“To Kill A Mockingbird” is a novel was written by Harper Lee, through the narrative of Jean Louise who everyone usually calls her is Scout. She lives in a small city named Maycomb with her family, that are older brother Jem and father Atticus. Her story describes the conflict between white and black people, specifically Tom Robinson who was accused of rape the white girl. Whereas, “The Lamp at Noon” is a short story by Sinclair Ross, that narrates about a family with a farmer Paul and his wife Ellen. They have a conflict with each other about staying or moving to another place because of a dust storm happening there. Actually, both of them has a connection to the U.S.’s society during the Great Depression. There are many important themes between these two works, especially similarities and differences related to gender discrimination, empathy, and sacrifice.
To begin, “The Lamp at Noon” and “To Kill A Mockingbird” have a common them is gender discrimination. For example, in “To Kill A Mockingbird”, Scout has some actions like hanging out with boys and fighting which represents she is a tomboy. And in once time Finch family reunited on Christmas, Aunt Alexandra who is Atticus’s sister has a special view about Scout’s appearance and behaviour and she tries to make her be a lady. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire.[...] Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born [...]” (Lee 92) by Scout. And another one is when Jem asks Atticus why people do not like himself, Atticus and Miss Maudie sit on juries. Atticus said “There are lots of reasons. For one thing, Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman” (Lee 253). Similarly, in “The Lamp at Noon”, Ross shows that Paul discriminates with Ellen when she wants to move to the town where her father is living. But Paul disagreed and said “You’re a farmer’s wife now. It doesn’t matter what you used to be, or you were brought up [...]” (Ross 67). He wants to show her that her whereabouts will be nowhere else but on the farm, because she chose to be a farmer’s wife. Anh her responsibility is take care of family and always with him in good times as well as in bad times. In both works, the women are always discriminated with the men in the old society.
Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
- Proper editing and formatting
- Free revision, title page, and bibliography
- Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Furthermore, another theme of these two works is empathy. Instance, in Lee’s work, Atticus is a typical for this one who is considered an empathy person. He always put himself into their problem, then he makes his opinion on them. And he also teaches his children with the same way. After the first day Scout came home from school and she did not want to go to school because of her teacher, Miss Caroline. And Atticus explains to her that “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” (Lee 33). Moreover, Paul and Ellen are not able to empathy with each other in front of bad situation that is the dust storm. Until they lost their baby, their relationship being worse and all things happened because Paul did not listen to his wife who warmed him. “Think of me and him. It’s not fair. We have our lives, too, to live.” (Ross 66) by Ellen. Overall, empathy is necessary for all relationship in people society.
Finally, the last important theme is the sacrifice that also a key of the problem in these two works. With Lee’s work, Boo Radley saved Jem and Scout were attacked from Bob Ewell, although he has stayed inside his house to hide himself, and he did not want to contact outside. Actually, his action shows his sacrifice to the children of Finch house which he has never done before. Atticus's thanks to Boo Radley after what he did for his children “Thank you for children” (Lee 318). On the other hand, the sacrifice of their kid make them empathy with each other “You said tonight we’d see the storm go down. So still now, and a red sky-it means tomorrow will be fine” (Ross 72) ‘red sky’ here is represent for their son’s sacrifice that also a beautiful picture in Ross’s work.
In conclusion, “To Kill A Mockingbird” and “The Lamp at Noon” has many similarities and differences about 3 themes above.
Stuck on your essay?
