Critical Lens

Danielle Miller

Teaching Secondary Writing

Prof. Sieben

Critical Lens

3 October 2011

"All literature is protest.   You can't name a single literary work that isn't protest."

Richard Wright (adapted)

According to Richard Wright, “All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  In other words, authors write with a sense of purpose that usually pertains to a certain situation of which they agree or disagree with.  This is shown to be true in “To Kill A Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.  Each of these authors uses literary techniques such as theme, characterization and point of view to support many works of literature protesting against social injustice.

In Harper Lee's novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee writes about human dignity that joins everyone. Her story takes us to a sleepy, Southern town called Maycomb, where a mixture of people was living. Theme and characterization are demonstrated throughout this novel, which makes the reader feel a strong sense of emotion. Many themes occur in this novel including compassion, drama, and care for the characters. The novel is filled with experiences that readers can identify with. Kindness and cruelty, love and hatred, humor and grief are some of the themes that produce and show a great deal of injustice. In one scene, Atticus tells Scout, "You never know the person until jump into their skin and walk around in it." The characterization in this novel has a greater truth to it. For instance, the names of the characters come to represent certain things.  For example, "Atticus Finch" represents strong leadership and a hard worker; Atticus always teaches his children that they must learn to be compassionate and understanding of the problems and conditions of life faced by other people.  "Bob Ewell" stands for evil, which in this case is true considering what happens to the protagonist's brother at the end of the story; "Tom Robinson" is a victim of which the Ewell family dislikes African Americans, because of his race.  Through both of these literary devices, the reader can see how Lee feels about the social situation of which she is writing about. 

Similarly, Arthur Miller wrote "The Crucible," which focuses on the social injustices of that time period.   Arthur writes about how the society accuses one another of witchcraft, based mostly on hearsay by the other characters. Scattered throughout this play are reoccurring signs of theme and of different points of view or perspectives. The uprising of Salem witch trials influences the theme of this play. Almost everyone in the town of Salem is affected in some way; by the end of the play most of the female characters have been accused of being a witch.  The differing points of view are mostly based in religion, meaning some characters hold “the word of the Lord” to a much higher standard than others.  By illustrating a society from both a moral and religious point of view, Miller is able to show why the characters stayed true to themselves. By allowing the reader to view the community in this light, we are able to see why the characters made their decisions to go against the social norm and speak out, staying true to themselves but having to face grave consequences.  In some instances the play suggests you have to lie and Miller, via Hale, makes this clear "God damns a liar less than he that throws his life away for pride."  Miller poignantly illustrates the fate of Salem from both a religious and moral viewpoint, allowing the reader to see the struggles for most of the people living during that time period.

“All literature is protest.  You can’t name a single literary work that isn’t protest.”  This is shown to be true in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller.  Both works exemplify this common theme of how many works of literature protest against social injustice. With the literary elements of characterization, theme, and point of view, the story comes to life.  For many readers, the situations that were written about aren’t situations they’ve directly dealt with, but through the genius of fiction, the reader can feel as though they are part of the protest.