Open Question Essay
Acts of cruelty are often seen as a deliberate force, carefully crafted actions rooted in hate or anger.In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, author Harper Lee explores the motivation of cruelty, revealing that while hate may lie underneath, failure to understand and fear are its deepest causes.
Lee tells the story of lawyer Atticus Finch’s children while also focusing on Atticus’ case. In the book, daughter Scout often experiences frustration when learning about the trial. When she learns that her father is protecting an innocent black man who is wrongly accused of rape, Scout asks her father for answers. Lee continues to portray the trial as Scout grows up and learns about racism from school bullies: students whose parents disagreed with Atticus’ choice to defend a black man. These scenes develop along with Scout’s maturity. At first, she is hurt and regards the mean classmates as just that. But, later, Scout grows to realize the students’ perspective--raised in a society where racism was the norm, the boy couldn’t be blamed for repeating his parents’ feelings. Scout learns to grow a thick skin and continue to stand for her beliefs.
This theme of believing in one’s morals and being understanding is further developed through Jem’s experience. Atticus forces his son to read to a dying lady, despite her ungrateful demeanor. The kids do not understand her, and begin to loathe the visits, eventually resorting to stealing from her. They continue in this form of blind hatred until, finally, Atticus explains his motives. He tells his children of the old lady’s courageous decision to give up her addiction and how her anger and cruelty stemmed from withdrawal. Through this, Scout and Jem are able to sympathize, if only a bit. The author shows how easily people can resort to cruelty--although morally sound in comparison to the rest of the community, Scout and Jem were also capable of submitting to ignorance. Because they could not understand why the old lady was different, they jumped to hating her, to cruelty. This scene’s explanation of cruelty reveals that it does not lie simply in hate, but it cause by a failure to understand.
Harper Lee continually places Jem and Scout in situations of cruelty. Whether it is the society inflicting it on Atticus’ family and client, or the children acting upon it themselves, this story is shaped by a society that resorts to cruelty when they cannot understand. Lee makes a good point by emphasizing this theme of ignorance and cruelty. When people cannot understand something--whether it is why an old lady is so unbearable or why a man has black skin--they feel threatened. This lack of understanding leads to fear which results in a need to defend oneself by establishing dominance--be mean. And so, when Atticus reminds Jem of “true courage”--”knowing you’re licked” but doing it anyway, the message of the book is clear: rather than ostracizing that which is different, one must embrace it. Atticus plays the bigger person, responding to his town’s disapproval through intelligence and patience, teaching a lesson to not only the characters but the 1960’s readers as well, encouraging them to embrace the unknown and accepts others for their differences--a view that tied in perfectly with the Civil Rights Movement.
Reflection
We were given forty minutes to write a free response essay discussing cruelty and its significance to the story line and characters. Looking back on this essay, I feel as though my approach to the essay and the writing itself were much more successful in comparison to the other FRQ’s I have written this year. I had a good idea of the point I was trying to make and started off by trying to tie in the complexity; unfortunately, although this was clear in my mind, I think the opening paragraph was quite vague and failed to explicitly state the relationship between ignorance and cruelty. However, as I expanded on the piece, I think my perspective became more clear. I am especially proud of my final paragraph, because I think it strategically tied the context, quote, and theme together. I also touched on how Jem and Scout were perpetrators and victims, which other high scoring essays did as well. I think this essay was based in “reasonable analysis” that discussed the significance of what cruelty “reveals about the perpetrator and victim” and “the work”, therefore warranting it a 6. To write a better essay next time, I should memorize 3-4 quotes from TKAM and review the story's events in general, so I can make stronger references. In the future, I would like to make the thesis paragraph much stronger, so that the “insight and understanding” is more apparent. By clearly stating my thesis paragraph, I will be able to write a well structured, well organized essay that reflects thorough analysis.
