What do you think is the primary conflict in To Kill a Mockingbird?

Question

umm..
this is a question for everyone who read the book:
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee
I just finished reading the book and i just
wanted to hear what everyone thought was
the primary conflict in the story was.
i think the primary conflict is the tom robinson trial.
what about you?

Answer 1

the primary conflict in the book was loss of innocence. why do you think the title is To Kill a Mockingbird? the point of the title is to understand that not only is it a sin to kill a mockingbird, as atikus says, but that it should be seen as a sin to kill the sweet innocence of childhood. the book is told from the point of view of his daughter and we see the events of the book unfold from her perspective and we see her loss of innocence as she is surrounded by all these different events, including the tom robinson trial. but she also sees that people can misjudge based not only on race, with boo radley or with her own father. she and her brother think atikus is week, unmanly even, but as she sees the respect given him not only by the black community but by those who would try to lynch tom robinson or one man's trust and faith in atikus when he kills the dog, she gains understanding and maturity and repsect for her father. the book is set in the rural south of the early 1900's and, of course, race is going to run undercurrent through the whole book but the main conflict is scout's struggle with letting go of that childhood innocence we all lose.

Answer 2

I don't think the Tom Robinson trial is the primary conflict in TKM. This is because neither Tom nor Atticus is the primary character in the novel. The primary characters are the children: Jem; and, to a lesser degree, Scout.

Consider the climax of the novel. No, it's not the trial, filled with drama as those chapters may be. Harper Lee points out the true climax in the opening line of the story: "When my brother Jem was nearly fifteen, his arm was badly broken at the elbow." (I'm going from memory here, so I apologize if the quote is not exact.) Scout makes the mistake that most people make: "I maintain the Ewells started it all." Jem, though, sees the true roots of the conflict: "Jem said it started the summer Dill came to us and first gave us the idea to make Boo Radley come out."

There are two main story arcs in this novel, the Tom Robinson story and the Boo Radley story. What ties them together is the children, their response to each of these, and their subsequent growth.

Jem in particular undergoes the greatest struggles as he becomes aware of the world around him, a world that is far more complex than he thought. Consider two times Jem cries: once as he contemplates Boo Radley's house after Nathan Radley cements up the knothole, then again after the guilty verdict is announced against Tom Robinson. In both cases, he is pained by the suffering of an innocent victim at the hands of what society considers the "right" way to deal with things.

Jem is the true protagonist in this story, the character who is transformed through conflict. Thus the primary conflict belongs with Jem, and not with Atticus.

Answer 3

Yes, Tom Robinson's case is the main conflict. Because Harper Lee is trying to show the injustice of people just because of color. I had to write a long three page essay on it. So I got deep in the book. I loved it.

Answer 4

I read To Kill a Mockingbird not long ago and I think the primary conflict would have to be the relationships between the black and white americans..... Racism .....?

Answer 5

The primary conflict was racism and Atticus's efforts to raise his young family in a bigot free and anti-racist environment to the best of his ability....that was the primary plot and goal of Atticus. Tom Robinson, the falsly accused......... brought the point home about the cruelty of racism in the South.

Answer 6

I think Atticus points out quite clearly that the primary conflict is right vs. wrong and the fact that not everyone in the racist south at the time was entitled to a fair trial. Pax - C

Answer 7

The primary conflict is the trial. It is not the first conflict but it is the major conflict in the book.

Answer 8

The Tom Robinson trial is your basic good vs. evil scenario...written in a most extrodinary way.

I believe the vast majority of books come down to this in analysis.

Answer 9

I think the primary topic is: A good man that helps everybody and learns to their children how to do the right things. The conflict is how to do each moment the right behaviour.

Answer 10

omg! i love that book!! i think the primary conflicts are racism and prejudices. and also the general concept of right vs. wrong.