Everyone has heard the old saying
"Don't judge a book by its cover."
Appearance can be very deceiving in today's society, and what you think
might look like a dumb, old, not so fun "book", it really could be
exciting, exhilarating and adventurous "book". Now, I say this because there are a lot of
books that really seem to include this philosophical idea in the story. To
Kill a Mockingbird is definitely one of them. Not only does Scout's
conception of her father, Atticus show this idea, but so does the misconception
of Boo Bradley, Jem's judgment of Mrs. Dubose and the judgment of blacks.
Atticus is a boring, loosely parenting dad.
Or so Scout thinks. It's not until the mad dog incident that Scout realizes
that Atticus is not boring, yet he is exciting and well-minded. "Didn't
you know that his nickname was Ol' One-Shot when he was a boy?" Mrs.
Maudie told the kids (98). They couldn't believe what they were hearing. Their
dad actually wasn't boring. Atticus' appearance was very deluding, but the
reality was that Atticus was more than the boring, not so fun dad.
Besides Atticus being
"misjudged", Boo Radley is thought of as this ugly, nasty,
treacherous person that has no soul. He was so awfully thought of that the kids
would dare each other to run across the porch; to the kids it seemed as
dangerous as jumping over a bomb. Then throughout the first part of the story,
Boo Radley turns into this mysterious character, never showing his face out in
public, leaving presents in the tree, fixing Jem's overalls. Then, the night in
which Mrs. Maudie's house is on fire, Boo Radley comes out of his house to set
a blanket on the shoulders of Scout without her even knowing it. Later, after
the fire, Scout finds out that Boo Radley was the one that put the blanket on her:
"You were so busy looking at the fire you didn't know it when [Boo Radley]
put the blanket around you" (72). The original ideation that Boo Radley is
a freak and lunatic is completely erased throughout the book, as he continually
gains sympathy from the children. This is a prime example of Boo Radley's
appearance compared to the reality.
Boo Radley proved to be a very caring
person, but Mrs. Dubose is just mean and cruel, right? At least that's what Jem
thinks. She is just mean and hates kids, overall a thoroughly bad woman. Jem
later finds out that Mrs. Dubose takes morphine which causes these dramatic mood
swings. Not only does this change his perspective on why she’s so mean, but it
changes how he looks at her. Jem admires Mrs. Dubose for her bravery to fight
the morphine, and she proves another point on how appearance is usually
different than reality.
And then there’s the reason why this whole story came about,
blacks are slaves and nothing else. Every man is not created equal and
the whites get whatever they want. They can do anything they desire to the
blacks, and the blacks can do nothing about. Nothing. “Shoot all the blue jays
you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”
(90). It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. Why? Because they can’t do anything
about it. They sing songs, don’t harm anything, and they can’t defend
themselves….. This was applied later in the book, otherwise known as
“foreshadowing”. The jury didn’t have any proof that Tom Robinson raped the
white woman. Atticus put up a hell of an argument. But though the whites can do
whatever they want, they kill the mockingbird. Blacks are real people too. Even
though their appearance and skin is different than everyone else, it doesn’t
mean they don’t have feelings or don’t care about anyone at all.
The characters in To Kill a Mockingbird show us that
every object, every person might not be the way that they seem. This is also
the case in the real world. A person who may look unsocial might be very fun to
talk too. A person who may look like all smiles on the inside may be sad and
weeping in their heart. A person who always shies down may be the bravest
person in the world. Don’t judge other people by their looks, because you could
be missing something great.
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