Question

Recall a time when you were evaluating – orally or in writing – something you had seen, heard, read, or tried, such as a movie, performance, CD, book, magazine, restaurant, television show, video game, computer software, or concept. What were your criteria, or standards, for evaluation? What did you expect to achieve with your evaluation? What interested you about your topic or made you think it was significant? Was your judgment a mixture of positive and negative, or did it learn toward one extreme.

Then, consider the evaluations you have read, heard, or seen on television.  If you recall one of them in some detail, identify what made it interesting.  Was it the subject, or did the author perhaps present ideas new to you? How did the author or speaker make the evaluation convincing? Did it contain informative details or an unusual point of view?

Back in my high school, I can clearly remember reading a very interesting and touching book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. The main event of the novel consists of a lawyer by the name Atticus who is defending a black man accused of raping Mayella (Meyer, 2010). It is very obvious that the defendant never did it. Mayella had fallen in love with Toms but she could not admit to having fallen in love with a black man that is why she claimed to have been raped. The issues of a white woman loving a black man were not acceptable in that society.

The book states that, she was white yet she tempted a Negro. What she did was something that our society refers to as unspeakable, that is kissing a black man. These are words from chapter 18 of the book and it is the most interesting chapter of the whole novel. The black people were viewed a less human and disposable in the society especially in that town. The words show how prejudiced and racist the town of Maycomb was. The society could not just accept that a white woman fall for black man. The theme that is demonstrated by the words in the entire novel is the existence of social inequality.  The novel is timeless story that of prejudice, character and a coming of ages. The novel is set in a small town of Alabama in the 1930’s. The story presented in the book is simply mesmerizing about the future and the ability of the grown ups to narrate such a film while looking back through the innocence of a child. There is a clear presentation of controversial subjects like judgment, racism and injustice which also makes the major themes throughout the novel.

It is the subject that inspired me a lot. This is because; the novel examines racism, injustice, prejudice and social inequality through the eyes of two children not through the eyes of an adult. The two children are Jem and Scout in a small town in Alabama during the time of great depression. the way toms is being treated in the novel and the way Atticus is fighting for the truth and equality of all people in Maycomb is inspiring me a lot seeing the way that society perceived all black men as poor, lazy and rapper (Flynn, 2010).

My criteria for evaluation were based on the ways the characters and the author ere presenting themselves and the role they played in the novel. The author has chosen to address issue that has been polarizing the society a lot. The fact of addressing social inequality, prejudice and injustice in our society has become the central attention of the author. The characters are playing crucial roles of showing how the themes are depicted in the society not even the in Maycomb but to the modern society where the poor, disabled and the weak in the society are discriminated. There is a lot of modern discrimination of people all over the world which is based on unfounded prejudice.

My evaluation was directed towards achieving the impact the topic would have in the society today. I was evaluating how strong the topic can be applied in the real life of our society today to help solve the issues of injustices and prejudice that are present in our community. My evaluation was aimed at assessing how the topic addressed the major theme and sticks to it to the end. Fortunately, I the novel maintained and comprehensively addressed the theme of prejudice and social inequality.

I was interested by the topic due to the way it has addressed the central theme of what was going on in the Maycomb society and the even to the modern society.  The topic is vey significant in our society as it shows how prejudice and injustice can be dangerous to the society that invest in these issues (Blackford, 2011). The topic is also applicable in our institutions where there is discrimination that is based on prejudice.

My judgments learn towards one extreme of positive as the novel is very comprehensively illustrating how the central themes are demonstrated in our society. The novel maintains that injustice, prejudice and social inequalities are bad and should not be entertained in our society at all. Finally, The novel make it clear that the author had only one message to pass through this novel and that is the theme of prejudice of the whites toward the blacks which has resulted into injustice and social inequality in the society.

References

Blackford, H. V. (2011). Mockingbird passing: Closeted traditions and sexual curiosities in Harper Lee's   novel. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.

Flynn, P. T. (2010). Substance, judgment, and evaluation: Seeking the worth of a liberal arts, core text   education : selected papers from the twelfth annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts   and Courses, Chicago, Illinois, April 6-9, 2006. Lanham: University Press of America.

Meyer, M. J. (2010). Harper Lee's To kill a mockingbird: New essays. Lanham, Md: Scarecrow Press.