Discrimination is a societal issue which has been prevalent for a long time and still brings people down in today’s society. Discrimination can be defined by the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex (www.dictionary.com) Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird is based in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb where a man named Atticus Finch is appointed to defend a man named Tom Robinson who was accused of raping a teenage girl. As well the adventures of Jem and scout Atticus’s children. This book conveys Harper Lee's message in To Kill a Mockingbird that discrimination can affect
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County in the late 1930s, where characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will experience prejudice Maycomb brings during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin, and class. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and they all contribute to how events play out in the small town. Many of those in Maycomb face and express sexism, racial discrimination, and classism their whole lives. This disables the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley’s isolation from the Maycomb county, Tom Robinson’s black skin colour, and Atticus
“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it.” Harper Lee had used the tragic situation of Tom Robinsons trial to explore many themes including, racism and differences in privilege. “To kill a mockingbird” written by Harper Lee explores many situations linked to the broad idea of racism throughout the systems of Maycomb and differences in privilege in many different ways.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many chapters that involve racism, poverty, and or violence. This book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The Finches, Jem, Scout, and Atticus which are the rich white people, the Cunninghams, the poor humble people, the Ewells, the dirt poor white trash people, and the colored folks all are involved in either racism, poverty, and or violence.
Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird famously said in his closing arguments: "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 no particular race of men." (pg 232) What Atticus is trying to convey is a foreign concept to most people in Maycomb county. Atticus is trying to convey a point of equality and no prejudice in a world of social inequality which, as one can imagine, didn 't go over so well. To kill a mockingbird tells a story of a county whose morals are masked by the great depression, a county whose judgment is masked by racism and social stigma. In to kill a mockingbird,
The book "To Kill a Mockingbird" describes different classes of people as been rich and poor. People classify themselves differently because some people are in poverty, while some are wealthy. Most wealthy people help the poor, but the main people they help are the Cunningham 's family. They help the Cunningham 's family because they are willing to work and they are hard working. People never help the Ewell 's family because they are rude, lazy, and they waste their money on alcohol. The Finch 's family help the African American because racism occur during that time. The people treated the African American as low self esteem people. The poor people are in poverty because of the Great Depression and they couldn 't have enough money to provide
Throughout history, an individual’s status in society would have been determined by one’s affluence. Discrimination based on one’s level of wealth are one of the fundamental values acknowledged in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel resides amidst the prevalence of segregation and economic declination of the American Great Depression, thus instituting a difficulty in one’s survivability. In conjunction with this time of calamity, Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird instills an apparent disparity of economic classes that is distributed amongst its characters throughout the Alabama town of Maycomb. This notion of economic disparity is manifested
Throughout life, numerous peoples and cultures have their version of the Golden Rule. The Golden Rule states “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Matthew 7:12). In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, some characters choose to live by the Golden Rule, and others choose to contradict it. If one follows the Golden Rule, one would want others to have the same rights and receive equal treatment. The novel shows this through characters such as Atticus, who believed in an equality without skin color defining who you are.
¨Inequality is the root of social evil¨ (Pope Francis). In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows that social inequality affects everyone. As the book goes on, Lee proves that racial inequality was one of the greater stresses in the 1930’s. Social inequality does not just exist only with race; it interferes with wealth, family backgrounds, age, and even your beliefs. Racism, family background, and wealth are the three main forms of social inequality that appear multiple times in To Kill a Mockingbird.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.
In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel.
How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’?
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. This behaviour is deemed as natural, and few people question the roles put in place, this is truly terrifying so we are lead to wonder if what we accept as normal is perhaps corrupt instead.
One of the many ways prejudice towards race has not change is court fairness. In the book there is unfairness in court which can also found it today. From To Kill A Mockingbird, After getting home from the court case, Jem is upset “What, son? Said, Atticus “ “How could they do it?” Atticus responds by saying “I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again when they do- it seems only children weep. Good night.”(213) Jem is clearly conflicted over Tom being guilty. Jem unlike the other Maycomb residents realizes the crudeness and unfairness of the case. Everyone knows that Atticus had given all factual evidence but Tom was guilty because he was black. In Today’s society the same goes. From the New York Times Article, “Blacks were also slightly more likely to be sentenced to prison than whites. When there was a misdemeanor drug offence, black defendants were 27 percent more likely than whites to get a plea offer that included incarceration.” This shows unfairness
One example of prejudice Harper Lee uses in To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson. In the small town of Maycomb almost everyone assumes Tom is guilty of raping Mayella Ewell even though there is no evidence or reasoning. Most of the citizens of the town are blaming him because of his race. “Atticus, are we going to win it?” “No,honey” “Then why-” “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win.” In this quote Atticus is explaining to Scout