Throughout history, anarchy has risen during times of peace. In the absence of authority, evil rises. People are often raised to possess preconceived notions about humanity. Few can accept that others’ opinions can differ.
In the modern paradoxical world, conflict is very prevalent. During the holocaust, Elie Weisel encountered great evil. Due to these experiences, Weisel gained insight into himself and humanity as a whole.
The United States is a nation raised on corrupted morals. While the country was created with the idea of freedom in mind, it was a hollow statement. In reality, slavery was the tradition by which this country expanded so rapidly.
For more than a century, slavery was an accepted societal norm. Even when the nation turned its back on slavery, many persisted to back it. In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the Finch family experiences great evil.
This evil is personified in the hate and prejudice of slavery, and the corrupt nature of the people who believe in it. The people of Maycomb often treated African Americans with ignorance and hatred, despite the circumstances.
This hatred leads to great social inequality, as the two ethnicities lived in contrasting communities. The overcomplicated social hierarchy stands to symbolize the injustice of Maycomb.
In the novel, the theme of good and evil is developed through Tom Robinson’s trial. despite the fact Robinson is innocent, the hatred, prejudice, and ignorance that the people of Maycomb display kills him in the end.
He is subjected to the preconceived notions the people of that age had of slavery and, to that extent, African Americans as a whole. Scout and Jem Finch experience this injustice as they are transitioning into adulthood.
Through the actions of the society around them, they lose their childhood innocence, in which they assumed all people are good to their inexperience with evil. By the end of the novel, they have confronted evil and incorporated it into their understanding of the world.
The hatred so heavily prevalent in the town of Maycomb highly influences the protagonists of the novel. Whereas Scout is able to maintain her basic faith in human nature despite Tom’s conviction. Jem’s faith in justice and humanity is badly damaged.
Due to this psychological damage, Jem retreats into a state of disillusionment. Despite this disillusionment, Jem is able to maintain his faith in humanity, similar to his father before him.
Atticus Finch is unique in the novel in that he has experienced great evil and prejudice, but has maintained his belief in the human capacity for goodness. Atticus is the one character in the novel who seems to recognize that the world is not black and white; most people have both good and bad qualities.
Atticus’s ultimate belief is that one should appreciate the good qualities, and understand the bad qualities by treating others with sympathy and trying to see life from their perspective. It is due to his guidance that Scout and Jem are able to maintain their faith in humanity.
In the end, despite their brushes with hatred and injustice, the Finch family not only prevails but learns to grow as people. They gain greater insight into their paradoxical, contrasting world, and their place in it.
Their encounters with evil help them to find their place in the world. Scout and Jem learn perhaps the best lesson of all; life isn’t about the black and white, it is about the grey in between.
