To Kill A Mockingbird And A Class Divided Analysis

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) and Jane Elliot’s A Class Divided (1985) are timeless works which still offer interesting perspectives on stopping prevailing values of intolerance, discrimination and racism. To Kill a Mockingbird published in the sixties around the time of the American Civil Rights Movement, and A Class Divided, filmed after the assassination of Martin Luther King, both portray how empathy, which is the solution to prejudice and discrimination, needs to be taught from a young age and propose that individual courage is needed to combat intergenerational values like racism.

Lee proposes that individual courage, which is manifested in many different ways throughout the novel, is needed to contradict prevailing values …show more content…
By writing Atticus with incredible self discipline, reason, and moral integrity Lee sets him up as the character by which other values are judged. The influence of Atticus’ belief to “walk in someone elses shoes” is shown when, after Atticus had treated Walter Cunningham like he’s his equal, Scout, who previously thought Walter “ain’t company” and “just a Cunningham” challenges Aunt Alexandra view that she can’t invite Walter home because “he’s trash.” By showing Atticus being unaffected by Mrs. Dubose's caustic tongue, Miss Stephanie Crawford's catty gossip, Walter Cunningham's thinly veiled threat on his life or Bob Ewell spitting in his face Lee shows that even seemingly “bad” people deserve empathy. These actions allude to the court case where Atticus endeavors to make Maycomb understand why Mayella Ewell made the terrible decision by reminding Maycomb of the terrible emotional and physical aspect of Mayella’s life and that she also suffers from inequality. Like Atticus, Elliot also believes empathy is needed to make

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To Kill A Mockingbird And A Class Divided Analysis

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