To kill a mockingbird Inquiry Project ----- Fiona Han

Story This book was narrated by a six years old girl named Scout. In her childhood, she always plays with her elder brother Jem and tries to make Boo Radley went out of the house. Her dad Atticus was impartial and polite to everyone, he didn’t discriminate black people. Instead, he defended for a black man – Tom Robinson because he was accused of beating and raping a white lady – Miss Ewell. The juries used the whole day to judged that Tom was guilty, although Tom didn’t do anything wrong. On the way to the prison, Tom escaped and been killed. He was the mockingbird in this novel. At the end of the story, Bob Ewell wanted to revenge Atticus, he injured Jem and almost hurt Scout. Boo Radley came out and helped them. Scout realized what Atticus said before, “you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” To kill a mockingbird means treat an innocent man unjustly.

How do different beliefs affect actions?

Belief Belief is the state of mind in which a person thinks something to be the case with or without there being empirical evidence to prove that something is the case with factual certainty.

History In the great depression, Jim Crow law is a important law in America, which enforced racial segregation in the South. In legal theory, blacks received "separate but equal" treatment under the law — in actuality, public facilities for blacks were nearly always inferior to those for whites. In most white people’s beliefs, blacks are humble. If blacks and whites argue with one thing, the whites must be right and the blacks are wrong.

Connect with “to kill a mockingbird” In “to kill a mockingbird”, even though Tom didn’t do anything wrong, they still judge Tom is guilty. Because people didn’t believe him, they were partial to white. In juries’ beliefs, White people are all superior to blacks, they disdain blacks. They still insist on standing with the evil of society, upholding their beliefs and condemning innocent people. But we also see this case in the point of Finch family’s view, they didn’t discriminate black people. They believe all the people is equal. So they want to help blacks. Tom was the innocent victim of society at that time, which is in the great depression. People’s beliefs made their actions change. From this book, we can also know that some whites want to kill Tom at the night when he was in the jail. Whites are used to using lynch to kill blacks Different beliefs affect actions also show on Boo Radley. He stays in the house and almost never came out, so in his beliefs, people are equal and he doesn’t want to come out because he doesn’t want his beliefs to be influenced by other people. In his heart, Justice is the most important thing.

Example in real life Beliefs and information filtering: People filter information based on their beliefs and only absorb the information that matches their belief system. This impacts their behavior by making them biased towards what they believe in no matter how many proofs are provided. That's why persuading someone to believe in something against his beliefs is hard Beliefs shape reality: If a guy thinks that he will never find a job (a belief) then he will not become motivated to prepare himself for the job market (change in behavior) and later on when he tries to find a job he will fail (so his belief will become true). That's how beliefs can shape

Conclusion Beliefs can control your actions, behavior and potential. You may not pay attention, but it is really happening. If you learned how to acquire positive beliefs and how to get rid of negative ones then you will be able to use the tremendous power of beliefs on your side.

life-long lovers of literature In this book, we can learn a lot from Scout and Jem’s daily life. Their father Atticus is a good teacher that lead them to walk on the right way of life. This lawsuit of Tom is not only a struggle between blacks and whites but also a war of justice and evil. Boo Radley is also a kind of justice in this novel. This book made me becomes a lover of literature because I realized that from a novel, we not only learn the theme, but also the history of the novel’s background. And from the book, we can find some questions, which can connect with our real life. so that we can think deeply.

Sources https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belief https://www.2knowmyself.com/how_beliefs_affect_behavior https://bookofgoodpractices.wordpress.com/2013/04/05/beliefs-and- values/ https://urbanintellectuals.com/2016/10/08/17-examples-of-jim-crow-laws- in-the-united-states-of-america/2/