Isabella Chavez

English 9H
Ms. Frederick
December 12,2016
To Kill a Mockingbird Essay
During the mid 1900s, there were problems in society, and even when fixed there are
still those problems in society today. In this novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, it
discusses issues such as judgement, the loss of innocence at a young age, and racism. This is a
novel that highlights what it is like to live in a time where others faced big issues, like judging
someone without knowing them beforehand.
One concern is judgement. In the novel, the community judged the Radleys when they
did not even know who they were. They just assumed they were like what the rumors said they
were. For example, the rumor that went around Maycomb saying, Boo drove scissors into his
parents leg, pulled them out and wiped them on his pants ( page. 13). This is important
because society nowadays would rather listen to the rumors than know the whole truth. But, on
the night of the fire, Scout slowly realised that Boo is not a bad person when he give her the
blanket. People will judge others based on what they hear without even getting to know them
first.
Another problem is the loss of innocence at a young age. During the trial, Dolphus
Raymond is talking about what he does and he says, Because youre children and you can
understand it, ( page. 268). He is explaining why he does what he does and they are still young
it will go over their heads unlike if they were more mature. A sign where Scout loses some of her
innocence is when she walks Arthur (Boo) Radley home. We see this when she looked back at

her actions and wondered how long she really has been waiting for that moment. In society today
we have moments where we have to mature quickly to understand what is going on at the
moment. This is something that all people go though. There is never an age too young to lose the
first bit of innocence.
The last situation is abuse. There are two different cases of abuse in the novel. The first
one being with Boo Radley. With Boo Radley, he was abused at a young age because it says that
Mr. Radley's boy was not seen again for fifteen years. ( page. 13). This shows that Boo
Radley was locked away at home and throughout the whole novel there were signs of him in the
house but he was not allowed outside. The other case of abuse is with Mayella. During the trial,
Tom Robinson brings up that Mayella is sexually abused by her father. He says, she says she's
never kissed a grown before...what her papa does don't count. (Lee,page. 260). This is evidence
that her father has done things to her that are inappropriate. This is important because even today
there are cases of abuse and it has not changed throughout the years.
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, issues like what people would face during the
1930s, such as how a child would have to mature at an early age like experiencing what it's like
to see and experience a trial or realising that others are not as bad as they have been brought up
to think. The novel helps show how life was like in the 1900s and how we can compare it to life
and society today. These are reasons why it is so hard for us as a community and society have a
hard time changing our ways because we have lived this way for so long.