In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many instances of an extremely ubiquitous problem, even in today’s society, which is discrimination. The book is set in the time of America’s Great Depression, and focuses on three key summers in the lives of Scout and Jem Finch. They are the daughter and son of a lawyer named Atticus Finch, who later in the book takes on the case of Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a woman named Mayella Ewell. Throughout the novel, the author focuses on the way that the children take in the events and the world around them. Another major character, who is only seen by the children once in the novel, is Arthur “Boo” Radley, who has been turned into the equivalent of a horror story character by rumours spread around the town. Scout, Jem, and their friend Dill have had an obsession with getting him to come …show more content…
out of his secluded hovel and interact with the rest of Maycomb County throughout the first half of the story before slowly giving up. Overall, there are three prime instances of discrimination in the novel. The first is racial discrimination, the second is sexism/gender discrimination, and the third is social class discrimination. Racism The first example of racial discrimination in the novel would be about Tom Robinson’s case.
The people of Maycomb were very aggressive towards him and on pages 200-207, a lynch mob even came to the jail where he was being kept in an attempt to do something to him. This could be considered racial discrimination because if Tom was not a black man, the mob most likely would not have come to hurt him, but since he was a black man who supposedly hurt a white woman, they wanted revenge. Another prime example would be when Mr. Gilmer, the prosecutor against Tom, gets upset with him for saying that he felt sorry for Miss Mayella. The way he spoke to him was also degrading and did not show that Mr. Gilmer thought of him as an equal. He asked Mr. Robinson if it was true that Ms. Mayella Ewell wanted him to bust up a chiffarobe, to which Robinson replied that it was not. In response, Mr. Gilmer said to him, “Then you say she’s lying, boy?” (Lee 264) This degrading way that Gilmer talked to Tom shows that he thinks of him as not equal to a white man like him, which was a common way of thinking at this time in America’s
history. The second example of racial discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird is when Aunt Alexandra wants to fire Calpurnia, the housekeeper of the Finch household. Alexandra is Atticus’s sister, and since she is that, she knows that what she says can have an influence on the things he does. She does not like that a black woman like Calpurnia has such a strong influence on the children in the house, and wants Atticus to fire her (Lee 182-183). It is also inferred that she believes she should be let go because now that she is there to be a motherly-figure to the children, they don’t need Calpurnia to take care of them anymore. Sexism/ Gender Discrimination The next kind of discrimination in Lee’s novel is gender discrimination. The character that it is most shown that has to deal with this in the story is Scout, who is a tomboy at heart and is not ready to be girly yet. On page 69, Jem says to Scout when she does not want to peek into Boo Radley’s window, “Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home— I declare to the Lord you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!” In this example, he makes it seem like it is a bad thing that she may be becoming more like a girl; after all, she is one. Another instance is when Jem is getting more mature and growing. He says things that confuse Scout because he never would have said them to her before, like “It’s time you started bein’ a girl and actin’ right!” (Lee 153) These are one of the few times where only Jem has told Scout about being more feminine or too feminine. The second example of gender discrimination is when Scout and Jem’s Aunt Alexandra does some of the discriminating. Fairly soon after she arrives to stay with them, she tells Scout, “We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys—” (Lee 170) Much later in the story, it mentions her dislike of what Scout wears all the time, though she says nothing about it. “Aunty brought me my overalls. ‘Put these on, darling.’ She said, handing me the garment she most despised.” (Lee 354) This points out how her aunt did not like the boyish way that she dressed, which had bothered her since the moment she was introduced to the reader. Social Status Discrimination The third kind of discrimination in the book would be social status discrimination. The Cunninghams are one of the families in Maycomb that are subject to social discrimination. The family is extremely poor, and it shows in their everyday lives. At school Walter Cunningham Jr. did not have his lunch, and Miss Caroline thought that he did not have any money for it that day. She offered him a quarter and told him to pay her back tomorrow, but he refused to take it. The teacher began to grow agitated at the child, but then Scout explained to her how he wouldn’t be able to pay her back because his family had no money. (Lee 25-26) This incident demonstrates how it seems that everyone in the county is aware of the lack of money the Cunningham’s possess. The passage also pays attention to the way to Walter Jr. is dressed in school. Scout describes the boy as wearing no shoes because “If Walter had owned any shoes he would have worn them the first day of school and discarded them until mid-winter.” (Lee 25), as well as wearing a clean shirt and pair of pants for the first day of school. The second family in Maycomb that fits into the social status discrimination would most definitely be the Ewells. This family lives in a raggedy house by the dump, and are the disgrace of the county. Mr. Ewell is a drunkard who has multiple children, buying alcohol with his relief check money and trapping game outside of the hunting season. Most people in the vicinity despise the Ewells, or do not associate with them to begin with. They are known around the town as being poor and irresponsible people to the rest of the county as well. The Ewell children are also very undereducated. In the text, Scout states that Atticus told her that “They can go to school any time they want to, when they show the faintest symptom of wanting an education, there are are ways of keeping them in school by force, but it’s silly to force people like the Ewells into a new environment…” (Lee 40) Scout also says that Burris Ewell, Bob Ewell’s son, only goes to school the first day of the school year. In conclusion, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee delves into the many kinds of discrimination in society, using background knowledge of her own to further the authenticity of the fictional events as well as make them more interesting. Her interpretation of the society that Scout and Jem live in accurately describes what it was like to live in the southern part of the United States in the 1930’s, when racism was still very obvious and little money was being made due the great Stock Market Crash of 1929. “The majority of white adults in Maycomb are content to keep blacks, women, and children in their place.” (May 304) Despite the obtrusive theme of racism, the narrow-minded attitude of the characters in the novel shows some of the many ways that anyone can be discriminated against in their societies, no matter what age, race, gender, or religion you may be. Therefore, three most seen examples of discrimination in this novel would be racial, gender, and social class discrimination.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, the main plot, the Tom Robinson case, parallels that of the Boo Radley subplot in many ways. In the Tom Robinson plot, Tom, a black man, gets falsely accused of savagely beating and raping Miss Mayella Ewell, a 19 year old girl who lives in poverty with her father, Bob Ewell, and her many younger siblings. Though the evidence points to Bob Ewell as the abuser, the townsfolk, including the jury, take the Ewell’s word over Tom’s purely because of his skin color. The subplot in this novel is focused on Arthur “Boo” Radley, the mysterious neighbor of the Finch family. They know very little about him, as he hasn’t left his house in many years. In the midst of the Tom Robinson case, the Boo Radley subplot trails off, almost
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.
