In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that prejudice can affect people's decisions. She uses people like the Cunninghams, Ewells, Aunt Alexandra and Tom Robinson to develop her argument. One event that shows that prejudice can affect people's decisions, is when Miss Caroline, the school teacher tried to give a quarter to Walter Cunningham because he didn’t have a lunch. “Went to her desk and opened her purse. “Here’s a quarter” she said to Walter. “Go and eat downtown today. You can pay me back tomorrow.” Walter shook his head. “Nome thank you ma'am.”(Lee 25). This shows that prejudice can affect people's decisions because prejudice is when someone makes an opinion formed without knowing the facts. When Miss Caroline tries to make Walter take the quarter and she dosen’t know that the Cunninghams will not take anything they can’t pay back. Another place in the story that supports this is when Miss Caroline tries to make Burris Ewell to go home and warsh his hair because he had cooties (lice). “Well, Burris,” said Miss Caroline, “I think we’d better excuse you for the rest of the afternoon. I want you to go home and wash your hair.”(Lee 35). In this scene, prejudice can affect people's decisions is shown because Miss Caroline doesn't know that the Ewell’s only come to school one day (the first …show more content…
In the time era that this book was wrote in, the Great Depression the towns were still segregated and a lot of people were very poor like the Cunninghams and the Ewells. Her argument is still relevant but it is not to the extent as it was in the Great Depression era. Lee makes this argument to show the reader what it was like in that era. As we can see Harper Lee clearly develops a particular argument in To Kill a Mockingbird which is that prejudice can affect people's decisions and that she uses people like the Cunninghams, Ewells, Aunt Alexandra and Tom Robinson to develop her
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows that stereotypical thoughts lead to different opinions or discrimination. Discrimination is expressed in many ways in this novel like through the setting. Maycomb county has a “usual disease” where everyone discriminates people when they come by. “You know what’s gonna happen as well as I do, Jack, and I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease” (Lee 88). In Maycomb everyone thinks the same way.
It was also shown when there were unfair accusations towards Tom Robinson. Because of stereotypes, they couldn’t see the truth to what he had done. Although judging seems bad, it is the actions that come from our own opinions that can lead us to make mistakes.
Prejudice is an unreasonable opinion formed without enough prior knowledge to be fair and completely accurate. This happens in How To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and it takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. This is shown by the jury when Atticus gives more than enough information for Tom Robinson to be innocent. But the jury has a prejudice when it comes to blacks and whites. This is shown when they won let women watch the trail.
Scout’s brother Jem and her learn many things from their wise father -Atticus- and from their own experiences. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee portrays the idea that prejudice and empathy conflict with each other in humans overall morals; this becomes clear when Scout and Jem learn to be able to see the evil of others, but to also focus on the good. Prejudice can be very harmful, especially when it is used to put people in categories and defining them as a specific type of person. Miss Maudie talks to Scout about Arthur Radley: “‘The things that happen to people we never
The Penalties Of Prejudice ― Michael Crichton, said ““Do you know what we call opinion in the absence of evidence? We call it prejudice.” This quote is a very good baseline for a lot of the events that occur in Harper Lees ``To Kill A Mockingbird”. It states how by allowing these acts of injustice to occur you are making a choice to side with oppression.
Even within Lee’s use of prejudice as a tool for characterization, there is a substantial difference in the way she uses it on Scout and Mr Ewell. Lee uses it much a fine brush on Scout, using it to add small details and different shades to her, while it form the backbone of Mr Ewell’s character. In Scout prejudice is expressed through such quotes as “Well Dill, after all he’s just a Negro,” on page 199. In this quote, the reader see that Scout isn’t the angel that is previously thought, and that even though she is far more progressive than many in the town, the racism in Maycomb is incredibly pervasive and oppressive. They can still corrupt Scout’s young mind, even with Atticus’ best attempts to stop it.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the narrator and main character, Scout, along with her brother, Jem are two children living during the times of the great depression who encounter many obstacles through their life. One of the many obstacles the children faced was changes in their mindset, specifically, maturity. Scout and Jem's maturity caused a change of opinion about an infamous character, Boo Radley. The children went from fearing Boo Radley to appreciating and creating a close bond with him. Their opinion changes can be found first in the beginning when Jem describes Boo Radley negatively.
Fricker says that another way a person can have testimonial justice is by becoming familiar with common prejudices. She argues that biases carry less weight when a person is more used to being around them. For example, if a person grows up in a racially diverse neighborhood, like the Bronx, then he or she will be less likely to uphold prejudices against those of a different race. This argument is well-founded because most times people are scared of the unknown. Yet, if a person is familiar with people of a different race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, they might be less demeaning or discriminatory towards them.
In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee uses negative connotation and vivid symbolism to persuade that being judged by an outward appearance or backstory can affect a person negatively and make the judgers feel superior. Lee uses an outstanding amount of characters to persuade this but some distinctive characters that she uses is Aunt Alexandra and the Cunningham’s. Lee also uses the Ewells and Tom Robinson to persuade her meaning. In chapter twenty-three Scout asks Aunt Alexandra if she can play with Walter Cunningham but Aunt Alexandra declines the request and does not give Scout permission to play with Walter. She explains why plus starts to judge Walter.
In this world we are are one race, the human race but we do not act like we are a whole. In this society we act like people are below us, this is being prejudice. In the Book “ How to kill a Mockingbird” we see many examples of how people were prejudice and see how we still are. In the book we see examples of prejudice like, Aunt Alexandra, Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson's trial. 2
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.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to express the cloud in judgment prejudice causes when examining the morals of others. Scout is able to understand more about the town folk in Maycomb County through studying her teacher’s ironic and corrupted views of life around her. Lee uses Miss Gates, Scout’s teacher, to allow Scout a chance to understand the complexity of the adult world. While teaching the class about the Holocaust, Gates expresses the injustice being done to the Jews. She teaches the children that the town does not “believe in persecuting anybody” (Lee 329) because of the U.S. democratic government.
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
Prejudice and discrimination had a major impact on societies, all around the world in the 1930's. Throughout Harper Lee's novel To Kill A Mockingbird there is evidence that Maycomb citizens are morally blinded and are callously indifferent due to the social setting of the town. Lee uses the voice of a young girl names Scout Finch, to highlight the racist and judgmental perspectives of the white community towards the black, during the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. As the innocent girl matures she starts to learn of the reality around her through, race, gender discrimination, and social prejudice. Gender discrimination is a large issue in the plot of the book, especially when it came to people such as Scout.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.