Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

Imagine being sent to court, knowing as soon as you step foot in front of the jury, you are guilty. In Harper Lee 's Novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, an African American man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a White woman. With the help of a man named Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson has to stand in front of a jury full of white people in the 1930’s and defend himself. Atticus is also a father who must be there for his kids, especially while taking this case. Because of white supremacy, unfairness in the courtroom, and the way people are treated because of their skin color, a leading theme of To Kill a Mockingbird is power and corruption.

The racial ignorance seen in To Kill A Mockingbird is similar to the racial ignorance seen today. African Americans are still discriminated against by citizens who are indoctrinated with racist ideals. The racial ignorance in society inspires many African Americans to make the important decision to protest unfair treatment. In brief, the racial ignorance ingrained in society highly influences important decisions made by

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.

People act upon what they think. Within “12 Angry Men”, all of the jurors have an opinion but some voice their more than others. One juror in particular, Juror Ten, voices his opinion about the boy in question. Repeatedly throughout the play, Juror Ten makes many thoughtless and hurtful comments about a certain kind of people. It is clear that Juror Ten’s uncompromising belief that the accused is guilty is because of his dislike for the boy’s race.

I found this extremely hypocritical, as most interracial relationships were between a white man, and a black woman, and were not consensual. Kelley also discusses the systematic racism, and political corruptness within law enforcement, which shows how bad racism is. I found it particularly disgusting when the L.A. police chief tried to blame the deaths of black men on their anatomy, and how if they were normal they would’ve been fine. This essay was very eye opening for me, and will change the way I look at law enforcement, and even my own family

Racism was causing people to think badly of others that were different from them. She experienced segregation that divided people. She also showed us that we can overcome these things by including a character like Atticus. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.” (Lee,

It’s not right that just because you’re poor you’re called trash. Also, “Cry about the simple heck people give other people -without even thinking. Cry about heck white people give colored folks, without even stopping to think that they’re people, too. “ said Mr. Raymond. ( 269) This is crucial because it shows how much damage is being done to african americans; it shows that even if people know that what they’re doing is wrong, people do it because of preconceived ideas.

The poor citizens in Maycomb, Alabama face different inequalities. For example, the Cunninghams and Ewell families, even though they are both poor they are treated differently the Cunninghams are poor but honest, and hardworking while the Ewells are considered trash, and lazy. Social inequality in To Kill A Mockingbird is augmented by the woman, the poor, and the black residents which are considered inferior to the other residents. Harper Lee the author of To Kill A Mockingbird shows racial bias in many places. In particular racial bias is shown in page (220) “in our courts, when it’s a white man's word against a black man’s, the white white man always wins”.

The evil perception white people have of the different dark people takes control over their sincere humanity and creates riots and mobs. In To Kill a Mockingbird and Mississippi Burning, many believe they’re just pure savages, threatening their race and civilized society. Although the novel displays acts of selfish riots, a conviction a black man when innocent of rape and the attempted murder of children, the whites in Mississippi go so far as to torturing the souls, hanging and murdering them and demolishing the homes of the negro community. In Mississippi Burning, the Ku Klux Clan had consistency through their actions and had planned the brutal deaths of the outcasts. The white terrorist movements seemed to be bigger and much more violent as well in their activities.

To commence, characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were key elements in helping to exhibit the theme of the novel. The novel focuses around a rape trial, Tom Robinson being accused of raping a 19 year-old woman named Mayella Ewell. Tom being innocent isn’t even taken into consideration due to the fact that he’s a black man. Atticus Finch, a respected local lawyer takes on the case trying to make the jury look past the fact that Tom is black. To bespeak, Atticus states the following, directing it to the jury, “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women- black or white.

Tom Robinson is in court because he is accused of raping Bob Ewell 's daughter. Tom is a black man and during that time they were still being discriminated and being treated unfairly. Bob is a white man and when a white man accuses a black man of anything the white man is the outcome is usually in the white man 's favor. In the courthouse Atticus was trying to defend Tom Robinson, he uses an allusion and says, "But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal--there is one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein..." (210). Atticus alludes the jury to two of the most famous men in the era.

One more assumption that is made in this novel is that African Americans are to be treated as less than white men. Tom Robinson, for example, is proved guilty in his trial for being accused of raping Mayella Ewell just because he is a black man, even though the evidence clearly shows that he is innocent. In Atticus’s closing summation, he says, “You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. (204)” This quote is saying that black men themselves are not a problem, but that it is the whole human race that should not be trusted.