Amanda Thach Thach 1 Ms. Natale Freshman English April 8, 2018 Many people in society understand and have first hand experienced racism, whether it is for stereotypes, skin color, or for a way a person looks or acts. To Kill A Mockingbird is viewed from a young girl’s perspective and is set during the Great Depression. Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout lives with her older brother, Jeremy Atticus Finch, nicknamed Jem, and her single father, Atticus Finch. The family lives in a small town called Maycomb, located in Alabama. Scout and Jem make a friend over the Summer named Dill. The three children are amazed and petrified by a person in the town nicknamed Boo Radley. Boo Radley chooses to isolate himself, …show more content…
Dolphus Raymond and his children. In the start of the trial, Jem, Dill, and Scout are seated by Rev. Sykes. Jem notices Dolphus Raymond associating with the other people of color on the balcony. Jem starts to explain who Dolphus Raymond is and how his children don’t fit in society. “They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white, white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re just in-between, don’t belong anywhere “ (215). Racism is so far implanted into the community that it only shows how society is black and white. Being a mixed race didn’t help a person’s situation, it simply made them more outcasted than needed. During the trial, Dill needs to step out during the trial, with Scout following him. Dill couldn’t handle the mistreatment of Tom Robinson. They find Mr. Dolphus Raymond and start a conversation. “I had a feeling that I shouldn’t be here listening to the sinful man who had mixed children and I didn’t care who knew it, but he was fascinating” (268). Not only is racism inherent in the adults of the population, but as well as the children who grow up in it. It doesn’t just affect white and black people, but how people associate with them. Scout calls Mr. Raymond a sinful man, because of who he is and what skin color his children are. Racism isn’t just about skin color, it also has to do with actions and the way people surround each other during this time. As Dill and Scout …show more content…
Throughout the town of Maycomb, the majority of the people knew who was speaking the right answer at the trial and most people knew what was going to happen in the end, because a black man went against a white man's words. Tom Robinson couldn’t do anything to prove his innocence, and Atticus couldn’t write a better speech to help sway the jury’s decision. The jury still chose to believe a story about rape over sympathy. Rape is just a more believable story rather than feelings of regret and remorse. After Tom Robinson’s death, Scout notices Maycomb’s reaction to his death. “To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical. Typical of an - cut and run. Typical of a n--’s mentality to have no play, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw. Funny thing, Atticus Finch might’ve got him scot free, but wait-? H-ll no. you know how they are. Easy come, easy go. Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneer’s mighty thin. N-- always comes out in ‘em.” (322). During that time of the era, most blacks were to put to death because they were commonly opposing a white man. It also shows that this wasn’t the first time to see an African American man die in Maycomb. This also proves that no matter what a person decides to phrase his words, that the outcome will remain the same all because of skin color. Tom Robinson’s trial and death is
...uth to fully understand that it is typical to act superior to those with colored skin. All Dill sees is a man being rude to another, just because of his skin color. While Atticus clearly shows everyone in the court that it was almost impossible for Tom Robinson to have beat Mayella, he still loses the case just because he was a black man against a white woman. Lee includes, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323) This enforces how it didn’t matter what Tom was really doing or why Mayella was screaming, but just by the way Tom looked they were able to essentially pin the rape and the beatings on Tom. Of course this was not true and he did not receive the justice he deserved, but that didn’t matter to Maycomb. All that mattered was the color of his skin and what the teenage white girl named Mayella Ewell said about him.
Scout and Jem are the farthest thing from being racist or prejudiced, they are both two kids raised in a home where racism and prejudice are frowned upon. Scout’s family is completely against racism and prejudice. In the town of Maycomb, prejudice is a disease, but Jem, Scout, and Dill are immune to this illness because of the people who raise them. For example, when Cecil and Francis tell Scout that it is a disgrace for Atticus to defend Tom, even though Francis is Scouts cousin, also when Scout and Jem hear the verdict of Tom’s case they both cry and are angry about the sentence while the rest of the town is happy. Scout doesn’t want Walter Cunningham to come over for dinner because she thinks he is a disgrace.
