to kill a mockingbird essay

Alexus Smyth

Mrs. Hapgood

English I

29 April 2015

To kill a mockingbird hero essay

            “There are some men in this world who were born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your fathers one of them” (Lee 215) this quote explains one of the things a hero does. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows us that racism was a real problem in the small town of Macomb, AL, and still is today. The only way to fight racism is for someone to step up and challenge the issue. That is where Atticus Finch, father of the two main children, steps in to take the challenge to defend an innocent black man. This journey that Atticus takes in To kill a Mockingbird makes him a hero because he never gives up on what he believes in, he knows that defending a black man will cause people to talk bad about him, he does It anyway because he knows it’s the right thing to do.

            Maycomb was a small town; nothing ever really happened other then another white man and a Negro having a little argument now and then. Everyone had their spot in Maycomb it was all about the caste system. “There was indeed a caste system in Maycomb, but to my mind it worked this way: the older citizens, the present generation of people who had lived side by side for years and years…” (Lee ) the caste system in Maycomb had everyone in a spot, some were not even fair. The Negros even fit somewhere. Sometimes in higher places then some of the white people, but no one liked talking about the cast system. Even though Maycomb was a small, tired, old town, Therewas some drama brewing when Atticus finch takes on the task of defending Tom Robinson, an innocent black man, in a case that will soon make history in Maycomb. “…I’d hoped to get through life without a case of this kind, but John Taylor pointed at me and said you’re it.” This is when Atticus has no choice but to take the case but not just for him but for his kids as well. He feels that if he did not defend Tom his children would not look up to him. In the case of Tom Robinson Atticus knew that he may not win this case even though Tom was innocent. “Atticus, are we going to win it?” “no, honey.” “ then why—“ “simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win” (Lee 76) Atticus had his doubts about the case and he knows he is not going to win but no matter what he is not going to stop trying to defend Tom.

            Out of all the characters in to kill a mockingbird, Miss. Maudie is the best role model/mentor not just for Scout or Jem but for Atticus as well. She helps him through all the rough parts in his life and when he is feeling down about the case. “we’re so rarely called on to be Christians, but when we are, we’ve got men like Atticus to go for us.” (Lee 215). Miss Maudie supports mostly anything Atticus does it’s a good thing because Atticus really needs it with all the stuff from the case. Miss Maudie gives lot’s od advice to Atticus not just for the case but for the case but the children as well. Things in Maycomb start to get really bad when people start to hear that Atticus Finch is defending a negro. Some people even start to look down on scout and make fun of her because of her dad. Do all lawyers defend n-negroes, Atticus?” “of course they so, scout” “ then why did Cecil say you defend niggers? He made it sound like were runnin a still.” (Lee 75) the kids at Scouts school are starting to make fun of Scout for when her dad is doing, and a ot of towns people are getting angrey at Atticus for not purposely doing horrible at defending Tom. Though Atticus had a lot of people not on his side and angrey at him, he did have people that were on his side like Judge Taylor, Miss Maudie, Calpurnia, Aunt Alexandria, and Scout and Jem. They are all trying to help Atticus, but he did have an enemy, Bob Ewell did not like him at all because he was not helping him out. “…Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him.” (Lee 217) this is one od the parts that shows us that Bob and Atticus did not get along very well but for his allies they all loved im and they all got along perfectly.

            Along with everyone in Maycomb talking bad about Atticus he also had threats brought upon him. Men would come to his house and have talks with him Atticus about the trial , and when a group of men go to the jail to go after Tom “…you know what we want ,” another man said. “get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.” (Lee 151) in this quote these men are trying to get Atticus to let them through to the cell so they could get to Tom Robinson and most likely kill him or beat him really bad. When the trial comes around Atticus starts to feel bad for Mayella he knows she can feel the pressure of everything but he knows she is not innocent and everything needs to be fixed and put in the right place but when Atticus starts to question Mayella she freaks out “Mayella stared at him and burst into tears. She covered her mouth with her hands and sobbed.” (Lee 179) in this quote she pretends to be scared of Atticus so people will feel bad for her and believe her more than Tom and Atticus. But most of the people know its an act and roll their eyes. Later on in the trial of questioning Mayella her story does not really add up that much so more people start to believe Atticus which is good for them. She does not really know what to say so she starts to lie to make her story better. “Do you remember him beating you about the face?” “No, I don’t recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me.” Mayella kept changing her story just to make Tom sound guilty and so her family would get attention they wanted and got but only for a small amount of time before it all went away. But so far to everyone it looked like Atticus was going to win the case.

