Examples Of Social Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee

How is the racial problem of the southern states of USA in the 1930s portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird?

The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism. People of the town including children refer to black people as “Niggers”, and raised to think of black people as lower class individuals.

Throughout American history there has never been a situation where there is true social and racial equality. Whether examples of racial prejudice against African-Americans or even the prejudice against Mexicans and illegal immigrants. These ways are not placed upon oppressing individuals at birth, they are placed among them by members of society and the social norms that are already in place in society. With this statement there will always be racial and social inequalities in society. The pressure of social norms and values of one’s parents create a misunderstanding about what is truly important and this would have to totally change to equalize society in every aspect.

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird has many examples of prejudice. The prejudice presented is against people such as Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, and Boo Radley. Each is discriminated against either because of the color of their skin, who they represent in court, or just how much they isolate themselves from the town. Harper Lee’s stance on racial prejudice is that it is a foolish practice, no matter who does it. Prejudice is a very large part of To Kill a Mockingbird.

What racisms in US at that period was influenced “Tom Robinson trial” in the novel To kill a mockingbird?

All one has to do is look around us and they can see that the world has a lot of Social inequalities. Think about in school or work. Is there a Boo Radley? Someone who is isolated because they may be different. We've all seen racism on TV with all of the shootings and protests. People who don't have a lot of money are other inequality. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird there's a lot of themes that are prevalent in society today.

Over the years many people have been prejudice to biracial children and adults. Many people believe that they are an outcast and don’t belong seeing as they aren 't necessarily one color. I believe as a biracial person myself that we are just as good and should be seen in the same light as every other person in the world. Many biracial kids and adults have been prejudiced against in different forms including being called only one color, not being able to marry the person they want, and being an outcast among other people.

The root of any discrimination is dehumanization, no large group of people can sincerely hate or cause pain to a group of people based off of race, color, sexuality, gender, religion or any other separating factor without dehumanizing them. Every single time in history where people in power have taken advantage of a specific group of people, they have had to dehumanize them. There is no debate about that. Harper Lee not only uses To Kill a Mockingbird as a direct protest against the Jim Crow Laws, but she also protests the reason people allowed themselves to sleep at night.

So·cial jus·tice, noun, 1. justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. 2."individuality gives way to the struggle for social justice.” (Google Search). Social Justice is a term used to justify the equality in the world; equality of race, equality of gender, equality of religion, of age, of background; equality of all people not dependent on any outside factor, but of the people themselves. One of the most recognizable forms of social justice is the character of Atticus Finch in the 1930’s setting of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In To KIll a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee’s ideas on social justice are revealed through detailed representations of wisdom, loyalty, and selflessness

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

¨Inequality is the root of social evil¨ (Pope Francis). In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows that social inequality affects everyone. As the book goes on, Lee proves that racial inequality was one of the greater stresses in the 1930’s. Social inequality does not just exist only with race; it interferes with wealth, family backgrounds, age, and even your beliefs. Racism, family background, and wealth are the three main forms of social inequality that appear multiple times in To Kill a Mockingbird.

In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County.The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.

What if the world was still the same as it was back during the great depression. What if this was the truth. In To Kill a Mockingbird readers can see how prejudice affected people of color back then, and how it’s not so different from today. In the novel readers will find unfairness in court, hate crimes, and segregation. Today readers can still find these same issues, but in different forms. Prejudice towards race has changed very little from back then to now.

Racism can be defined as a major problem in United States history, and can be dated back to the 1400’s. Racism can be viewed and defined in many ways, but most accurately is seen as the state of characterizing an individual based on his race, and or believing that one race is superior to another (Shah) . Racism is as big of a problem in the USA as anyone can think, starting way back to when the country had just began to form, when Europeans started settling into the 13 original colonies (Shah). Ever since then, it seems that the problem has only been on the rise, rather than the opposite. Racism has always been a major issue, although hundreds of years have passed since the birth of racism, the problem just seems to never go away.

One of the main themes of the novel is Racism. During the time of depression, racism and poverty were a common issue. People with a dark skin tone, i.e the African- Americans were seen as derogatory and treated like dirt. Harper Lee depicts it in a very realistic way. Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour.