Please take notes on the text in RED.

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Theme in "To Kill a Mockingbird"

• Please take notes on the text in RED.

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What is theme?

• THEMES are the fundamental and often universal
  ideas explored in a literary work.
• Examples
• Two themes in the Harry Potter books and movies
  are the power of love, (Harry can love, which is
  what makes him more powerful than Voldemort) and
  the value of humility (Harry, who is humble and
  doesnt brag about himself, is more successful
  than someone like Draco Malfoy who brags about
  his family and their money and power.)

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Another example of theme

• One theme of the Star Wars movies is good
  versus evil (the Jedi against the Sith).
• One theme of the Twilight books is choice (the
  Cullen family make the choice not to feed on
  humans, though it is in their nature as vampires
  to do so).

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Themes of To Kill a Mockingbird

• There are three main themes of To Kill a
  Mockingbird
• The Coexistence of Good and Evil The novel shows
  the reader the transition of Scout and Jem from
  innocent children, when they assume that all
  people are good, to a more adult perspective
  where they encounter evil, prejudice and hatred.
  
• The character representing moral good is
  Atticus, the character representing moral evil is
  Mr. Ewell (the father of the girl who claims that
  Tom Robinson raped her).

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• 2. Prejudice and Injustice. (Prejudice forming
  judgement before knowing the facts Injustice
  lack of justice, wrong) .
• The book starts out cheerful and positive about
  Maycomb, but then as it goes on, Scout begins to
  see the cruel prejudice of the Maycomb people
  against blacks, and their disgust that Atticus is
  defending a black man in court. Scout and her
  brother begin to learn of how unfair society is,
  that a whole race of people can be mistreated
  because of the color of their skin, and some
  people are seen as less important because they
  dont have much money.

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• 3. Courage What makes true courage?
• Scout and Jem get guns for Christmas, and are
  very exited by this. They later see Atticus take
  a perfect shot at a rabid dog from a long
  distance, and both are very impressed. But
  Atticus teaches them that courage isnt holding a
  gun. Courage is when you know you're licked
  before you begin, but you begin anyway and you
  see it through no matter what. Atticus shows
  true courage by accepting Tom Robinsons case,
  even though he knows that he cannot win it,
  because of the prejudice of the people of
  Maycomb.