Doubt vs. To Kill a Mockingbird

The connection between the movie, Doubt and "To Kill a Mockingbird" is definitely an interesting one. Gossip, it plays a role in everyday life. Unfortunately, it is more or less human nature. By spreading things around there is no control over the events that could transpire. In the scene from the movie, Doubt, a woman goes to church for confession and asked the priest if gossip was a sin. He replied by instructing her to go home and cut a pillow on top of her roof. Once she returned he told her to go find every feather, and that is gossip. There is a connection between the movie doubt, and the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird". In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, gossip is the same anywhere you go. Unfortunately, the character Boo Radley is very much apart of everyday gossip. So the children decide to make up a game about the rumors that they had heard. They don’t think that there is anything wrong with it because Boo Radley is supposedly a crazy lunatic who stabs people with scissors and never comes out of his house. Therefore, the children feel the need to get amusement out of the situation. The children hear things from their parents who hear things from other people. Gossip is like a vicious circle. Once you say something, you do not have control over where it goes. Something that meant to be harmless and innocent can quickly turn into something horrific and life shattering. You need to watch what you say because you will never know who is going to hear it. In this instant it was Atticus. He asked Jem what they were playing and realized what it was. He is a traditionalist who keeps his ideas to himself; when he hears something he feels like he has the right to bring it to light. This is similar to the preachers sermon because as a man of god he has no right to judge but if something serious happens he feels the need to bring the subject to light; like in his sermon about the gossiping woman. The funny thing about gossip is that you don’t really realize that it is wrong until it comes back to haunt you. When the woman was not able to retrieve all of the feathers, that was a perfect representation of how the gossip she spread came back to haunt her; she had no intention of hurting anyone, and no one ever does, but gossip still hurts. Also, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the people of Maycomb seem to have no problem with gossiping, and it seems as if it is just tolerated and accepted. They have no problem talking about the Radley family even though they have no proof to back up what they said. The real similarities and connections between doubt and To Kill A Mockingbird is that gossip is universal no matter what time period and the most important is that all you have is your integrity and if you mess with that by spreading things around, it will make you look bad.