Author: Adam

The black community gave lots of food to Atticus as a way of saying thank you for all the work he put in on Tom Robinson’s trial. Although Atticus did not win the trial, people were still very grateful for his effort.

The semantic fields that Harper Lee uses in the noval are ones that make the scene tense and also unnerving because the two words that link are creepy and shivered. Most of the time these words both mean that someone is afraid or nervous because they are either remembering something bad (or scary) or that the thing they have remembered was happening again and possibly getting worse. This altogether creates tension because the reader is on the edge and wanting to know what the character is remembering and also it creates tension during the scene in the book.

One perspective of how Boo Radley is a mockingbird is the simple fact that he never commits a selfish act or deed. He leaves everyone alone, this might be due to the fact that he is despised for one reason or another. The other idea is his back stories and his interaction with Jem and Scout as he is kind to Jem and Scout because they are treating him like a noraml human being despite his uncertain past.

“The concrete pillars supporting its south roof were too heavy for their burden.”

I believe that the quote above from To Kill a Mockingbird symbolises Atticus’s struggle with trying to Lawyer for Tom Robinson (a black man who is accused of rapeing a white woman). No matter how hard Atticus tried to stop Tom Robinson from going to jail, Tom was doomed from the start as juries in those days only had white people on them and a lot of them were racist against black people. Also, Atticus lawyering for a black man made other people in the town either love him or hate him. All the people who hated Atticus constantly spoke behind his back about it and in the worst cases threatened him and his family. Despite all of this he carried on lawyering for Tom all the way up until his death.

“Greek revival columns clashed with the big nineteenth century clock tower housing a rusty unreliable instrument, a view indicating a people determined too preserve every physical scrap of the past.”

The quote from above also symbolises that a lot of people in the 20th century still held on to racist views from the 19th century when slavery was around, and also the juries were like a rusty unreliable instrument because they were always unreliable and always had racist views.

I believe that the two quotes above symbolises how Harper Lee feels about other peoples racist views and how no one seems to want to let go of them. She is also trying to point out to people how badly racism was in America in the 20th century.

That is my analysis on the two quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird.

To kill a Mockingbird is a book told through the eyes of a young girl who is constantly witnessing racism in the USA during the 1930’s. Harper Lee uses Scout, the young girl witnessing the racism in the USA, to get her moral position across. She uses different characters to get her point across that she strongly disagrees with racism, but she never says once that racism is wrong. One of the most famous quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird, is the following;

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”

I believe that this quote symbolises how Harper Lee felt on the racism situation in the time she was growing up. I think that she is basically saying that you need to step into a black persons shoes and see things from his perspective on how unfair everything and everyone was to them at the time. The justice system at the time only aloud white juries so a lot of the time black people had no chance of avoiding prison sentences even if they had done nothing wrong (depending on if the white jury was racist or not). During the whole book Harper Lee’s main intention was to open the eyes of the rest of the world on how bad the racism was in the USA and across other countries in the world.

That is my piece of Harper Lee’s moral position in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In Lord of the Flies, I believe that Piggy is the anti-hero. This is because Piggy is always trying to help and do the right thing, but is constantly never being listened to and is regarded as an outcast in the group. Piggy never joins in with group activities but he is always trying to help with cooking and caring for the little ones. Piggy is loyal to Ralph, who was elected Leader from the first day all of them met on the island. Jack (who is co-leader) strongly dislikes Piggy because he wears glasses and he is over weight (hence the nickname Piggy). Jack is also a very loud mouthed and rude person as he is almost always arguing with Ralphs decisions. Ralph and Jack both take the micky out of piggy on a daily basis, even if Piggy is doing nothing. As time passes, Jack starts forming his own little group, and more people start joining Jack. However, Piggy again stays loyal to Ralph even though Ralph is doing almost nothing to try and stop different groups forming. Eventually, Jack’s group (who are on the verge on insanity) move to a different location on top of a tall cliff face. Only 3 of the original group remain with Ralph. When Jack’s group moved to the top of the cliff, they stole Piggy’s glasses so they could make fire with them. Without his glasses, Piggy could barely see a thing. So Ralph, Piggy and the 2 remaining boys in the group decide to go to Jack’s group and ask for Piggy’s glasses back. Ralph tries to talk it out nicely with Jack, but has no success and they start fighting. Just before this, Piggy had been trying to convince some of the others to come back to Ralphs group and at the same time begging for his glasses back. This did not work and Piggy paid the ultimate price. Rodger, Jack’s right hand man, started pushing a large bolder off the cliff. Piggy is still begging for his glasses back when the bolder comes crashing down the cliff face and smashes him in the face. This knocks Piggy off of the ledge he is standing on, and he falls 40ft and lands on rocks. His head is smashed in and Ralph can see his blood and brains pouring out his skull. Piggy’s body is pulled out to sea never to be seen again. Piggy is the anti-hero of this story because he may not have been heroic, but he tried to do the best he could. Piggy died for what he believed in, but he was never recognised for it. Piggy is who I believe is the anti-hero in Lord of the Flies.

