“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience.” This is a quote from Atticus Finch, a courageous and wise character from Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. The story is told through the perspective of a young girl, Jean Louise ¨Scout¨ Finch. She lives with her older brother, Jeremy, and widowed father and prominent lawyer, Atticus, in Maycomb, Alabama during the time of the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, the children experience the injustice and prejudice of society through a tough case that their father was appointed to and are taught to respect and tolerate all people, despite their differences. To Kill A Mockingbird is influential in American culture through its portrayal of themes of prejudice, racism and innocence. …show more content…
To Kill A Mockingbird portrays many types of prejudice such as sexism, lifestyle and racism. Sexism is represented through respect and roles of genders. Women were considered weak, they were expected to be elegant and ladylike. It was expected that women stay home and care for the house and children. Jem would often tease Scout for being a girl. One example is when he said, “Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home- I declare to the Lord, you’re gettin’ more like a girl everyday!” (Lee 119) Another type of prejudice was lifestyle. Arthur “Boo” Radley, one of the novel’s mockingbirds was often judged for his way of life. He was brought up as a Foot Washing Baptist. This meant that all things people found pleasure in were seen as a sin. Therefore, Boo remained inside his house for years and years and was seen as the town boogie man. Also, Dolphus Raymond was a white man with many “mixed” children. He never saw race as an issue and liked spending his time with the black community. Dolphus acted as a drunk so no one would question his lifestyle and interactions with colored
Racism is the most prominent form of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird though earlier in the book Scout showed some classist biases. For example she got into trouble with Walter Cunningham because his family acted different from hers so she beat him up, she told Atticus and he said, “Try fighting with your head for a change” (Lee 87). Atticus is attempting to coerce Jem and Scout to not fall prey to societal norms of hate and bias. As another example of Justice is when Atticus tells Scout that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird so she asks Miss Maudie why, she says, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written by Harper lee. Throughout the book Lee uses a story to get a deeper meaning out to her audience and the world. During the where the story was set there were inequality issues and very prejudice opinions. Intertwined in the book she addresses the controversial topics like race and different forms of prejudice. There were several different forms of prejudice in this book.
Stereotypes influenced the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird by how Scout and the members of the Maycomb community viewed themselves and others, and impact readers by creating a sense of inferiority around the stereotyped group. The stereotypes in the novel influenced the characters and plot, as members of the Finch family felt the impacts of racial, gender, and behavioral stereotypes from Atticus’ court cause and Scout’s tomboyish behavior. To begin, Atticus stated: “I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway
In society today there are those that are pushed out of the crowd because of what they look like, how they act, and what others say to be true about them. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows that unselfish, kind hearted people can experience prejudice from others. Always wanting to be the better person, Atticus Finch is like the mockingbird when taking the responsibility of defending Tom Robinson, who is a black man. Once Atticus gets the news that he will be defending Tom Robinson, who is accused of rape, he is very stressed until the end of the trial. Harper Lee shows this when she says, “It’s this Tom Robinson case that’s worrying him to death...”
In To Kill A Mockingbird there are many example of individuals being prejudice. People being prejudice has been around for centuries and has not exactly went away. In this essay i will being showing you examples of people being prejudiced in To Kill A Mockingbird. There are many examples but i’m only going to go over a few of them.
In Harper Lee’s opus magnum To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century, with the pulitzer prize, a Family Guy parody, and everything in between. the theme of prejudice resonates everywhere in the book, as the author uses it to advance the plot, paint characters, and deliver messages. Lee has prejudice be alternatively the driving force behind the novel, and a fine point with which to add details to characters. In scenes such as the trial, for example, prejudice is felt for the duration of the scene, leading on the scene and evoking emotions in the reader. In Mockingbird, Lee artfully lays down the theme of prejudice in a myriad of ways.
Boo Radley, Scout/Jem and Tom Robinson have been victims of stereotypes. Following this point, Boo has been named a creep and a monster because he has been locked in his house for 19 years. When Boo was young he was involved in a crime and his punishment was being stuck in his house. Generally the people of Maycomb have open doors to their neighbors, so since Boo is not allowed to let anyone in the see his a different and a nuisance. His neighbors also say terrible things about him portraying him as a monster.
While using stereotypes in a literary piece of work can be monotonous, it can be very effectual when getting a point across. Harper Lee accomplishes to get her moral condemnation of prejudice in a precise way by using stereotypes within the story. Lee creates the characters to be judged upon without any knowledge of what is really the truth. Arthur “Boo” Radley is a victim of the stereotype in the story. He is believed to be a crazy monster who should be feared yet his only sins are his lack of communication skills and shyness.
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book mainly about the coexistence of good and evil. The book stresses and emphasizes on the exploration of moral nature in humans. There are many themes in this novel including courage, innocence, racism, femininity, etc. However the most prevalent theme in the book is innocence. Not just innocence in itself but the danger and harm evil poses to the innocent.
Social prejudice is shown throughout Harper Lee’s award winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee powerfully analyses the theme social prejudice, and its effect on people. Such as how the Social prejudice is discrimination based on your status in society. An example of social prejudice would be the Radley family, which consists of Boo Radley, Nathan Radley and Arthur Radley. As they haven’t been out of their house in years people are lead to believe the rumours.
Sources of Enmity in To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a timeless, touching novel that examines stereotyping and its consequences. The novel follows Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman in Maycomb, Alabama. The novel also shows how the lives of Atticus' children, Scout and Jem, are affected and how what they experience influences the way they grow up. It allows us to see characters like Boo Radley and Bob Ewell as they add to the theme of racism and prejudice as well. To Kill a Mockingbird deals most obviously with racial prejudice but the greater lesson has to do with class differences and how a person's inherited social status unfairly
The To Kill a Mockingbird novel is about Scout Finch and Jem and their tribulations through life in Alabama. They learn that the world is hard and that there is judgement towards people just because of how they look. “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks” (Chapter 23) During the summer when Scout was six
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird much of the focus in this book is on prejudices and discrimination which is shown greatly through points of gender, race, and social classes. (P.A.W. 2) In To Kill a Mockingbird there is gender discrimination shown greatly
Killing a Mockingbird What would it feel like to be a woman who is undervalued by the other men and women around her? To Kill a Mockingbird is about a family who lives in the South in the 1930’s. It is told by a young girl named Scout Finch. Throughout the book we learn many things about her family and the other people around her. Females in this novel are undervalued and looked down upon because of the roles they are expected to portray.