ipl-logo

How To Judge People In To Kill A Mockingbird

1392 Words6 Pages

After childhood, people come to realise that the world is a cruel place. People misjudge others; thus, over time, people grow to accept the amount of brutality in the world. Parents often tell their children that first impressions count, mainly because others are quick to judge. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie, first impressions of people are never correct, as we judge people after mere seconds, and we are often incorrect in our assumptions of people. For instance, people often put up fronts, which then surprises others when someone’s true self is revealed. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is surprised when Atticus tells her, “You never really understand a person …show more content…

Many people, including Scout, Jem, and Dill, are afraid of things Boo hasn’t done. Furthermore, Boo always stays home, which makes others think Boo’s father has been punishing him for his actions. Yet this isn’t true, as Jem states, “...when I was your age...(I thought) if there’s just one kind of folks, why can’t they get along with each other?... Scout… I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time...it’s because he wants to stay inside” (227). Boo is actually scared of the world because he knows it’s cruel and unforgiving at times. Eventually, Boo saves Jem and Scout from getting murdered by Mr.Ewell, and Scout learns that “most people are (nice)...when you finally see them” from Atticus. This means that no one should judge people negatively before they get to know them, as then they’ll grow biases against others. However, this doesn’t often …show more content…

“‘Hey, look,’ one of them said. ‘It 's Hydro Head.’ ‘Nah, he ain 't Hydro,’ said another one of the brothers. ‘He 's Hydrogen.’” The brothers then proceed to play catch with Junior, shoving him “to and fro”. Junior doesn’t retaliate against the insults and Junior takes out his anger for the world in his comics and even on himself. At points, Junior thinks he’s “not tough” (68) and the “opposite of (a) warrior” (75) This only gets better after Junior learns that the judgements of others doesn’t affect him, through Rowdy’s friendship. Unfair judgement from others, and even self judgement, happens, and so people should just ignore

Show More
Related

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

    479 Words  | 2 Pages

    Boo Radley is a very quiet man who got into trouble with the law at a young age and has stayed inside his house since. Around town, he is seen as a bad man who is very weird for staying inside his house, and rumors about him are everywhere. Scout and Jem hear about this and are very interested about this, so they go and mess around at his house. Even with all these people thinking he is a weird, crazy person, Boo Radley is still a great person. When there was a fire, the kids were outside when it was cold, and Boo Radley was nice enough to wrap a blanket around Scout.

    Read More

  • Empathy Quotes In To Kill A Mockingbird

    848 Words  | 4 Pages

    Scout and Jem explain to Dill about all the devious acts Boo does in the small town of Maycomb county. Scout says… ¨Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom¨(Lee 10). This quotation shows us how Scout depicted Boo Radley. She didn't really see him as a

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice

    273 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Dialectical Journal

    571 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miss Maudie tells Scout that Miss Stephanie is only lying about seeing Boo outside her window. The only other event where Boo was bad was when he was with his “gang” and he was still punished by his father for his actions. Another reason Boo is shown as the mockingbird of the book is because he has only hurt one person. The only person that Boo has hurt was his father and that is still just a rumor. When Boo stabbed his father with the scissors his father punished him and did not let him go without consequences.

    Read More

  • Stereotyping In To Kill A Mockingbird

    592 Words  | 3 Pages

    Stereotyping is a general idea that someone uses to view someone before they actually get to know them. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Jem, and Dill stereotype people until Scout’s father tells her to stop stereotyping. Harper Lee suggests that in order to fully understand someone, you must learn to see the world from their point of view. Mrs. Dubose is an example of Harper Lee’s idea because at first she acts mean towards the Finch family which cause Jem to destroy her camellia flowers. When Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus tells the kids that the reason she was so mean was because she had a morphine addiction.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Judging Others In To Kill A Mockingbird

    980 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the story Boo Radley plays the role of Scout and Jem’s guardian angel. He watches over them and helps them when they get into trouble. In the first chapters, the kids make fun of Boo, they taunt him. All they know about him is what they have heard, that he is a crazy man. Throughout the story though, Boo proves them wrong.

