We see clearly that white people in Maycomb have all the power. Even white trash like Bob Ewell is given the power to accuse an innocent black man simply because of the power the color of his skin has. Even though African Americans like Tom Robinson have better qualities as human beings than the Ewells they are under them because of the social inequality in Maycomb. These social divisions are destructive and irrational as it gives power to people like Bob Ewell to persecute Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson is not guilty but suffers death only because of the color of his skin and the racial segregation of the time.
Novelist Harper Lee, in her book To Kill a Mockingbird, depicts the racism and inequalities in the town of Maycomb by having a white man, Atticus Finch, defend Tom Robinson who was black. Lee’s purpose is to show the world is unfair between races and we need to have compassion for others. She adopts a serious tone to appeal to people’s morals to do the right the thing by those seeking changes for equality. Throughout his closing argument, Atticus ensures credibility, mentioning God, and by presenting evidence that Tom Robinson is not guilty but someone in the courtroom is, to explain Mayella’s reasoning to lie. When Atticus presented the “circumstantial evidence to indicate Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left hand”, he mentions Mr. Ewell “did what any God-fearing .
The main idea in the novel is the domination of blacks by the existing American standards of beauty – blue eyes, blonde hair and white skin. It deals honestly and sensitively with the damaging influence of white standards and values on the lives of black people. It demonstrates how the systems of oppression are spawned and sustained by the white supremacist and exploitative culture. The analysis of the novel brings out the implications of the imposition of white dominant culture on black sensibility. It portrays in poignant terms the tragic conditions of blacks in racist America.
During the early 1900s , racism was dominating the south. Jim Crow Laws gave blacks little rights and made it almost impossible to live a normal life. In court, judges and juries were filled with white men. Biases and racism over run court rulings. A black man winning a trial over a white man was unheard of.
The first historical influence on To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The laws were unfair and discriminatory. “Jim Crow laws were an official effort to keep African Americans separate from Whites in the southern United States for many years” (“Jim Crow laws”). “A black male could not offer his hand (to shake hands) with a white male because it implied being socially equal”(Pilgrim). Many people in this region thought they had good reason for the laws including the belief that.
English Literary Essay Amy Olley I have always felt very strongly about discrimination of races and so I decided to examine racism in Southern America between the 1930s and 1960s. The theme of my book project is: An Examination of the effects of the Jim Crow Legislation and of racism on both black and white in the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is my classic, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. The Jim Crow Legislation was implemented in Southern America in 1876 and it ended in 1965. The Jim Crow was a legalization of black and white segregation. Separate areas for whites and blacks were constructed and there were punishments for people conversing with a different race.
The Right Thing “Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing.”-Tony Blair. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch realized this very truth. When someone approached Atticus about defending a black man named Tom Robinson, Atticus had a serious decision to make. MayElla Ewell recently accused Tom of raping her, and Atticus would have to prove otherwise. In this time, white people thought of black people as lower than them and did not treat them fairly.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates that social inequality breaks down a society through the use of conflict, symbolism and irony. Social inequality plays a pivotal role in the novel because the whole conflict between Bob and Tom is wrapped in it. From the first accusation to the final conviction inequality is intertwined in every paragraph, every word. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that stands the test of time because while our society has made improvements, inequality will never truly go away. This novel displays characters you relate to, ones you despise, and all that you fall in love with.
Although the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, took place in the 1930s, it ties closely into the Civil Rights Movement. This novel displayed the obvious superiority whites had over blacks. It took place during a time when colored people faced discrimination, prejudice, and racism. When the book was published in the 1960s, it made whites furious, resulting in a lot of controversy. Harper Lee had a goal when writing, she wanted to show the relation between actual events that happened during the civil rights and incorporate it into her own novel to show how cruel colored people were treated, specifically when whites accused blacks of doing sinful acts.
Set in the 1930s in northern Alabama where slavery was at its peak, the book To Kill A Mockingbird is narrated in Scout’s point of view. Through Scout’s eyes, Harper Lee illustrates examples of racism and social inequality and these reveal what it was like for the blacks during that period in America. The racist rationales and social inequality in Maycomb county are, according to the characters, something that is reasonable. Throughout this book, Harper Lee criticises mainly racism and how unjust human beings can be. The readers are able to see how the blacks and the whites were treated differently and how they avoided inter-racial interactions.