In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, undoubtedly there is more than one type of discrimination displayed. Before we get into that, what exactly is discrimination? Well, to discriminate means to treat someone differently based on what they believe, their age, gender, who they love, even their appearance. The forms that I will be talking about are Sexism, (Prejudice actions based on gender) Racism, (Prejudice actions based on race) classism, (Prejudice actions on those of a different social class) and discrimination on those with a disability. Discrimination can affect anyone, though usually, it targets those of color and women, there are cases when those discriminated, are white males, such as Arthur (Boo) Radley. Despite being a white man, …show more content…
Another example of racism would be Tom Robinson and his whole court case; despite all the clear evidence that Atticus, a lawyer, provided, the jury, which is made up of all white prejudice men, were in favor of Mr. Ewell, a nasty white man, instead of Tom, who was not only black but crippled. Regardless of the fact that the jury was well aware of the fact that the Ewell family is known for being nasty, lying, no-gooders, An example of this is when Atticus states his views on the Ewell family as, “the disgrace of Maycomb.” The fact that they were white, is what aided them in winning the case. Causing the jury to send a blind eye to the fact that Mayella and possibly the rest of her siblings are being abused and manipulated. Thus, resulting in Tom’s arrest for a crime he didn 't commit. The saddening thing is, that the whole scenario started because Mayella attempted to seduce Tom, and her father found out. Filled with rage, Mr. Ewell beat his daughter, he found it unacceptable that his daughter fancied a black man. Then, he claimed that Tom raped his daughter to cover everything up. There are even cases such as Tom’s happening to this day, such as the case of Miguel Angel Peña Rodriguez Vs. Colorado. The jury was corrupted by bias thoughts which resulted in an unfair trial. That did not go in favor of the accused, in this case, the one accused was Miguel, he was accused of sexual;y harassing two girls in a bathroom. He pleaded innocent, also stating that they have the wrong person. One of the jurors, on the other hand, stated that Peña Rodriguez was guilty of sexual assault because he was Mexican and that “Mexican men take whatever they want.” The fact that someone could say this and get away with it disgusts me. Later the juror was ratted out by his fellow juror, his response, “nine times out of 10 Mexican men were guilty of being aggressive toward women and young girls” in his experience, the jurors said, adding that H.C. called the defendant “an illegal.” (Peña
Racial discrimination is a huge part of the novel and multiple characters go through it. The first example is Calpurnia, Scout’s housekeeper. At first, Scout doesn’t respect Calpurnia much, but after Scout hears her speaking a different language, she learns to respect her a bit more, saying, “That Calpurnia lead a modest double life never dawned on me.” This quote shows the shift between not respecting Calpurnia to learning to respect her more for being herself even though the rest of the community doesn’t respect her because she’s black. The second example of racial discrimination is obviously the Tom Robinson case.
In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, the theme is discrimination to others can lead to the wrong assumptions. For example, Tom Robinson was never given a fair chance during his trial because of his race. The story quotes “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man” (Lee 279). The jury ended up convicting Tom Robinson guilty because of his skin color, not because he was truly was. The jury has the wrong assumptions about Tom Robinson and his race .
In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, imagery and diction helped me develop the theme of innocence and how there is always purity in the darkest of things and how the darkest things are humans. One of the many themes Harper Lee wrote about is racism. On page 223 was the start of Tom Robinson’s trial which was one of the scenes from the book about racism. During the trial Bob Ewell yelled at the court when he said “I seen that black n***** yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella” (231) Also when Mayella refers to Tom in the N word.
Tom Robinson, for one, is a great example of racism in the Maycomb community. He was accused of rape and is sentenced to a trial. The night before the trial, a group of men go to try to hurt Tom Robinson. If it wasn’t for little Scout, who doesn’t know that anything is wrong, for intervening, Mr. Robinson could have been killed. Scout doesn’t even understand what’s wrong and she was the only one to show kindness to the men, causing them to leave.
Discrimination, according to the textbook, is the unequal treatment of various categories of people. (Macionis pg.86) In the movie, when the younger generation and some of the older generation start to turn to color from black and white, the townspeople get angry and can’t accept the change. As a result, they start to hang up signs in the stores saying
How To Kill a Mockingbird is made from the author Harper Lee. This book has a lot of forms of discrimination against certain groups in society which is morally wrong. The book contains forms of racism, sexism, and classism. Racism is the judgement against a certain. Sexism is judgement against a specific gender.
Final Essay Outline: Thesis Statement/opening paragraph: In the story To Kill A Mockingbird, discrimination and the act of being prejudice is common among the main characters, on both the receiving and serving end. Certain characters, like Scout and Jeremy Finch, Bob Ewell, and the town folk truly create the main problem and set the theme of the story. For example, when Bob Ewell accuses Atticus Finch of being an african-american lover, because he is defending Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, according to Bob. Boo Radley is accused of being dead by Scout, Jem and Dill.
Rajan Dosanjh Mrs. Haber ENG 1D0A January 18, 2017 To Kill A Mockingbird Theme Essay Discrimination is a societal issue which has been prevalent for a long time and still brings people down in today’s society. Discrimination can be defined by the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex (www.dictionary.com) Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird is based in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb where a man named Atticus Finch is appointed to defend a man named Tom Robinson who was accused of raping a teenage girl.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee contains various examples of racism and prejudice throughout the novel. The story takes place in the 1930's, a period when racism was a part of everyday life. Prejudice and racism in this book are represented by acts of hate towards others because of the color of their skin. In this novel, prejudice and racism was dominantly pointed towards blacks. Acts of racism can be discreet to the point that you can easily miss them.
Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.
In modern day society, racial injustice has a big impact in this world today, as stated in Just Mercy and To Kill a Mockingbird. Showing that they are both related in many ways. The characters from To Kill A Mockingbird deal with racial injustice first hand. Scout, the narrator and daughter of Atticus Finch, experienced racial injustice of her father’s court case with Tom Robinson, an African American.
“Now don’t you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…” (Lee 179). This quote from Reverend Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird is a sort of summary of how and why Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted guilty. It also gives a lot of insight on race relations in this time period. Unfortunately, racism has yet to leave society.
In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee which takes place in Maycomb Alabama, where there is a lot of racial discrimination. But there is also some gender, and religious, discrimination.
In the book I think the element of racial discrimination against blacks is controversial today. Harper Lee describes a common theme in the book, being that whites are superior to blacks no matter what. In our world today, the African American race is still held to this degree but some feel otherwise. Some people in the world feel that whites and blacks are treated equally and the issue of racism does not exist anymore; others feel it is very much alive today in our word and we are still taking steps to overcome it. I found this element of the book very insightful because it allowed me to see a different view of racism and how it could still be going on today.
Discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things. Discrimination is shown in many different ways throughout the novel but is mainly shown through Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Atticus Finch. Boo Radley in discriminated against because he is shy and different. Most people were scared of him because the people of Maycomb county say that when he was younger he stabbed his dad in the leg with a pair of scissors. No one really knew anything about Boo, but they knew about his past.