            In the end of the trial Atticus does a great speech that changed a lot of minds there at the trial, he give the evidence that supports why Tom is innocent and tells people that color should not matter in trials. “but there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal – there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and the ignorant man the equal of any college president that institution, gentlemen, is a court. (Lee 205) Atticus is saying that there not treating men equal at this court when they should be but they’re not. At the end of the long court day the jury goes in to decide if Tom should be innocent or guilty and after 2 hours they come to a decision. “The foreman handed a piece of paper to Mr. Tate who handed it to the clerk who handed it to the judge… I shut my eyes. Judge Taylor was polling the jury: “guilty…guilty…guilty…guilty…” (Lee 211) this is when everyone finds out that Tom was guilty for the crime he didn’t commit. Even when there was evidence that proved he wasn’t, but people were just so racist then that they didn’t care. At the end when Atticus get home there he finds a huge pile of food and gifts for him from the Negros and everyone who wanted to say thanks for what he did “they--- ‘preciate what you did, Mr. Finch. They – they aren’t oversteppin’ themselves, are they,” Atticus’s eyes filled with tears.” (Lee 213) they all knew what Atticus was doing was going to be hard and would cost him a lot but they were all great full that he tried when that know that most people would not.

            This journey that Atticus Finch takes in to kill a Mockingbird makes him a hero because he chose to defend someone that he knew would most likely not win the case, and he was very brave and committed to doing his job. Atticus was a true hero because even through the tough people in Maycomb he could always keep a smile, through the good and the bad he always knew what to say and when to say things. Atticus was always up for a challenge and when he was faced with a big one he took is and tried his best. Even though he may not have won the trial he still made history and is a hero o the family of Tom and to Atticus’s own kids.

 Works Cited Lee, Harper. T Kill a Mockingbird. Warner Books: New York, 1960.

the picnic

I wake up in the morning with my alarm blaring, like a siren telling me to wake up. Today was going to be a good day I thought as I packed all my bags to go to my cousin’s house. I showed up to their house around 2 in the afternoon; I was greeted at the door with two warm hugs from my cousins Haylee and Sid. I walked into their giant three story house,  sat on the couch and waited for them to get ready. Sid was the first one to be ready, half way down the stairs and I could already smell his cologne. It was so strong I started to cough. Finally Haylee came down the stairs. Sid, Haylee and I all piled into my aunt’s blue jeep.

                To drive to the park, my aunt had to take a different route due to a horrible accident on the road needed. But finally I showed up there, Haylee, Sid and I piled out of the car and on to the bright green grass. I could see the kids running around playing on the dark blue swing set. Looking over at the playground, I saw my little sister running to meet me. I gave her a big hug and walked her over to where Jason, my little brother, was sitting. My dad finally joined me a couple minutes later; he had brought soda, chips, and hotdogs for the small cookout. I could hear the sizzle and pop! of the charcoals burning as my dad started up the fire. While he was doing that, I helped Jillian, and Jason build a kite for them to fly.

In the beautiful spring evening, I watched as all my family had a great time.  All of a sudden bang! I look over and the grill had fallen over and the charcoals went everywhere. Jason’s toy car had hit the grill and made it fall over. Calmly, my dad went around and picked up all of the things that had fallen off the grill. Jason looked as if he has seen a ghost; he was so nervous and scared. My dad told him it was okay and gave him a big hug and a kiss, that’s when I knew this was a day to remember. 

Wicked lovely

Wicked lovely is about a girl named Aislinn who has a special gift. She can see faeries, not very many people can see them but she is one of them she grew up knowing she is not allowed to talk, stair, or touch the faeries, because if she does something bad will happen. They cannot know she can see them. When I first got the book I did not know if I would like it that much but once I started reading it I fell in love with reading it I honestly read it in 2 days. I picked wicked lovely because it was recommended to me by many people and I like fiction books and this was a good choice for that. This book is set around modern day time.