    Read More

  • What Are The Types Of Judgement In To Kill A Mockingbird

    715 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example when Tom is in court people assume that he is guilty because he is black, you also see judgment by rumor when Scout is told that Boo Radley eats animals at night. Readers see these types of judgement all throughout the novel, displayed in subplots. Often in society we judge before thinking about the topic however, Author Harper Lee uses subplots in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird to show how people empathize before judging others or creating opinions over topics so, society can learn how to empathize in their everyday lives before making their opinion on topics. In today’s world judgement is placed everywhere, including social media and even News stations.

    Read More

  • The Role Of Judging Others In To Kill A Mockingbird, By Harper Lee

    936 Words  | 4 Pages

    “When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself” – Wayne Dyer Judging others is a natural human trait that everyone has. Everyone tries their hardest to not make assumptions about others but everyone does make assumptions about others. Sometimes despite their best efforts people will find themselves exploring feelings of negativity towards someone else or even making judgements about them. This relates to my prompt because you shouldn’t judge someone because you may misinterpret them for who they really are. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s use of racism proves that you shouldn’t judge someone because you may misinterpret them for who they really are.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Equality Analysis

    1591 Words  | 7 Pages

    Not all the Same Equality is a term that is defined as “the state of being equal; correspondence in quantity, degree, value, rank, or ability” (Dictionary.com). In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, equality dictates how several characters are portrayed in the town of Maycomb, Alabama, at a time of racism, hate, and prejudice. Because of these topics being such an everyday obstacle for characters like Walter Cunningham Jr. and Burris Ewell, two students at the school, Boo Radley, a scared neighbor that saves a life, and Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly convicted of a crime, the idea of equality has a different effect on each character’s life.

    Read More

  • Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

    757 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Pre-Judgment Character Analysis

    1056 Words  | 5 Pages

    Destruction of Character Through Pre-Judgment Judgment, often defined as an opinion or a conclusion, is a relevant term throughout Harper Lee’s writings (Merriam Webster). As seen in To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman the relevance of judgment is evident through discrimination of individuals skin color. At first glance, an average reader might perceive the novel as a story of an unconventional upbringing. Although this reader is not completely mistaken, a key point is lost. This point is the theme of pre-judgment and its destructiveness.

    Read More

  • Boo's Relationship In To Kill A Mockingbird

    980 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, the readers can see how Scout changes her view about Boo Radley. Because of their nosiness, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to drag Boo out his house and to the outside world. Their innocent actions combined with Boo’s actions changed the image of Boo, in their minds, from “a malevolent phantom” (10), a person who kills cats and eats squirrels to a neighbor they can trust, who saves them from Bob Ewell. Scout says at the end, “Boo was our neighbor” (373). The readers can see a great change in their relationship.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Caged Bird Analysis

    1630 Words  | 7 Pages

    After witnessing Jem, Scout, and Dill acting out his rumored “life story”, I infer that it must have been very weird and uncomfortable for Boo to be so close to “his children” when they were the ones who supposedly made fun of him. Emotionally he is struggling because he is overwhelmed by the fact that he is always a hot topic of the town, and the trio acting his story out didn’t make him feel any better. In the poem “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou the last stanza is written “The caged bird sings/ with a fearful trill/ of things unknown/ but longed for still/and his tune is heard/ on the distant hill/ for the caged bird/sings of freedom.” Boo Radley

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    977 Words  | 4 Pages

    In which we had to think carefully and cohesively about the characters and their backgrounds. Although Harper Lee proves the point that social prejudice was a highly regarded prejudice. Harper Lees’ novel helps us to become more aware of prejudicial situations that occurred in the

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

    915 Words  | 4 Pages

    Option 2 Literary Analysis To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being

    Read More

More about How To Judge People In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document