美国文学作业.doc

American Literature English Name : Catherine Chinese name : Zhang Shujuan(张淑娟）Monday ClassTutors：Grace，CarolDate ：2010.12.19Analysis of To kill A Mockingbird1.Plot summaryScout Finch, the narrator of story, lived with her older brother Jem and her father Atticus in the fictional tired old town Maycomb, Alabama. During the summer,Scout and his brother Jem befriended with Dill who visited Maycomb to stay with his aunt for summer. The three children were curious about the reclusive neighbor Boo Radley, and they tried to get Boo out of his house, but they didnt see him. However Jem found some small gifts in a tree outside the Radley place.Scouts father , Atticus, was a middle-aged lawyer. And he was appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black people who were accused of raping a young white woman, Mayella Ewell. Even though many white people in the town opposed Atticus defending for Tom ,Atticus defended for Tom and gave the evidence of Toms innocence, but the jury convicted Tom. Scout , Jem, and Dill watched the whole defending processfrom the colored balcony in the court, and Jems faith in justice was badly shaken by the verdict, especially when the hopeless Tom was shot and killed while trying to escape from prison. At the same time, the white woman Mayellas father was humiliated by the trial, and sought the opportunity to take revenge on Atticus. He spat on Atticus face on the street ,and attacked Jem and Scout as they walked home from the school. Jems arm was broken in the struggle, but amid the confusion, someone came to the childrens rescue. The mysterious man carried home ,where Scout realized that the man was the reclusive Boo Radley.Maycombs sheriff told Atticus that Bob Ewell had been killed in the struggle, and also told Atticus that Ewell fell on his own knife. Atticus accepted the sheriffs story and took his advice to take care of his children. Scout accompanied Boo his home and understood Boo from Boos perspective as his father told her once.2.Character studies2.1. ScoutScout Is a boyish girl, she always wears clothes that looks like a boys, and her hair is short which also makes her a tomboy. Scout is intelligent; she learns to read before beginning school. She is also very thoughtful, because she worries about the essential goodness and evil of mankind. As a little innocent girl, she is also kind and good, and she always acts with the best intentions. And she is also brave and confident, she fights boys without fear. Atticus loves Scout very much, and protects her from hypocrisy and social pressure, which makes her open, forthright and well meaning. Atticus often educates her something in real life. Just as the mockingbirds story Atticus has told to Scout, Atticus teaches her to be a good person. At the very beginning, Scout is an innocent girl who has no experience with the evils of the world. As the novel progresses, Scout experiences a lot, especially the racial prejudice from Tom Robinsons case and something about her neighbour Boo, etc. Finally ,she can understand things and people from another aspect. At the end of the novel, she became more rational and mature which means that she makes another step to grown-up.2.2.AtticusAtticus is a heroic figure in the novel and a respected man in Maycomb. He is firstly a good father, he loves his two children, and educates his children to be good. He protects his children from hypocrisy and social pressure. Secondly, he is a good lawyer. He always stands committed to justice. Despite the severe racial discrimination at that time, he defends for a black people from Tom Robinson, and keeps justice.He is a lawyer with penetrating intelligence, calm wisdom and exemplary behaviour. We can see that from his performance in the court.Thirdly ,Atticus is an excellent citizen in Maycomb during the Great Depression. He is very rational , because he knows that people have both good and bad qualities, and is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad. He is sympathetic and keeps good conscience. We can see this from the story of mockingbird he tells to his children, and also from what he had done to people who need his help. So Atticus is a symbol of justice and conscience in the novel.2.3.Boo RadleyIn the childrens eyes, Boo Radley seems to be a strange and mysterious man at first. Yes , he is not as usual as normal people, because he id reclusive. He is kept indoor, and can not live a happy life. However ,he is kind-hearted and has pure and strong love and affection in his heart, and its the natural love and affection. He leaves Jem gifts and fights against Bob Ewell to protect the two children. However he is damaged by his father. Boo Radley is actually one of the mockingbirds in the novel. He is good but is destroyed by the evil of mankind.3.Historical background of the novelThe story took place during the three years of the Great Depression (1933-1935) in the South, which was still steeped in its agricultural traditions, was hit hard by the Great Depression. Small farmers often could not earn enough cash from their crops to cover their mortgages, let alone living expenses. Despite the economic depression ,there was also sever racial discrimination to black people. Racial inequality was very serious. 4.Themes and images: courage, family, justice, prejudice, and hatred, the mockingbird4.1.CourageCourage is reflected in three kinds of people in the novel , and they are the three children. Scout, Jem and Dill, Atticus and Boo Radley respectively. The childrens courage is Innocent. When they feel curious about their neighbour Boo Radley, they try to get Boo out with some kind of childrens scheme and want to know him, but for the adults in the town, They dont even talk about Boo. When Mr. Cunningham leads some people to Atticus, Scout goes for his father and says something that makes Mr. Cunningham and the trouble-finders leave. Courage can also be seen in Atticus. Firstly, Atticus is brave enough to keep justice, and also brave enough to defend for niggers at that time when racial discrimination is very serious. Courage is also reflected in Boo Radley. Boo Radley fights agaist Bob Ewell to protect Jem and Scout,it is Boo who saved the two children. As we all know that Bob Ewell is an evil man, so we can say Boo fights against evil bravely.4.2.FamilyAs for the family ,i think we can infer it from the education and influence on family members. For Atticus family, because Atticus educated his children well, loved and cared about his children a lot, so his children could understand him and took him as an example at last. If there is no good education ,no love ,no care in his family, then Scout and Jem would be another type, and the family cant be a good family. In comparison,Bob Ewell ,a bad man ,didnt have the right value, and didnt educate his daughter well. On the contrary,both he and his daughter told lie in the court even though they had sworn to the God to tell the truth. So there is no justice in their mind, and their family is really not a good and warm place. When Tom Robinson died, his wife was very sad, and all his family members were very sad. So we can see that even though the whole society discriminated black people, black people can still get love and care from their families.Family is a warm place because of the love among family members. If there is no love and care in a family, family will be a cold place. If there are more warm families, the more harmonious the society will be.4.3.JusticeFor justice, we can see it from Atticus and Boo Radley, and also the innocent children. Atticus stands rigidly committed to justice and his defending for Tom Robinson is the defending for justice. Though Boo Radley is reclusive ,and doesnt communicate with the outside world, he knows what is right and what is wrong, and has a sense of justice. So he fights against the evil Bob Ewell, and saves the children.For Scout and Jem, they know justice from their father Atticus. When their fathers defending failed, and the innocent Tom was verdict guilty, their faith in justice was badly shaken. However ,they finally understood thet justice would win evil forever, and justice is right and bright side,4.4.Prejudice and hatredIt is very obvious that there is prejudice to black people and people who stand with black people. Black people was hurt by white people, but the court makes a conclusion that the black people is guilty. Thats racial prejudice. And hatred is very obvious when Bob Ewell spits on Atticus face,we found out about the whispering . Atticus had been standing at the window at the end of the corridor outside and Bob Ewell came up to him, cursed him, told him he would kill him if it took him the rest of his life, and when Atticus just stood there looking at him, Bob Ewell spat in his face.(Act II, to kill a mockingbird.) 4.5.MockingbirdJust like atticus told his children thatmockingbirds just make music, they dont eat up peoples gardens, dont nest in corn cribs. They dont do one thing but sing their hearts out, thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird.(act I, To Kill a Mockingbird)Mockingbird is a symbol in the novel. Its a symbol of innocent good people. Thus to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.In the novel, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are typical symbol of mockingbirds. Through the unfortunate suffering those innocent people like tom Robinson have experienced, the theme of mockingbird is reflected.5.Authors backgroundNelle Harper Lee was born on April 28th, 1926, the youngest of the three children born to Amasa Coleman Lee, a lawyer,and France Finch Lee. She attended the local school in the small town of Monroeville, Alabama and from there went in 1944 to Huntingdon College, Montgomery for a year. From 1945 until 1949, she was a student at the University of Alabama, studying law, and spent one of those years as an exchange student at Oxford University. To Kill A Mockingbird was the first and only novel published by Alabama native Nelle Harper Lee.6.Atticus tells Scout that you really dont know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. what has Scout learned about life from other peoples perspective by the end of the novel?Scout learned a lot till the end of the novel. Firstly. She learned about the evil of the world.At the beginning of the novel, she is an innocent ,good-hearted girl and she has no knowledge about the cruel side of life. When she saw the innocent Tom was verdicted guilty and shot to dead, she learned evil in the form of racial prejudice.Secondly, Scout learned that though humanity has a great capacity for evil, it also has a great capacity for good, and that the evil can often be mitigated of one approaches others with sympathy and understanding .(Spark note). Scouts father realizes that people have both good and bad qualities, and he is determined to admire the good while understanding and forgiving the bad(Spark note). Scout also learned that from his father. And he learns to understand people really and deeply. Just like her father told her that you really dont know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Scout learned to understand people in their shoes and from another aspect.At first, when she heard the rumours about Atticus defend for Tom Robinson, she cant accepted it very well, and cant understand his father. Then she experienced and listened the testimony, she learns the truth and starts to understand his father. She learns the helplessness and innocence of Tom