There are 3 main characters Aislinn, Seth, and Kennan. Seth is the guy that Aislinn likes he has the gorgeous tattoos and piercings that Aislinn loves to see. Kennan is a faerie but not just an ordinary one he is the summer king and he is searching for his queen without his glamor his skin glows bright and he has bleach blond hair. He is obsessed with getting to know Aislinn. He is sure she is the queen he has been looking for. But she does not want to be the queen she does not want to be a faerie that would mean giving up her mortal life and living forever. So she has to decide everything depends on her. What surprised me in the book is that Aislinn was actually the summer queen I thought she was but I honestly did not know until it was true, and that she didn’t pick Kennan and she picked Seth to be with in the end.

My favorite character is Aislinn because she never gives up and always does what she wants. My least favorite character is Beira because she is the winter queen out to kill Aislinn so she can’t become the summer queen. If I could change the ending I would honestly have Aislinn and Kennan be the ones to end up together not her and Seth because it would be better to have the summer king and queen together then her and a mortal to where he cannot live forever but she can.

The best part of the book was probably when Aislinn found out she was the summer queen and the winter queens curse did not work on her. I would defiantly read other books by Melissa Marr she is a great author and uses her words to describe a scene where you can picture the moment like you were there.  I would recommend this book to anyone who like fantasy and fiction because it is a great book with lots of things that I wish could be true in life but are not. 

from big to small

I was in Mr. Cleary’s physical science class. It was the day we were going to the huge science lab in Chicago. My class of about 20 pilled on the bright yellow school bus and started to go. It was a 3 hour drive to the science lab, but I didn’t mind I was sitting by my two best friends Maggie, and Tayia. We finally were there at 12 o’clock in the afternoon, my class and I  walked into the giant science lab for a tour. We stopped a room where they used mice and rats as test subjects. I walked around looking at the helpless animals until ouch! I screamed. I looked down and one had bitten me. Everyone looked over at me. One of the scientists grabbed my arm and took me into a special room. They asked me a couple questions, “What color did the rat look like?” one man asked “White” I said. Then they started to look worried, All of the sudden I started to feel dizzy, and everything seemed to start to appear bigger then, everything went black.

            I woke up In a room, a huge room everything looked as if it was meant for a giant. I went to get up. The door looked so far away and the floor was so big and cold. I yelled for someone but nothing seemed to help. The giant door opened and a hug guy walked in my heart started to thump really fast and I started to freak out. I tried to run away, but he took me into his hands and would not let me go, until I calmed down.

            When I finally did calm down, they put me on a table and told me what was going on. The mouse that had bit me had a strange chemical in it. When it bit me, some on the chemical got in me and made me small. They gave me this medicine and told me it would be 4 hours until I would be big again, so I would have to just go on the bus and wait it out.

 Everything was so big and I could not walk because someone might step on me so I had to be carried everywhere. When I got to the rest on my class they all had very surprised looks on their faces. I was only about 3 inches tall so imagine how big everything was for me. I could see things I had never been able to see before like all the dust in the air, and the phones were so big. I was just waiting to get big again. I was set on one of the seats on the bus and fell asleep. When I woke people were staring at me, I guess they saw me transform to be big again because everything was back to normal before I knew it. 

The best camp fire

It was a hot humid day on July 8^TH 2012. My grandpa, grandma, mom, and a couple of cousins were sitting around a giant camp fire in my grandpa’s backyard in the small town of Ellsworth Illinois. My grandpa was telling stories, and I was talking to my cousin Taylor, while my little cousins Lydia and Carson were running around playing tag. The camp fire was almost as bright as the sun, with a bright white middle, expanding to a yellow and orange. The embers resembling glowing butterflies covered the sky above the shadow of the fire danced and flickered on the shed wall, creating a ghostly effect.

                 My cousin and I cooked hot dogs and s’mores over the open fire; I could smell the charring hotdogs and the sweetness of the s’mores. It overwhelmed everyone with hunger. The best part was the melty s’mores that were so sticky and sweet. After everyone cleaned up, my family and I all sat around the warm fire in the cold night. The warmth wrapped around everyone like it was a heated blanket.

                Singing camp fire songs, I heard a rustling in the bushes. “What’s that?” I asked. Everyone stopped singing to see what I was talking about. My grandpa decided to throw something at it. Slowly, he walked over and threw a can into the bushes. Two baby raccoons ran out and up the huge tree. Everyone was shocked and silent; all I could hear was the POP! And SIZZLE!  of the burning fire. My little cousin was the one to break the silence. “Oh my gosh!” she cried. “That was so cute!” All of the sudden everyone in my family started to laugh and continued to have a fun night.