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Sometimes, people discriminate one thing, but strongly oppose the discrimination of another thing. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, this issue is very much expressed throughout the story. This thought-provoking story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during a time when there’s a rape trial against a falsely accused African American named Tom Robinson. There is also a discrimination, of sorts, towards a man named Boo Radley, by three young children named Jeremy “Jem” Finch, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, and Charles “Dill” Baker Harris. Both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are similar in their own ways through their inherent goodness. Through natural goodness; both Tom Robinson and Boo Radley express strong generosity. Even though they are both perceived as being quiet, and mysterious, they still are benevolent toward others. “Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives…We never put back into the tree what we took out of it; we had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (Lee 278). This statement Scout mak...
Boo Radley’s reclusive nature caused by years of hiding away in his house is not due to his ‘evil’ nature, but rather a disability that causes Boo to look and act differently than most citizens of Maycomb. Boo’s mental handicap is used to drive the first part of the novel, and sets up for Tom Robinson’s jury case in the second part. His reclusiveness and disability sets up an interesting idea in the work that those who don’t look or act a certain way in Maycomb are considered outcasts or rejects. This is also true for Walter Cunningham and his family. The townspeople of Maycomb believe that because of who and what he is- a Cunningham- Walter will never amount to much more than a dirt-poor farmer
In the novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee some characters suffer in the hands of justice and fairness more than others. Many characters in the novel are discriminated against such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, Helen Robinson, Burris Ewell and more. However I will be focusing on the discrimination against Tom Robinson for his race, Walter Cunningham for his low socioeconomic status and Boo Radley for the rumors and supposed mental instability he holds. I chose those three because they are the most prominent and I will discuss how the discrimination against the characters therefore leads to their injustice or unfairness.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
Imagine a world where anyone who was born with brown hair got to give orders to anyone born with blonde hair. If you're born with brown hair, you could have better careers and the better education whereas the blondes wouldn’t even been given a fair court trial. If something like this happened overnight, there would be a huge uproar, but what if it happened over time and generations grew to accept it? Eventually, people would start to argue that brown haired people were naturally superior to blondes. If you were living in a tiny town in the Deep South, such as Maycomb, you’d have even less of a reason to question the status quo. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is trying to teach his kids, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” Furthermore, the largest forms of discrimination in the novel are racism and classism.
To Kill a Mockingbird - Equality & nbsp; Since the Civil War, civil rights of African Americans, as they are now called, have been fought over and disputed. During the Reconstruction era which followed the death of Lincoln, Blacks possessed the same rights and privileges as the whites. "But with the return of white man's government to the southern states, the blacks suffered under unfair rights and privileges compared to whites; (World 357). On June 7, 1892, Homer Plessy, a 30-year old shoemaker, was put in jail for sitting in the "White" car of an east Louisiana Railroad train. Although Plessy was only one-eighth black, he was still required to sit in the colored car according to Louisiana state law.
Growing up in Maycomb, Southern Alabama in the 1930s was not an easy thing. Amid a town of prejudice and racism, stood a lone house where equality and respect for all gleamed like a shining star amid an empty space. The house of Atticus Finch was that shining star. Jean Louise Finch, also known as “Scout”, is given the opportunity of being raised in this house by her father, Atticus. I stole this essay from the net. As she grows, Atticus passes down his values of equality and righteousness to Scout and her brother Jeremy Atticus Finch, also known as “Jem”. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, we see Scout learns many lessons about dealing with prejudice by observing the behavior of other characters in the story.
Discrimination and Prejudice in Killing A Mocking Bird Discrimination and prejudice were very common acts in the early and middle 1900's. Prejudice in this book is displayed by the acts of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. People of color were the majority that were treated unfairly. During this time in the southern states, black people had to use separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, sections in restaurants, churches, and even go to separate schools. Although much of the discrimination was directed towards blacks, there were plenty of accounts towards impoverished families by those that had money.
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 story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee portrays many different scenarios of racial discrimination. Discrimination occurs in the book and many people are affected by the racial slurs and other occurrences. In the story, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson are all people that are discriminated against or are affected by discrimination. Racial discrimination is a major part of To Kill a Mockingbird.
Thoughts are like seeds that take root in our minds. They spawn feelings and more thoughts that can have powerful consequences. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, the views of the townspeople in the 1930’s Southern town of Maycomb greatly impact the lives of two innocent men. The people make false accusations against Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley because they are different. These characters are representative of the author’s reoccurring symbol of the mockingbird, which signifies innocence, and subjects them to vulnerability. Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, although innocent, fall victim to the hatred of society and thus emerge as mockingbirds. Tom Robinson, is black man, who is wrongfully accused of raping a white woman; while Boo Radley is believed to be a criminal because of the rumors the townspeople say about him. Because these men do not fall into the norm, their lives are greatly affected by the thoughts and opinions of the townspeople.
To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and oppressive events that actually took place in the south during the time period in which the novel is based. In addition to actual historical events, events and examples from the book that clearly illustrate the overpoweringly high levels of prejudice that were intertwined in the everyday thinking of the majority of the characters in the book supports the fact that Tom Robinson never stood a chance of getting a fair trial.
In a desperate attempt to save his client, Tom Robinson, from death, Atticus Finch boldly declares, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271). The gross amounts of lurid racial inequality in the early 20th century South is unfathomable to the everyday modern person. African-Americans received absolutely no equality anywhere, especially not in American court rooms. After reading accounts of the trials of nine young men accused of raping two white women, novelist Harper Lee took up her pen and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, a blistering exposition of tragic inequalities suffered by African Americans told from the point of view of a young girl. Though there are a few trivial differences between the events of the Scottsboro trials and the trial of Tom Robinson portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, such as the accusers’ attitudes towards attention, the two cases share a superabundance of similarities. Among these are the preservation of idealist views regarding southern womanhood and excessive brutality utilized by police.
Discrimination based on religion was targeted by the Radley family. According to To Kill A Mockingbird, “Foot-washers believe anything that’s pleasure is a sin… sometimes the Bible in the hand of one man is worse than a whiskey bottle in the hand of—oh, of your father.” (Lee 59). Miss Maudie explains to Scout through the comparison of an alcoholic to a religious extremist that Mrs. Radley takes the bible too literally and targets others for not following the same religious views as her. Miss Maudie describes her as a foot-washer Baptist because Mrs. Radley sees people that enjoy being outdoors and women being independent like Miss Maudie. Discrimination against the Radley’s is also present in the novel. The Radley’s don’t attend church on Sundays
First, Boo Radley places a blanket over Scout when she is cold. Atticus said that it was “Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you.” (Lee 95). This shows that Boo is admired for his empathetic deeds instead of his mysterious, introverted lifestyle. Second, Boo Radley is honored for defending Scout and Jem. Since Heck Tate knew that Boo killed Bob for a noble cause, he put that “It was like this… He held the knife and pretended to stumble; as he leaned forward his left arm went down in front of him.” (Lee 367). Heck admires the fact that Boo killed Bob solely in defence for the children, thus he hid the evidence of murder so that Boo would not face any charges. Finally, Boo is admired by Scout for looking after her throughout childhood. She realizes this when she puts herself in his shoes and says, “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor.” (Lee 373). This shows that Scout admires Boo simply because he was always there for her. These show that Boo Radley proves that moral strength makes a person
Women throughout history have been discriminated against, even in America. In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, we see how one girl struggled with growing up as people tried to repress her right to express herself in the ways any child would.. One of the most defining events of her childhood was the Tom Robinson trial, where she was able to see the blatant discrimination against the African American population and the more subtle oppression of women. Misogyny and inequality between men and women is not specific to race, nationality or age.