Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

The judge ordered him to a state industrial school but his father explained to the judge that he would keep Boo in check. Maycomb is a small town that passes around rumors; for example, it was said that Boo mutilates the towns people’s pets, and kills his neighbor’s plants. We later learn that Boo is kind, protective, and has watched over Jem and Scout with care as if they were his own. Boo has been judged based on appearance and stories and they are all nothing but malarkey. Dolphus Raymond was thought to be the town drunk even though he had never been a drinker.

“You can't really get to know a person until you get in their shoes and walk around in them.” (Harper Lee) In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley sheds his reputation as a freak and forges a strong friendship with the Finch children. Initially, Boo is seen as an invisible monster by the Finch children largely because of rumors spread around Maycomb County. Over the course of time, however, Scout and Jem begin to understand Boo and learn that appearances are not always what they seem. Through various events and circumstances, Boo Radley’s real persona as a kind, thoughtful and courageous person is revealed, as he and the Finch children develop a special friendship. Rumors, especially untrue ones, can destroy a person from the inside out.

Given these points, racism has a negative effect on many characters in the story To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Characters like Tom Robinson, Scout and Jem, and Dolphus Raymond are at a disadvantage due to the towns racial tension. Maycomb would be a different place if racism was nonexistent. Towns people would have a better quality of

Stereotypical Mockingbirds Mrs.Dubose told Jem, “‘ Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for.’” (Lee 117). In every small town the people there are stereotyped into different groups. Maycomb county is no different. They are set apart based on skin color, gender, and how poor or rich they are. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches her audience about stereotypes using three groups of people: the Finches, Negroes, and white trash.

Firstly, Boo (Arthur) Radley shows in many ways that he lives a double life. For his character it is important to the story that he lives a double life since it gives the book some mystery. For most of Boo’s life he has always stayed in his house and the town does not know what he is like. For example in the first chapter Jem is describing to Dill and Scout what Boo might look like, he says “...judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained… There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 16). What comes to mind when Jem said that is that Boo was a monster, but Boo is far from a monster.

Years pass and different incidents arise including a court case about rape, a mean old neighbor, and the mysterious man next door. As these events take place, themes pop up throughout the book. While there are multiple possible lessons and themes hidden in To Kill a Mockingbird, three significant themes that are included are hidden identities, courage and Jem’s maturation. A theme incorporated into the book is hidden identities that characters have that readers might not know about. When a “mad dog” comes into the neighborhood, people aren’t sure what to do about it.

Labels can be used positively or negatively. Even though some may say labels are normal, common labels that affect people in the town of Maycomb (the setting of TKAM) by Hurting them, Angering them and Negativity. Labels affect people by hurting them. The first example of hurt is when everyone thought Boo Radley was a bad guy and everyone did not like him or want to see him or talk to him. “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch... his hands were bloodstained ...There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled

Heck then says the Bob fell on his knife because “to my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight--to me, that’s a sin”(370). Heck Tate is saying that if Atticus goes ahead and tells the town that Boo Radley saved his kids, then everyone will want to reward him for saving children, and with Boo being so shy, it would be a sin to do it. Then Scout tells Atticus that telling everyone would be like killing a Mockingbird. Scout looks from Boo’s point from view by seeing why Heck doesn’t want him getting gifts and being called a

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird has many examples of prejudice. The prejudice presented is against people such as Tom Robinson, Atticus Finch, and Boo Radley. Each is discriminated against either because of the color of their skin, who they represent in court, or just how much they isolate themselves from the town. Harper Lee’s stance on racial prejudice is that it is a foolish practice, no matter who does it. Prejudice is a very large part of To Kill a Mockingbird.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee explores this idea of judging others before looking at the world from their perspective. Scout and Jem, although raised in a prejudice town, learn from their father Atticus that who a person is racially, does not define them as a person. Although the children make up stories about Arthur “Boo” Radley to pass the time in part one of the novel, in part two the Tom Robinson situation widens their eyes to the biased ways of their town. In the end, Jem and Scout are rescued by Boo Radley, the very person they feared during their childhood. Mockingbirds are used as a symbol in the novel to portray the fact that innocent and caring people are sometimes the most abused.

He is a kind, innocent man that loves Jem and Scout as if they were his own. The town views Boo as a monster, but as he leaves gifts for the children and mends Jem’s pants, the reader begins to see his true nature and learns that he is misjudged by society. Boo also saves the lives of Jem and Scout. In the process of saving the kids, Boo had to kill Bob Ewell. By killing Mr. Ewell; Boo Radley killed his innocence.

Scout explains, “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of

At the beginning of the book, Jem and scout saw Boo as the “malevolent phantom”(Lee,10) who lived inside the Radley house, the man who peeked through your windows late at night, dined on raw squirrels, and pierced his father’s leg with a pair of scissors. However, throughout the book the children start to realize that Boo is the furthest thing from a monster. Throughout the story the children are curious as to why Boo Radley never comes outside, a few times they try to get him to come outside. After a long conversation about Aunt Alexandra and her strange dislike for certain social classes, using their childish innocence, Jem and Scout start to see the strangeness and ambiguity in the social behavior of humankind. Jem claims that “[He is] beginning to understand why Boo Radley stayed shut up in the house all this time... it’s because he wants to stay inside”(Lee,304).

The children in particular think that Boo is a bad person and is a man they should be scared of, but he has only ever shown kindness towards the children. This is first shown after Jem retrieved his pants from the schoolyard, telling Scout,“ ‘...they were folded across the fence...like they were expectin’ me’ ” (Lee 58). This proves that someone knew why Jem had lost his pants, which only Jem, Dill, and Scout knew. The children had been at the Radley house earlier that evening, so it is very likely that Boo saw the children from inside and knew they were out. Jem continued by saying, “ ‘They’d been sewed up.

Boo shows heroism when he saves Jem and Scout from being killed by Bob Ewell. Jem and Scout were walking home from the pageant and Jem got the feeling that they were being followed. Then someone attacked them and broke Jem’s arm and knocked him unconscious, and then he proceeded to attempt and kill Scout, but someone else pulled him off of her. Scout later realizes that the man standing against the wall of Jem’s room was Mr. Arthur (Boo) Radley. Boo had courage leaving his house, which he had been locked up in for a very long time, to help Jem and Scout and finally reveal himself to them.“His lips parted into a timid smile, and our neighbor’s image blurred with my sudden tears.