To Kill A Mockingbird Effect On Society

Racism Come to humans naturally we all judge our surroundings and the people living in it which means our opinions are based our views and values. The values gradually leads us to be biased towards some people. The novel To Kill Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the article “Jim Crow Policing” by Bob Herbert both inform readers about the life of colored folks now and during the great depression. They also both inform the readers how no one cared about the way they treated colored people or if they were hurting their feelings. Racism can either be embedded in a man’s heart or can be enforced by law.

To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay In our society, we are all judged and discriminated based on the minority of race, class and gender. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird follows the childhood of Jean Louise, or “Scout”, Finch in the 1930’s. One of the most significant events in the plot is the case of Tom Robinson, an African American man accused of raping 19 year old Mayella Ewell. Scout’s father Atticus Finch was Tom’s attorney and brought strong evidence to prove he was innocent, but he was still convicted and sent to death because of racial injustice.

Since the 1930’s, milestones have been reached as to racial equality and equal rights in America, but there are still issues between black and white. Today, racism is an existing part of society. News headlines of “Police Brutality” flash across the television screen from time to time. Racial stereotypes are a common mindset for some people. Back in the 1930’s however, racism and segregation was everywhere.

Essentially, the root of all problems stems from prejudiced situations, social inequality is created by religious, ethnic and many other forms of discrimination. Social inequality is defined as ‘the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society’. In To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, specifically, it is created by racism, classism and gender. Inequality factors into the course of the story in very evident ways ultimately causing extreme injustice. Harper Lee’s masterful novel exposes the dark underbelly of society, a society overflowing with hate, narrow mindedness and prejudice.

In the 1930’s there were many horrible things that went on. Harper Lee wanted people to be more aware of that so there are many things in To Kill a Mockingbird that were inspired by the 1930’s. This made the book more realistic and helped people really understand what it was like and how much society has to change. Some examples of horrible things that occured would be the Scottsboro trial, the Jim Crow laws, and the racial tensions. At these times people believed that white people were better than black and that black people are untrustworthy and below everyone else.

Likewise when Uncle Finch hits Scout without hearing what she needs to state, her side of the story he condemns without endeavoring to look for reality. The novel presentations to us that are it little or substantial occurrences alike one should attempt and endeavor to see both the sides of the story before passing judgment on anything. The significant distinction amongst equity and in all actuality equity is influenced and changed in view of the partiality and biasness of the general public while truth is the impartial, unaltered realities about what really happened. Judgment is absolutely the aftereffect of the equity framework and the discipline given ought to mirror the wrongdoing. At the point when the equity and truth are as an inseparable

Historical influences on To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a time of devastation and uncertainty (McCabe 12). The great depression was a time when the stock market crashed causing many people to lose their jobs and homes. This novel is based on the time around the Great Depression. There were many historical influences in the book To Kill a Mockingbird such as the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality and the Scottsboro trials.

In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, class, gender, and race determines power. Being set in a racist, backwater town, where the whites and blacks are separated, these are what factors must be looked at when determining the power of Mayella Ewell. Mayella Ewell has power, although it may not always be easy to at first glance, she does have power despite her disadvantages. Mayella is poor, white and a woman, but nothing about those facts makes her any less powerful, even being poor, she still gets treated like a lady. A way of showing this is during the trial, Atticus refers to Mayella as “Ma’am”, where as Tom Robinson is called, “boy” by his cross examiner(DBQ Mayella 17), in this case being a woman gives her some power.

In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, racial inequality is touched several times. It relates to our real life situations happening today. It takes us back to when slavery was present. Today slavery is not so much a problem anymore but it still relates to us. Even in social classes there is social inequality but it is sometimes based on race too.

Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird’ is a fictional novel written/published in the midst of the sixties that gave light to the provocative themes of prejudice and racial discrimination in the deep south of Alabama during the 1930s. The memorable quote said by Atticus Finch, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin", (Lee, 2004, p. 94), is the basic message the author is trying to get across, to get to know a person rather than to judge and discriminate someone based on their race. Harper Lee explores these themes through the construcion of events and characters that challenge and reinforce the societal ideologies at the time. An example of this is the character Atticus Finch and his values, attitudes and beliefs toward the trial of a black man charged with the rape of a white girl.

Just because someone is not the same as everybody else, does not mean that they should get picked on. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, I believe love is the central theme. Acts of love is showed throughout the story in many different ways. The ways Lee shows this is by showing love has no color, love someone even though they are not blood, and love someone even if they are different. Just because someone is a different color does not mean that they shouldn't be loved the same.