In Of Mice and Men I believe that George is an anti-hero. I believe this because he tries to protect his clueless, child like friend Lennie from all the things that he does wrong. But George does not do this in the way you might think. A lot of the time George gets really angry with Lennie because of the stupid things that he does, for instance Lennie wanted to keep a dead mouse in his pocket, but as George tries to take it away, Lennie starts crying. At first George shouts at him until he realises that this is just making Lennie worse, so he calms himself down and speaks to Lennie in a child friendly way. George explains to Lennie that it is not a good idea to keep the mouse because it will make people thick that he is crazy. After a while Lennie agrees with George and he tosses the mouse into a bush. Lennie is also constantly raving on about when in the future, he and George will have a big house and farm. Along with this, Lennie is constantly asking George when he does have a big house, can he look after and pet the rabbits. George tells him yes every time, but Lennie constantly forgets. Often George will hit Lennie because he is acting stupid. This shows he is an anti-hero because most normal hero’s don’t hit people that they are trying to help, unless they need to of course. George often has to repeat most of the things he does, too try and explain to Lennie that some things he does are good, and some things he does are bad. It works almost every time. Almost. George and Lennie had just got a job on a ranch, when Lennie does something that will ultimately end his life. The boss has a son on the ranch called Curly, nobody likes him, but he is married to a young, pretty women who nobody trusts. Curley has an immediate dislike of Lennie and ends up having a crushed hand when he and Lennie has a fight. This makes him hate Lennie even more and he will now use any excuse to kick George and Lennie out of the ranch. One day, Curley’s wife finds Lennie petting the puppy he had been given and comes down and sits next to him. They start talking and Curley’s wife lets Lennie touch her hair. Lennie’s love for soft things suddenly ignites and he doesn’t let go of her hair. Curley’s wife begins to scream and Lennie tries to keep her quite by picking her up and shaking her. Lennie shakes her so violently that her neck snaps. Lennie knew he would be in trouble with George, but he told him anyway. George tells Lennie to run and wait for him next to a near by river. All the workers at the ranch find out and Curley immediately blames Lennie. He gets his gun and goes out looking for Lennie along with the rest of the workers. When George finds Lennie, he has to make the ultimate decision. Does he choose to kill his best friend to save him from what the others will do to him, or does he let his best friend rot in jail and get beaten to a pulp by Curley and some of the ranch workers. This is the main thing that makes George an anti-hero. George creeps up behind Lennie, holds a pistol to his head, and pulls the trigger. Immediately all the ranch workers run to the sound of the gun shot. They see Lennie slumped down on the floor, and George standing there with an empty look in his eye. George did the worst thing possible to make sure Lennie did not suffer. That is the my definition of an anti-hero.

The German sniper was already in the perfect position and all he had to do was pull the trigger. And that he did.

Belgium 1915, as Michael lay against the butt of his rifle on the brink of sleep he heard John talking to himself. He was praying for the war to end and for him to be alive to see it. John finished his prayer and stood up to have a look over the trench. He was looking to see if any German troops where advancing towards the trench. He had been on watch for nearly 5 hours. John had looked over the trench many times during the night, nothing had happened so far. But this time it felt different, he felt like he was being watched by an invisible enemy. John scanned the area in front with his eyes, searching for any signs of movement. He then stared straight in front of him looking directly towards the German trenches. Finally he saw something that caught his eye, a long barrel of a sniper rifle. That would be John’s last thought. John barely moved a muscle as the bullet hit him straight between the eyes. Then he just flopped off of the ledge he was standing on and landed at Michael’s feet. Michael woke up suddenly from hearing a solid thud on the floor. Then he looked down. He saw John lying in a pool of his own blood and bits and pieces of brain coming out of his shattered skull. Michael screamed, waking up everyone in his trench.

The next day, Michael was still sitting there in the same spot. John’s body had been taking away and put in the ever growing pile of dead, rotting corpses. Michael still couldn’t believe that John was gone. They had known each other all their lives, they were truly the best of friends. Michael had seriously considered blowing his brains out, John was all he had left in these godforsaken trenches. They had both gone to the local recruitment office together to help fight against the Germans. They both had felt very proud of serving there king and country. Michael defiantly didn’t fell that now. He now wished that the war had never started and that John and him had stayed at home were it was safe.

Michael wasn’t the only one who was contemplating suicide. Who knew of around 4 or 5 other corporals who had just about had enough of this hell hole. As the days past and the fighting continued, more and more lost hope. One day, Michael woke up to see two corporals being carried off to be put in the pile of bodies. When he asked what happened, someone just put there hand to there head in a pistol like shape. The corporals had committed suicide. Michael was going insane, if he saw another dead body in his own trench, he would soon be joining it in the pile. Hope was fading fast for Michael, he became very self confined and often had nightmares were he would sometimes shout out load in the night.

As the first rays of dawn approached, Michael sat up and looked up into the sky. Something had caught his eye, a flag. A Union Jack flag. It was the first British flag he had seen since his time in the trenches. Sometimes the most simplest of things give us hope. This flag would be Michaels life saver. He gazed up at it thinking about his life and how he mustn’t waist it. He also thought about John, but this time not in a sad way. He thought about all the good times they had had as kids and how John was now looking down on him telling him to keep going. That is exactly what Michael did. For the rest of his days Michael was always positive even through the hard times. He was also thankful for the life he had and that it wasn’t ended prematurely like John’s. He often thought of John looking down on him and maybe, just maybe John would be feeling proud. The War ended 3 years later and Michael returned to his home in London. Now Michael was free to live the rest of his life in peace.

The poem uses a flag as a symbol of patriotism, hope and belief that you can succeed at anything. It is a symbol of bravery and loyalty. A flag was something for soldiers in WW1 and WW2 to look up to and give them hope. I really liked the poem and it was simple and easy to remember. I can image soldiers gaining hope in a crisis just by looking at a flag.