How Does Harper Lee Use Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird

Prejudice and discrimination are explicitly present in the early 1930’s town of Maycomb, Alabama. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, two of the main characters Scout and Jem are introduced to the many variations of this problem throughout the book. Scout is a girl dealing with discrimination because she’s a tomboy. Jem is opened up to how cruel the world can truly be. He begins to recognize racism, discrimination, and prejudice. Inverse Racism is also present when Atticus, (a white man) defends a black man. All three are introduced to the prejudice against people who are different. First, Scout is made fun of and discriminated because she’s a tomboy. For example, in chapter 4 it says, “ I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find someone to play with.” In other words, Scout is being discriminated by females for being a tomboy and being threatened by males, including Jem and Dill for just being a girl. From

He was accused of the rape of Mayella Ewell, though he was innocent. For instance, in the text it states on page 184, “he chunked me on the floor an’ choked me’n took advantage of me.” Basically, everyone believed the Ewell’s because they were white. I can infer that Tom felt like a man without a country. That is until Atticus did everything in his power to defend him. As an illustration from the text on page 239, “'Tom’s dead.' 'They shot him. Said Atticus, he was running.'” That is to say that Tom Robinson’s word against the whites of Maycomb didn’t stand a chance, even with the help of Atticus. I can interpret that Tom took his life because he knew he didn’t stand, even though he was innocent and everyone knew it. To sum up, Tom died even in innocence because he was a different color. He was a victim of Racism and he died for