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The novel ‘’To Kill A Mockingbird’’

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The novel ‘’To Kill A Mockingbird’’ [TKMB] and the film ‘’The Help’’ explore the ideas of discrimination, courage and power. Both texts TKMB and The Help show the main characters Atticus Finch and Skeeter Phelan different personality when they deal with discrimination. Both texts TKMB and The Help explore the ideas of discrimination. In TKMB discrimination is shown when an African-American man is accused of rape and has a unfair trial because the jury chose purely on what society thinks than the facts of what actually happened. In The Help discrimination is shown through the segregation and mistreatment of the maids. This is shown when Milly decides to put marks on her toilet paper so she knows if her maid Minny has used her toilet. ‘’they carry different diseases than we do… A disease-preventative bill that requires every white home to have a separate bathroom for the coloured help’’ Another thing TKMB and The Help show is courage.

Courage is shown in many ways throughout TKMB, the first courageous thing is when Atticus chooses to stand up for Tom Robinson he knew he was going to be put down for it but keeps going anyway. “Don’t think that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but begin anyway to see it through no matter what” Another courageous thing shown in TKMB is when Atticus goes to the jail protect Tom Robinson from being killed he knows he will be out numbered but goes anyway. Courage is also shown in many ways through The Help. Courage is shown when skeeter an aspiring writer decides to go against the beliefs of the town Jackson and decides to write a book about how maids are mistreated by the families they work for.

“Courage sometimes skips a generation. Thank you for bringing it back to our family” Skeeter also shows courage when she constantly stands up for the maids. Another courage thing is shown when the maids Aibileen and her friend Minny agree to help skeeter write a book about how they have been mistreated. They weren’t sure if anybody would like or believe the book but were surprised when the book became a best seller. Throughout TKMB and The Help power is portrayed through both texts. Power is used in many different ways through TKMB; many people use their power in a positive way like Atticus unlike others who abuses their power like Bob Ewell. Bob Ewell uses his power in a negative way when he blames the rape of his daughter Mayella on Tom Robison knowing that Tom would be convicted guilty because he is black. In The Help power is shown in mostly negative ways with the white people treating their maids with disrespect. This is shown when Milly fires her maid Minny for using the home toilet instead of the one made outside and when Aibileen gets accused and fired for stealing silver cutlery.

Through TKMB and also The Help are constantly shown the innocent being taken advantage of from those with more power. However TKMB and The Help are different because they are set in different times; where the people in the help are more affluent than the people in TKMB who are poor. Also the main characters are different in the way they deal with discrimination; Atticus tends to be more contained when confronted this would be because he is a grown man and has lived his life unlike Skeeter who is a daughter and only just came out of college and hasn’t lived her life as long as Atticus also Skeeter tends to be more fiery when she is confronted. In conclusion TKMB and The Help are similar because of their themes like discrimination, courage and power but also different in their characters who deal with situations in different ways.

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