Towards the end of To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus decides to represent a colored man by the man of Tom Robinson, who is being accused of raping Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell’s daughter. Atticus believes that Tom is innocent, but he does not think that Tom will be found not guilty because of they way the townsfolk treat colored people. They treat them like dirt; like they are worth nothing. Atticus went ahead and represented Tom despite the fact that he knew the townsfolk would call himself and his children names and treat them disrespectfully. Even Scout’s relative Francis said rude things about them. “‘I guess it ain't your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I'm here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family-...’ ‘Just what I said. Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he's turned out a nigger-lover we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin. He's ruinin' the family, that's what he's doin'.’” Atticus set a good example for Scout and Jem. He had a difficult decision to make, but he chose what he thought was
In the courtroom that night it is revealed that the alleged crimes of Tom Robinson, a decent Negro man, most likely did not happen. As Atticus says in his closing argument, "The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is” (Lee 271). Showing the clear innocence of Tom Robinson due to lack of evidence, Scout thinks that the white jury will do the right thing only to find out that they still, unfairly, accuse him of being guilty. Scout and her brother, Jem, get very upset when they hear the verdict, however, it allows them both to learn the lesson that the county is unfair towards anyone who is not white. The county demonstrates this evil racism due to the social divisions in Maycomb between the whites and the blacks and because the whites see the blacks as unworthy of rights and freedoms. It was not just the trial itself that displayed evil in the world, but the comments and arguments surrounding the case did
Although Tom Robinson is innocent, the Judge finds him guilty because Tom Robinson told the jury that “I felt sorry for her”(Lee 197). This symbolizes the judgement in social class because Tom knew he made a great mistake saying, to the town of Maycomb, that he felt sorry for a white female. This was a turning point during the trial because in Maycomb, people in a higher class viewed other lower classes as not important and no respect to them. Their judgment towards the lower classes based on their skin color or what they are wearing is how people in Maycomb divide themselves from one another. In addition, another judgmental aspect in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. Someone who shows racism is called a racist, which is a major factor in the novel. On Jem’s birthday, Scout and Jem are
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
A small city nestled in the state of Alabama, Maycomb has got its faults, just like any other place in the world, but one of its main faults or (pg.88) “Maycomb's usual disease,” as Atticus calls it in the book is prejudice. Jem and Scout learn a lot about prejudice when a black man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell and their father, Atticus, is called on to be his lawyer. They realize the hate that people have buried deep within their heart when they see a black man accused of doing something only because of his color. On pg.241, Scout starts understanding this and thinks, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” As the case continues, up until the death of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout learn more and more about prejudice and how the hate that people have towards others causes them to take wrong actions. They also see how unfair it is that a white man can get treated better and think of himself better than a black man only because he was born white. This prejudice and the trial cause Jem and Scout to get in argum...
Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community.
An example of racism shown in the narrative is when a white man named Dolphus Raymond married a black woman. He didn’t fit into the black community because he was a white, wealthy man that had power. He also did not fit into the white community because he cheated on his fiancé with a black woman. The novel says, “He likes ‘em better’n he likes us, I reckon.” Because of this issue, people started to notice he drank from a bottle in a paper bag. When Scout and Dill found out it was only Coca-Cola, he told them it distracts
Tom was very confused when he was accused of this incident because he had never been anything more to Mayella Ewell than an acquaintance. “The older you grow the more of it you’ll see. The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box”(Lee 220). This is how Atticus described the trial to his son Jem because he could not comprehend how unjust the trial was unfolding on a daily basis. The proceedings were not equitable towards Tom Robinson because everyone should have realized at the trial that he had not done anything wrong. In the end, Atticus lost the trial. Not because the jury and judge thought Tom Robinson had committed the crime, but simply because he was black and they were racist. Tom was sent to jail for doing absolutely nothing wrong, except being black. He never had the luxury to grow into old age, as his life was taken from him when he was shot seventeen times during his attempt to escape from jail. Tom Robinson’s life would have been completely different if he had not been black. The discrimination would not have occurred and the accusations would not have been leveled or
My attitude to racism has developed in the course of the narrative. Mr Dolphus Raymond continues to elaborate on my feelings while he talks to Scout and Dill during the court case. He is a sinful man according to the community as he is has fathered mixed children. To contemplate this felony he pretended to be a drunk: "Secretly, Miss Finch, I'm not much of a drinker, but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that is the way I want to live.
Prejudice is a real life problem in the world. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee describes the prejudices found in a small American town in the 1930's. Race, social class, and gender are examples of prejudice.
to be a city girl and thus none of the country folk can understand her
Mr. Dolphus Raymond is another person being discriminated. He is because he is married and had kids with a black women. A lot of people think that he shouldn’t raise a child in an interracial relationship and it is evidently taking delight in corrupting a child. I do not believe there is anything wrong with this because you love who you love and you should not have that taken away from you. Now it is very common to see mixed raced kids. Back then these kids were not treated the same as other kids. One time Jem and Scout walk by Mr. Raymond and Jem says,
The Various Forms of Discrimination in the Novel To Kill a Mockingbird In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, we see several forms of discrimination. For most people, when they hear the word discrimination, they think of racism, ageism, or something else similar. These are all some of the most common forms of discrimination, but they are not the only forms of it that exist. The types of discrimination I will mostly be talking about are sexism, racism, and classism. The first form of discrimination I will talk about is how people tell Scout that she has to wear dresses all of the time, and that she has to have perfect manners.