Mark Twain once said, “the very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice”.
Mark Twain was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Twain thought prejudice was a common problem.
One of the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is prejudice. As this book takes place half a century after the Civil War, there is a lot of racial, social and religious prejudice going on.
One of the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird was racial prejudice.
Tom Robinson is a victim of prejudice because of his race. He was accused of raping a young girl. Being a colored person in Maycomb during the Great Depression was difficult. During, these times a white person’s talk was believed to be superior to a colored person.
One of the major
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The Cunninghams are victims of social prejudice in the novel. The Cunninghams are poor farmers and scrape along with what they have. People in Maycomb are prejudice against the Cunninghams because of their lack of wealth, although they are respectable because they find natural ways to pay people back. The Great Depression impacted the Cunninghams were hit hard because they were largely reliant on agriculture.
Marymede Catholic College states, “Rural, southern towns in the United States were hit hard because they were largely reliant on agriculture. Problems with the economy had a flow-on effect to all parts of society. People lost jobs, marriages broke down, banks failed, people became homeless, businesses folded, birth rates fell, people got depressed and many people went hungry. This explains the situation of poor farmers like the Cunninghams in To Kill a Mockingbird who have no money to pay a lawyer but pay instead with produce like hickory nuts and turnip greens.”
One of the major themes in To Kill a Mockingbird is religious prejudice.
Miss Maudie was being religiously prejudiced to the
Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different kinds of prejudice in the 1930’s in Maycomb County, Alabama. The thesis has been explained by using actual quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird, and then gave logical explanation on how it was relevant. Prejudices affect the world even today and still they are something that is a horrible thing.
Three students kicked out of a high school for threatening to bring a gun to school. Why would they? Because people were prejudice against them because other students thought they were “losers”. Moral: You shouldn’t not like a person because they aren’t like you. Prejudice was far much worse in the time period of To Kill A Mockingbird. But, Prejudice is the reason for much social injustice. Three characters named Nathan Radley, Atticus Finch, and Aunt Alexandria show us this in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
Racism is a recurring theme throughout the story and affects all of the main characters in several ways. Maycomb as a whole is affected because of racism, and many become outcasts, such as in Mrs. Dolphus Raymond's case.
America is the proud author of many timeless novels. Fitzegerald’s The Great Gatsby, Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men all reveal a glimpse into previously unseen worlds to their audiences. But few of them has so profound an impact as Nelle “Harper” Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. This captivating novel enthralled the country and made it reexamine its preexisting perceptions about childhood, bravery, and morality. In spite of the importance of these concepts, the most far-reaching theme is how prejudice and education coincide, or, more accurately, how prejudice and a lack of education coincide (Theme 1). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee explores how a normally rational person’s ability to reason can be tainted by prejudice, even subconsciously. Rarely do the characters in Lee’s novel make an effort to be cruel, but in the 1930s South, prejudice was less about an active effort to hurt others, but instead was an affliction brought about by an unconscious combination of upbringing, culture, and social or economic status.
Prejudice is arguably the most prominent theme of the novel. It is directed towards groups and individuals in the Maycomb community. Prejudice is linked with ideas of fear superstition and injustice.
Walter Cunningham a normal young boy despite one thing, he has no money. Though all people during the Great Depression were suffering through hardship, the Cunningham's couldn't bear a quarter. Notwithstanding they had no money, Walter indicates pride, but everyone else still discriminates, his label is poor. To young children who picked up this the richer, older generation, a man with no money is a man with no worth. The discrimination is the wealthy against the needy, the upper-class believe to be superior. Moreover, this concludes that the society Maycomb, County represents is not just racist but additionally bigoted for irrational
Maycomb, a small town in Southern Alabama suffers considerably during the Great Depression. Poverty outstretches from prosperous families, like the Finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” the Ewells, who live adjacent to the town dump. Harper Lee, the author portrays a graphic image of everyday life in this southern town where tempers and discrimination erupt into quarrel. Racism, domestic violence, and poverty are all themes that are associated within To Kill a Mockingbird and are symbolized by many of the main characters to send a message. First of all racism is the main focus portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, it is symbolized by Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch.
