TKM Essay
A Time to Kill and To Kill a Mockingbird both deliver comparable messages which prove to be effective throughout to illustrate change. Both give in depths look on themes portrayed such as; prejudice and that it exists in every individual, standing up for what you believe in and that family will always be there to support you no matter what. They teach an individual about the obstacles and challenges people faced and how they are parallel from two different time periods portrayed. Overall, the themes conveyed in A Time to Kill are similar to those of Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird. Prejudice. It exists in all human beings; even in those that we see to be none biased. In A Time to Kill as well as To Kill a Mockingbird we are shown that anyone can be prejudice, from quick thinking lawyer Jake Brigance, to the whole town of Maycomb. Even though Jake Brigance was a well-known lawyer who was fond of and defended black people, he was still prejudice towards them. As pointed out by Carl Lee Hailey before the final part of the trail, deep down Jake Brigance still saw them as different, “…you see me as a black man, you see me as different.” (Shumacher, A Time to Kill) If Jake did not see past the colour and race, he would not win the case. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, virtually the whole community of Maycomb is racist. They saw the black society as dirty, good for nothing people, and were not only bias against them, they also had prejudice towards their own kind. “I mean in Maycomb county. The thing about it is, our kind of folks don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise blacks.” (Lee 226). This goes to show that even people such as the respectable Finch’s have prejudice against people; significantly the Ewells. It also reveals that being prejudice does not always mean hating, discriminating or thinking wrongly of only blacks, but also whites.