Comments
Your essay included several components of a well written analysis! To begin with, it clearly addresses the significance of cruelty to the work as a whole in a brief thesis paragraph--this to-the-point technique is great because it addresses the prompt and gives the piece direction. The thesis is strongly supported creating “reasonable analysis” with two paragraphs that include separate examples from the book. Although these paragraphs don’t include quotes, they manage to not “summarize” by tying details back to the prompt. Of course, there is always room to improve; this essay could have been strengthened by drawing greater attention to the effect of cruelty on perpetrators and victims and focusing on how Abigail’s cruelty affected herself. On the other hand, the essay does emphasize the cruelty’s effect on the society as a social factor and how that added to the plot as a whole, which was great! I liked how much you focused on that aspect, because The Crucible is a social commentary on the Red Scare, and you certainly alluded to the connection between cruelty and corruption/chaos. This essay warrants a higher score than you gave it--it brushed on the effect on characters, so I would have liked to see more emphasis on that aspect. However, it was very well written! I would give this essay at least a 6; I think the analysis reached deeper than a 5.
3X3 - To Kill A Mockingbird
Part I - Children discover bullies - Call to Adventure/Increased Awareness
Part II - Children act cruelly - Ordeal/Big Change
Part III - Children accept diversity - Return with the Elixir/Mastery
Revised Essay
Lee emphasizes Scout’s innocence by portraying her as a victim of bullying. Scout’s aversion to the students’ racism isolates her and her family from the rest of the community, contrasting the prejudiced views of their town (the special world) with the accepting views of the Finches (the ordinary world). Atticus rationalizes the bully’s behavior--raised in a society where racism was the norm, the boy couldn’t be blamed for his perspective because his upbringing rationalized racism--thereby adding to Harper Lee’s perspective on cruelty: it begins from prejudice and a failure to understand. This situation is Scout’s first encounter with prejudice; she struggles to understand why her community could not treat Tom Robinson fairly. In relation to Christopher Vogler’s “The Hero’s Journey”, this is Scout’s call to adventure, as it is her first experience with ignorance, and shows hints of the special world, one where cruelty and ignorance run rampant.
Although Scout is initially portrayed as simply a victim of cruelty, Lee later depicts her as an instigator. Scout and Jem steal from rude Mrs. Dubose and trespass on Radley property. Both of these acts of cruelty stemmed from the children’s prejudice; they failed to understand the ungrateful lady’s demeanor and the mystery surrounding Boo Radley, so they acted in defense of themselves. In Vogler’s “The Hero’s Journey”, Scout and Jem have fully entered the “special world” because they are now acting upon ignorance, just like the townspeople did to Tom Robinson. By putting Scout in the position of both experiencing and inflicting acts of cruelty, Lee expands the conversation surrounding her theme of cruelty past just the evils of racism. Although accepting in cases of race, the Finch children fell prey to their own prejudices, demonstrating how easily one’s personal prejudice can spark cruelty. Also, by putting Scout on both ends, Lee explores the complexity of cruelty by insinuating that people could not be separated into binary categories of "good" vs "evil" or "accepting" vs "ignorant" because the reality was that they were made of a mix of both traits.
Scout and Jem come to terms with Boo Radley after he saves their life, eliminating false rumors surrounding Boo's name. This situation shows the result of developing understanding; after the children were able to qualm their suspicions, they could view Boo as a human. Scout’s change in perspective of Boo Radley designates her return to the ordinary world, a place in which she is tolerant of those who are different. This maturation supports Lee’s argument that cruelty stems from a fear to understand. Whether it is the society inflicting it on Atticus’ children and client, or the children delivering it themselves, this story is shaped by a individuals who resort to cruelty when they cannot understand. Lee emphasizes this relationship between ignorance and cruelty and reaches past simply the evils of racism to generate a broader conversation about prejudice. However, she brings her message about racism to life through Atticus’ conversation with Jem. Atticus reminds Jem that “real courage is [not] a man with a gun in his hand” but that it is, rather, “when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what”. This quote relates to the book’s message on cruelty as a whole because it encourages readers to ignore their gut reaction to others’ difference and embrace the unknown; rather than resorting to violence or ostracizing that which is different, Lee promotes the peaceful acceptance and appreciation of diversity. Although this perspective of cruelty speaks widely to all situations of prejudice, it sends a clear message to Harper Lee’s audience of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement.
