Racism In America In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

The writer, Harper Lee, in chapter 9 of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird conveys social racism. For example, when Atticus tells Scout how lawyers have black clients but not all lawyers try to do a good job at defending the black person.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee contains various examples of racism and prejudice throughout the novel. The story takes place in the 1930's, a period when racism was a part of everyday life. Prejudice and racism in this book are represented by acts of hate towards others because of the color of their skin. In this novel, prejudice and racism was dominantly pointed towards blacks. Acts of racism can be discreet to the point that you can easily miss them. Yet alongside those, there are conspicuous demonstrations of racism that would never happen in today's society. Lee illustrates many of these behaviors in her novel.

The Evils of racism are one of the most important themes in To Kill a Mockingbird. In Maycomb County a big portion of the population are all racist people. Miss Stephanie Crawford said “ Next time he won 't aim high, be it dog, nigger, or Jem Finch!” (Lee 72) This tells us that people like Miss Stephanie Crawford compare the black people to dogs. Of all the racist people in Maycomb County, Bob Ewell is by far the worst. Bob Ewell said “ I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin on my Mayella!” ( Lee 231) This is very disrespectful and racist because Mr. Ewell calls Tom a nigger, not by his name. Also Mr. Ewell uses the phrase “ruttin” which is a term referred to animals mating. Another example of the racism in Maycomb is how the courtroom seats only the white people in the main section, and the black people in the balcony. “ The Negroes, having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come in” ( Lee 218).

In the 1930s the Southern states of America suffered from a strong discrimination and racial hatred towards colored people. They had no rights, no respect and were not allowed to go places white people went. In other words they were segregated from the rest of the society. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that show the life of a southern state od Alabama during the “black racism” time period, where majority of the people had the mentality that (quote) with the exception of a few.

Race has always been a part of history, from slavery to MLK, to Barack Obama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee defines race in the south during the 1930’s. Jean “Scout” Finch, is the narrator of the story. Her brother Jeremy “Jem” and her dad, Atticus, are both main characters. Calpurnia is their house cook and helper, she is also black. Tom Robinson is a black man who is wrongfully convicted of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. This novel goes through Scout's life from when she was 6, till she is 9. She lives in the town of Maycomb Alabama, and lives an innocent life until about halfway through the story, where she begins to ask questions. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the readers that racial inequality creates an unjust society through the African American community, through the people surrounding colored folks, and through Tom Robinson’s Case.

Racism has been a societal issue for many years in the past, and although we are taking steps in the right direction, there will probably be racism for the rest of the human race’s existence. This is represented in the town of Maycomb in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, which took place in a heightened time of racial division and discrimination. Racism is a huge issue that influences many aspects of society, such as work, family, and class. Harper Lee portrays the theme of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird through the speech and actions of her characters and imaginative symbolism.

“Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.”-Alex Haley To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that is greatly affected by the way others see the world. Scout, a young girl, growing up in Maycomb a place where racism is accepted. She is constantly learning how racism affects the community through different altercations in Maycomb. She realizes that racism shouldn’t exist due to the side effects. In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee conveys that racism causes inequality between people, isolation, and injustice.

In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses allusions to help the reader to understand the setting, and irony to show character and develop theme. Prejudice, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, is described as the “simple hell people give other people without even thinking”, and the novel powerfully portrays examples of racial and social prejudice.

One of the main themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is racial discrimination. Examples of racism and prejudice against black people can be seen throughout the novel. There are several reasons as to why people segregate dark people and they are mostly the important events happening in the 30’s. The time period of which the book was written is the 1930’s and it was a quarrelsome time for race relations. During that period an economic slump, called the Great Depression, had affected many people’s lives as it was the most severe depression ever experienced by an industrialized country. Also factors like the Jim Crow laws and the 2nd Ku Klux Klan resulted in white people discriminating against blacks people.

Racial injustice in To Kill a Mockingbird was malevolent due to the executing of a black man with false evidence, but today the racial injustice appears to be eliminated although it still exists. Today the legal system will not tolerate the racism like it is in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism is normal in Maycomb county some support it and others are against, the Finches are high in society, although they still respect the blacks. Racial injustice throughout the book is a big factor with Calpurnia as a maid, And Atticus defending Tom Robinson, but less of a factor for everyday life in modern times.

The aspects and backgrounds of racism in US influenced the novel “To kill the mockingbird”

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.

Literature is a precious art form to many and important for various reasons. Literacy helps improve grammar, provides entertainment, educates people and provides inspiration. It is specifically useful for educating people on racial discrimination as many classic works contain racism. Both To Kill a Mockingbird and The Butler are great at expanding people’s knowledge on racism. Although they have two entirely different plots, they both depict how little people value an African-American’s opinion, characters challenging racism and the acceptance of blatant racism.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee implies that people create racism by becoming fearful of change and having the need to be more powerful than someone else; as a result, the privileged use their power to tyrannize people of another skin color because they are frightened that someone different might be treated equally. This trend can sometimes be broken by people who think it is morally incorrect to treat anyone disrespectfully just because they are different.

In the book I think the element of racial discrimination against blacks is controversial today. Harper Lee describes a common theme in the book, being that whites are superior to blacks no matter what. In our world today, the African American race is still held to this degree but some feel otherwise. Some people in the world feel that whites and blacks are treated equally and the issue of racism does not exist anymore; others feel it is very much alive today in our word and we are still taking steps to overcome it. I found this element of the book very insightful because it allowed me to see a different view of racism and how it could still be going on today. People feel very strongly about their beliefs today and hold true to their opinions,