Christianity in To Kill a Mockingbird

Christianity in To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee displays many acts of generosity and understanding, but most importantly, the novel sends out a positive notion towards Christianity. The fact that Atticus, a white man, is defending a Negro in a racially segregated community brings a sense of equality for all races to Lee's novel. This idea is a foundation on which many Christian parishes build their beliefs. The most important belief of a Christian is that God creates all humans equally and instructs them to accept each other with warmth and kindness. Because of Lee's exemplification of this belief, the novel is very deserving of its award given by the 1961 Brotherhood Award of the National Conference of Christians and Jews.One of the cardinal rules in Christianity is to love others as thy brother or sister. Atticus definitely shows his Christian views of equality and justice as well as his psychological stability when he decides to take the case of Tom Robinson.Gods and sodasNot only is Atticus able to cope with the unreasonable, highly emotional views of the white society around him, but is also able to deal with the Negro population of Maycomb both honestly and justly.Atticus causes great controversy between himself and practically the entire society of Maycomb. Women begin to talk of his unethical ways and the preposterous idea of him defending and believing the word of a Negro against the word of Bob Ewell, a man of his own race. All of this conversing of a man who is going against the grain eventually leads to the unlocking of the prejudice and racial minds of the citizens of Maycomb. Some begin to think of Atticus' gesture as a baby step towards racial equality not only in Maycomb, but perhaps the whole southern part of the...

The Dan Harmon Story Circle 8 Simple Steps to a Powerful Structure

The Dan Harmon Story Circle 8 Simple Steps to a Powerful Structure The Dan Harmon Story Circle: What Authors Can Learn from Rick and Morty Writer Dan Harmon, the creator of TV’s Community, has a reputation for being a story structure evangelist. For over a decade, he’s been known to ‘break’ the stories he’s working on with a system he known as ‘The Embryo,’ ‘The Dan Harmon Story Circle,’ or just ‘The Story Circle.’ It’s an approach that many other writers have since adopted, including IT Crowd creator Graham Linehan. Zone of Comfort: Pip, a young orphan, lives a modest life on the moors.But they want something: He becomes obsessed with Estella, a wealthy girl of his age.They enter an unfamiliar situation: A mysterious benefactor plucks Pip from obscurity and throws him - a fish out of water - into London society.Adapt to it: He learns to live the high life and spends his money frivolouslyGet what they wanted: Pip is finally a gentleman, which he believes will entitle him/make him worthy of Estella.Pay a heavy price for it: Pip discovers that his money came from a convict, he drowns in debt, he regrets alienating his Uncle, he realizes that his pursuit of Estella is futile.Then return to their familiar situation: Pip makes peace with his Uncle Joe (who nurses him back to health). Pip disappears to Egypt for years, and once again returns home†¦Changed: Back once again where the story started, a now-humbled Pip reunites with Estella who, due to some plot, is ready to open her heart to him.Alt hough Great Expectation was a serial, written week-by-week, Dickens must have consciously or unconsciously been aware of this cycle. He sent his characters on a journey towards something they wanted -   only for them to pay the price and return home, changed.As with any sensible advice about structure, the takeaway here is not that you must slavishly adhere to a set formula or risk ruining your story. This story circle, along with other popular story structures like the three-act structure, are simply tools based on observations of stories that have managed to resonate with readers over the centuries. Just know this: if you find yourself at an impasse with any story you’re writing - you could do a lot worse than to crack out the story wheel, identify where you are, and see what comes next in the cycle.What other novels could you break down using the Dan Harmon Story Circle? Take your favorite book and tell us what all 8 plot points are in the comments below.