Why to Kill a Mocking Bird is Still Being Taught

   




     The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is over 50 years old, and yet it is still taught in schools around the world. There are many reasons why this novel is still being taught around the world but a few of the most prominent are Racism, Gender Discrimination and, Coming of Age.

     The most prominent subject in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism.  Racism is still potent in America but not as prominent as it was during the Depression in the 1930's. One example of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson's trial. In Tom Robinson's trial there is evidence that  makes it clear that Tom Robinson did not rape Mayella Ewell. Even though there is this evidence the fully white jury decides to convict him of rape. As you read this book you realize the full extent of Racism back then and it makes you think about how racism is still coursing through our modern day society. For instance in modern day news there has been a lot of reports of racism in the police force. We still have a long way to go if we want to be fully cured of racism.

     Another reason why this book is still being taught in high schools across the country is to bring awareness to Gender Discrimination. Compared to the 1930's, we have come so far, but we still have aways to go. One example of this in our society today is wages. Studies show that women get paid 77 cents for every dollar a man makes. This is a major sign that Gender discrepancy is not fully flushed out of America's system. We have come a long way though, for instance in To Kill a Mockingbird women are not allowed to be in the Jury and they also couldn't vote. We still have a long way to go until everything is equal.

     Last but not least To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming of age novel for many reasons. The most prominent of these reasons is the process of little innocent Scout Finch becoming mature by learning about racism and gender discrimination. Another reason is the fact that scout is a tomboy and as she grows up she will have to learn to wear fancy dresses and corsets. These are the two most prominent signs of this novel being a coming of age novel.

     These three things are the reasons why To Kill a Mocking Bird is still being taught in school to this day.

Will Smith

     Will Smith is an odd actor that appears not to age. He is featured in many terrible movies such as After Earth and Wild Wild West.  After Earth got 11% on rotten tomatoes and Wild Wild West got 17%.  Most movies with Will Smith in them make me cringe.  Will Smith is not only weird in movies he is also quite odd looking.  Especially after I photoshop him.

     This first photoshop that I made was very easy to make. The first thing that I did was select his mouth and copy and paste it twice. After that I put his mouth in the place where his eyes would be and blended it in. After that I removed his eyebrows. And finally I selected both of his ears and enlarged them. Then I erased excess lines around the eyes and ears. Here is the final product.

     

     The next photo that I created is called "Will Smith on Crack" because he looks like he is on crack.

This photo terrifies me even though I made it. This photo took much longer than the first because I put a lot more effort into it. The first thing that I did to this photo was duplicate the background layer. After that I cut out the mouth on the duplicated Background Layer and carefully selected his head. Then I copied his head twice and put it inside of the cut out layer. Then I put the second copy inside of the smaller mouth and adjusted it a bit. After that I selected his right eye and turned it upside down in the place of his left and made both of his eyes red. Then I was finished.

Benedict Cumberbatch

      Benedict Cumberbatch is an actor that I personally really like. Benedict Cumberbatch is married and has a child on the way. He is a fairly new yet successful actor and is greatly known as the star of the show Sherlock. Since I like Benedict Cumberbatch I decided to photoshop him.

      The first thing I did to photoshop Benedict Cumberbatch was cut highlight his chin and mouth in order to copy and paste them. Then I carefully enlarged his mouth and put it in the correct position. After that I erased the edges and cleaned up the areas around the eyes so it blended in. After that I changed his eye color to a red and brown hue.  And to finish it all off I selected both of his eyebrows and enlarged them. Then I added a few little touches and got the final product. Here it is:

Ben Stiller

      Ben Stiller is a famous actor. He has starred in many great movies, one of my personal favorite movies that Ben Stiller has starred in is Zoolander. Ben Stiller is hilarious in this movie so I thought he would look pretty great photoshopped.  I started to photoshop Ben Stiller by making him look satanic, but then I realized he is pretty "shreky" so I would make him have more Shrek-like attributes. Here is how I made Ben Stiller more "shreky."

     First I found a good photo of Ben Stiller online, then I put it in to photoshop and made him more green. After that I made his eyes black by selecting the iris and changing the hue of it. Then I cut out his mouth and enlarged it. And finally I cleaned everything up and erased the rough edges. Here is the final product:

Gary Busey

For some reason Gary Busey annoys me immensely.  I do not know why he annoys me so much but he just does. I always have really disliked his teeth and mouth for some strange reason. They are too big or something. Gary Busey just seems so strange, it's like he gets under my skin. Since Gary Busey annoys me so much I decided to photoshop him.

I made this photo to show Gary's beautiful teeth. This photoshop job really makes his teeth stand out in order to show their true beauty. How I made this photo was first by cutting out his mouth and making it much bigger. After that i blended it it by erasing edges and by changing the color. The I went in with a paint tool and added an Anarchy symbol to his forehead. I think It really proves my point about his weird teeth.

Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie has such a big smile I just couldn't resist photoshopping her. She is one of those people that have a mouth that looks so huge. When people have smiles like this you can turn them into abominations so quickly. Also you can move their mouth to so many different places, it's amazing!!!

The first thing I did while making this photo was cut out the mouth. Then I pasted the mouth in two different places and I resized it. After that I cut out the nose and then flipped it upside down and made it fit. After that I colored the teeth and the lips a different color. Then I erased unnecessary bits and cleaned up around the eyes. After that I was done with my abomination.

Obama

Barack Obama is our first black president ever!! Obama is very easy to photoshop because there are so many pictures of him. He is also funny to photoshop because his face can just fit so well on anything. I can truly make him look ridicules any way I want, its wonderful!! I can make "beautiful" art with only Barack Obama's face. I can make abominations so simply, I love it!

The first thing I did to make this abomination was cut out the muscly dude. This took awhile because it had a very complicated background, but after I finished it looked much better than before. Then I cut out Obama's head and put it on the muscly dude's body. After that I added a Mom tattoo to the muscly dudes body and was finished. Here s the final product.