Prejudice in Harper Lee´s To Kill a Mockingbird

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Life is like a thrill ride; one never knows what will be in store for them. Many characters in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee feel the same way about life, having experienced many surprising and unexpected turns of events. This story is about a sleepy southern town filled with prejudice, and a lawyer’s quest, along with his children Scout and Jem, to take steps in ridding the town of its prejudiced mindset. Atticus, the lawyer, defends an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, despite being a white man. However, everything does not go as planned, and the prejudiced mindset of the society overpowered Atticus’s fair-minded argument. A prejudiced society results in blindness, which can be thwarted through courageous and compassionate actions.

The prejudiced mindset of Maycomb’s society shows how prejudice can result in blindness. For example, in Scout’s class, Miss Gates talks about persecution of innocent people in a society after a student brought up the topic of Hitler and the massacre going on in Germany. “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced.” (329) Miss Gates is so prejudiced towards black people in her own society, that she doesn’t recognize the atrocities happening all around her, similar to the ones happening in Germany. This quote employs irony to show how despite there being an overwhelming amount of prejudice surrounding her, Miss Gates is blind to it because of the incredible amount of prejudice she harbors; she is overly prejudiced towards black people, and feels that they should be treated as lower than white people. This shows how strong prejudiced mindsets, similar to that of Miss Gates, ...

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...s the idea that blindness can be caused by a prejudiced society, and that this mindset can be resolved through courageous and compassionate actions. This is personified throughout history by nearly every race and group in the world; even those who seem the most serene and sophisticated commit this atrocity. For example, in the American colonial times, white men from Europe settling in the Americas discriminated against the Native Americans. They decided that they were superior to the Native Americans, and that they had total right to rampage their native lands and claim it as their own. This has been happening ever since the beginning of time and it will continue until the end of civilization, but through courage and compassion, the destructive course of prejudice can be controlled.

Works Cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, 1982.

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