that society has brain washed us into tolerating and thinking “oh this is okay”. Today we have the immense problem of moral relativism. Instead of disagreeing with someone we politely step around the issues and say “oh! Let your business be yours and let my business be mine. Have we purely become too lazy to stand up for what we believe in? If moral relativism had been an issue in the 1930s do you really think Martin Luther King would have even made a difference? The answer is no! If Americans are willing to tolerate anything then were do we draw the line? When do we realize that sometimes you can’t just politely step around an issue and say, “it’s none of my business their belief is their belief!” We use the reason of not wanting to offend anyone to side step arguments and indignation. But sometimes the truth is offending and sometimes society doesn’t want to know the truth. Do you really think society wanted to hear that slavery was wrong? No, that’s exactly the reason why we had the civil war. Unfortunately prejudice didn’t end after the war which is sadly what Attikus realized in the trial. The Question I now ask is would you rather be a lazy ignoramus who just side steps issues or would you rather be like Attikus and stand up for what you believe even when its not pleasant?