In To Kill a Mockingbird the theme of poverty is expressed with characters such as the Cunninghams and the Ewells. Walter Cunningham shows up to school with clean clothes but lacks shoes and a lunch. “She stopped at Walter Cunningham’s desk. ‘Where’s
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel. It is set in the 1930s, a time when racism was very prominent. Harper Lee emphasizes the themes of prejudice and tolerance in her novel through the use of her characters and their interactions within the Maycomb community. The narrator of the story, Scout, comes across many people and situations with prejudice and tolerance, as her father defends a black man.
People of that time made use of their resources to trade for what they needed because they did not have much money. Lee also showed in her novel that many people could not hold jobs during the Great Depression. The poverty cycle of the Great Depression was caused by “Unemployment… [and] Men searched for jobs where they lived but there were none to be had”(Poverty). Also, “In 1933, at the worst point in the Great Depression years, unemployment rates in the United States reached almost 25%, with more than 11 million people looking for work”(Unemployment). Lee included the fact of unemployment in her book with Mr. Cunningham. Mr. Cunningham could not make any money on his farm, and the only job he would be able to get is with the WPA. He did not want a job with the WPA because “he was willing to go hungry to keep his land and vote as he pleased”(Lee 26). Another thing that Harper Lee took from the real world and depicted in her novel is how farmers were suffering and losing their farms during the Great Depression because the value of crops dropped to a point where farmers could not make any profits. During this time “prices dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt and lost their farms. In some cases, the price of a bushel of corn fell to just eight or ten cents”(Farms and Cities). In Lee’s novel, Atticus tells Scout that “The Cunninghams are…
Discrimination played a big role in the 1930s and throughout the development of the novel, and still is not completely diminished in the 21st century. Sexism, classicism, and racism all typified the many relationships in To Kill A Mockingbird, from Aunt Alexandra wanting Scout to become a lady, to Tom Robinson's unfair court trial. Prejudices are formed because of the level of ignorance people have when they believe everything they hear from their peers without bothering to be fertilized with education, leading to a division within communities, physically and mentally.
How would you like it if someone walked up to you and berated you based on the color of your skin? A characteristic like that isn’t even something you can control, so an insult of that nature can leave one furious and oppressed. Discrimination is inevitable in any culture, throughout history, in modern times, and even in ancient times. For example, the oppression and murder of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade which occurred for multiple centuries, and more recently, the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya people in Myanmar, brought on by the government of the Asian nation, all of which are tragedies doomed to happen when history repeats itself and people do not learn
The broke became poor, the rich struggled and the poor stay poor. The novel quotes ”Not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks,farmers,and the crash hit them the hardest” (Lee pg 27 Ch 2).People in Maycomb such as the Cunninghams, were hit hard by the crash. They didn't have any money to pay or make their children lunch.
One of the largest, and most crippling events of the 1930s was the Great Depression. Preceded by a decade of wealth and a carefree attitude, the crash of the economy came as a shock to everyone involved. In the article, “Standards Focus: Historical Context, The Great Depression”, the author points out that “People’s life savings suddenly disappeared, and as a result, people could not afford to pay their house payments or buy food, clothing, or other necessities.” (Secondary Solutions). This shows how helpless families were, and that it was impossible to stand up to corrupt ideas. This idea of poverty are also used by Harper Lee when she describes that the Cunninghams are a family in terrible conditions. In school, Scout tries to defend Walter Cunningham, a son in the Cunningham family, and explains that “Walter Cunningham was sitting there lying his head off. He didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. He had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen three quarters together at the same time in his life.” (Lee 26). The Cunningham family is a dramatic example of the daily struggle of everyone in town to live a decent life. Harper Lee used this idea in her writing because it shows the everyday person had little to no influence on events that were occurring in Americ...
Atticus says ‘the crash [of the 30s] hit them hardest’ with regards to farmers and thus the Cunninghams. The verb ‘hit’ has connotations of pain and suffering, which describes the Cunninghams as they are known to have ‘no money’. This description implies Marxism. Their poverty may affect their later behaviour - attempting to lynch Tom. They have a mob mentality and only turn back when Scout talks to Mr. Cunningham about his life. Furthermore, Scout notes in her narration that ‘most of’ the men wore ‘overalls’, referencing that they work on the land. As mentioned, the 'crash ' of the economy crippled such men. Hence, the Marxist ideal mentioned may explain their actions and thus the novel seems to be a Marxist