Social inequalities between black and white people are no longer as distinct as they were a few decades ago. Nevertheless, many people still have a lot of prejudices against African-Americans. The unfairness of socioeconomic status can be seen in our daily lives yet it is something that we push to the back of our minds. By showing these social inequalities through the use of language, Toni Cade Bambara 's short story "The Lesson" raises awareness for the African-American pursuit of cultural identity and emancipation. The reader gains an insight into the world of a black working class girl, named Sylvia, who narrates the story in African American vernacular English (AAVE).
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.
It is funny how society defines beauty, but individuals within a society do not fail to identify true beauty which is inner beauty. Miss Skeeter’s inner beauty definitely came from her long and close relationship with Constantine, Miss Skeeter’s childhood maid. However, Berber’s discussion began a consideration of; what would Miss Skeeter be like if any variable was different in Miss Skeeter’s life? Would Miss Skeeter be the same if her family was different, yet Constantine was the same? Would Miss Skeeter be different if her family was the same, but the family had a different maid?
The Transformation of Eugenia Phelan In the book, “The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett, Miss Skeeter, also known as Eugenia Phelan, faces discrimination many times due to her own morals and ideologies secondary to the violence and hatred for African Americans in Jackson, Mississippi. Eugenia has a special set of morals and ideologies due to her own upbringing and due to her close relationship with her childhood maid, Constantine. Eugenia’s close relationship sparks inclusive and equality based morals which clash with Jackson’s Jim crow laws, which legalized segregation and criminalized inter-racial relationships beyond employee and employer associations.
Violence in literature reflects reality while offering a productive and secure place to explore difficult questions. The Secret Life of Bees is an astonishing and endearing novel about prejudice, appreciation, and acceptance of a young girl named Lily and her nanny during the early 60's Civil Rights era. Each character in the novel reveals how the American south forcibly came out of the 'separated but equal' middle ages, the struggle surrounding slavery and the attempts at abolition. In the past, many people has challenged this book due to violence, profanity, and radical discrimination. Others have decided to qualify it because they believe that violence has played a great role in history and that it is essential to learn from it.
White Lies by Natasha Trethewey is a poem about a girl that struggle to find her identity. Identifying our self in society sometimes can be difficult, but having multiple racial backgrounds can make it twice as difficult. Trethewey was born in 1966 to a white father and a black mother in Mississippi where at the time it was illegal the interracial marriage. Therefore, we can infer she is the girl she refers to in the poem. In the poem, the author talks about her childhood and how difficult was for her growing up being half white half black.
“Don't trade your authenticity for approval” stated an unknown author. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Scout is a young girl who breaks the social norm of wearing proper clothes such as dresses. In the town called Maycomb, the social norms are for whites to separate from African Americans along with women dressing a certain way and men dressing another. Those social norms don’t just exist in Maycom they are also in the real world. Ellen DeGeneres is a woman in the real world who breaks those social norms.
“Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is her favorite child” (Don King). In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a young girl named Scout is receiving a first hand experience of racism and its brutality. In Chapter 26, during school, Scout’s teacher, Mrs. Gates explains what a democracy is and how it differs from the events taking place in Germany with Hitler and the Jews. Using her biased opinion, Mrs. Gates shows Scout that the world can be a cruel place in more ways than one. During the scene, “Mrs. Gates,” Scout learns that hypocrisy exists in the most trusted through the character of Mrs. Gates, the internal conflict of Mrs. Gates and racism, and the settings of both the school and the Finch home.
The Bean Trees, she fights sexism by creating complex characters who break gender barriers and go against the stereotypes. Sexism is the belief that women are less than men. If someone legitimately believes another is below them, they most likely will not show any respect. Some people even go as far as not treating them as human beings (which they very much are). The novel's main characters, "...
The movie clearly exposes the many ways that the human dignity of African- American maids was ignored. They had suffered daily embarrassment but were able to claim their own way dignity. The film described about empowerment of individuals as well as about social justice for a group. It is a moving story depicting dehumanization in a racist culture but also the ability to move beyond the unjust structures of society and to declare the value of every human being.
In the story, The Possibility of Evil, gives us the character Miss. Strangeworth, the eloquent woman as she is not afraid to say what she thinks but often holds back as she knows too much. Her thoughts wrap around to the thought of evil when someone does something she doesn’t approve of. On page 2, “Don and Helen Crane, were really the two most infatuated young parents she had ever known, she thought indulgently, looking at the delicately embroidered baby cap and the lace edged carriage cover. ‘That little girl is going to grow up expecting luxury all her life,’ she said to Helen Crane.
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible” (Maya Angelou). The famous American author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou tells the world that prejudice prevents people from treating each other as equals. Angelou’s words hold true in the Pre-Civil Rights South, where people are heavily prejudiced towards black people. Harper Lee’s literary classic To Kill a Mockingbird illustrates the grave consequences of prejudice, and its effect on the relationships between the residents of Maycomb, Alabama. In the Pre-Civil Rights South, relationships are structured based on a social hierarchy that is skewed in favor of whites, illustrating that one’s prejudice leads to intolerance of others.
The women that do try to report prison guards end up even more damaged when their violators go unpunished. In a small study done on sexual abuse in US prisons, of the complaints that women filed, only 18% of male prison guards ended up with some type of punishment (Isaac, Lockhart, Williams). This lack of discipline for brutal crimes against black women sends a message to black women in prison is that they are invaluable. It “perpetuates the degrading images of black women as ‘unnatural, dirty, sick, and sinful’”
Set in the southern United States during the height of the Great Depression, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, it is predictable that the time’s biases and prejudices play a role in the novel. However, the extent of this discrimination and strict expectations of conformity found in the novel is surprising. The book, which follows Scout, a young girl growing up in the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama, illustrates the different ways in which the members of the community treat others based on their races, conformity to societal standards, and upholding of the biases of the time.
Social Injustice is caused by the mistreatment from certain characters to others. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many characters are being affected by social injustice due to class, race, and gender. Because the story is set in the 1930’s, mistreatment of certain people is a lot more serious than it is nowadays. Though classism, racism, and sexism still occur today, people are not affected by it as much. In the story, Harper Lee portrays these problems in three main characters; Scout Finch, Tom Robinson, and the Ewells/Cunninghams.