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
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, many different themes come into view. One major theme that played a big role in the character’s lives is racial prejudice. Racism is an unending problem throughout the book. The song “Message from a Black Man” by The Temptations has many similarities to the theme of racial discrimination. Therefore, both the novel and the song prove that racism was a great obstacle for some people at a point.
There is a word for when you judge someone before knowing anything about them- “prejudice”. In the graphic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, adapted and illustrated by Fred Fordham, the theme that prejudice overpowers innocence is quite frequent. There are multiple examples of this theme such as, being worth more than a social class, innocence vs race, and proving rumors wrong. One example is during Scout's first day of school where she says, “He made me start off on the wrong foot.” (Fordham 26) and had started hurting Walter Cunningham.
Prejudice is a major topic in all of the units. The Germans were prejudiced against the Jews, the whites versus the blacks, the whites versus the indians, and the Venetians versus the Jews. In this essay I will discuss the various reasons I think prejudice is a major topic in this book.
Racism, sexism, discrimination, and prejudice of many kinds are still a major dilemma even in modern culture and society. For example, salary differences between men, women, and people of all ethnic backgrounds vary drastically. Racism is also present, as well as frequent hate crimes we often hear about in the news. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice is ever present in Maycomb. Lee tells the story of a young girl, Scout, and how she sees the world through a child’s perspective. Scout witnesses prejudice in the trial of an innocent black man, the rumors spread about a man who hasn’t been seen in many years, and the harsh words spoken about racially mixed children. Scout, her brother, and their friends, however, cannot understand
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, in chapter 9 Jem breaks down into tears after witnessing Tom Robinson becoming a victim of racial injustice. In this, he realizes Maycomb isn't the town he thought it was. He lost his innocence in that moment because he once believed the town of Maycomb was the safest town. Then after the conviction, he realized the towns predigest, changing his point of view of the people in the community. Reading this reminded me of a memory when I lost my innocence to those around me. When I was around 12 to 13 I thought my neighborhood was the nicest and friendliest neighborhood and I didn’t think anyone around was a bad person. My family and I always hang out with our neighbors, we were outside with each other constantly.
Maycomb clings onto traditions and social norms to justify their racist behaviour. Racism was highly common among the society, the African Americans were suppressed members of society, repeatedly slandered with derogatory terms such as ‘niggers’. Many of them possessed good qualities but these were often overlooked. The first indication of racism we observe is through Scout’s family dynamic. Calpurnia, who is self-educated, can only find employment as a servant for the Finches family who are white. This demonstrates the racial divide that exists within Maycomb. Most individuals address the blacks as ‘niggers’ throughout the novel. The continued use of this derogatory term reflects on Maycomb’s views on black people. They are unable to accept them as human beings and were often treated like trash. The most prominent example of the racial divide in Maycomb is Tom Robinson’s wrongful conviction who was charged for rape due to the false words of a white man. This conviction leads to a pre-ordained. Even though Atticus proved Tom Robinson’s innocence with copious amounts of evidence, Tom Robinson was still announced guilty. Some individuals accepted Tom Robinson’s innocence. However, they lacked the necessary bravery to come forward and accept their mistake. Society forced them to suppress their views. This demonstrates the dysfunctionality of Maycomb. Atticus was looked down upon by Maycomb solely due to his decision to defend an African-American man. Mrs Dubose commented negatively on his decision when she told Scout and Jem that their “father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”. Even the act of defending a black man was considered to be going against Maycomb’s values where people thought life was simple as “black and white”. The mentality of the people is extremely narrow, correlating directly
To Kill a Mockingbird The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Horton Foote is a great example of the theme racism. In the book, there is a very important black character named Tom Robinson. Tom is so important because he creates the whole theme of racism in the book as he fights for his innocence in the court of law while he is accused of a heinous crime that he claims he didn’t do. There are multiple examples of racism all the way from Tom Robinson being convicted with little evidence just because of the fact that he is African American, all the way to Atticus Finch the person defending him in court receiving many very racist statements about the person he is defending. One example of racism in How To Kill a Mockingbird is when Tom Robinson
Discrimination- the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or gender. There are many forms of discrimination depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The biggest form of discrimination in the book is prejudice toward black people and people who are different. This type of prejudice creates a bad outlook on some people because they judged before anyone knows them. Several forms of discrimination that I am going to be talking about are direct discrimination and indirect discrimination. Direct discrimination is when someone is treated unfairly because of there age, gender, race, or disability. Indirect discrimination is where there is a requirement or rule that
There are three main types of discrimination that take place in To Kill a Mockingbird. They are discrimination of race, class, and gender. Discrimination of race, or racism, is the most obvious and the most common form of discrimination that occurs in the novel. The best example of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird occurs when Tom Robinson is found guilty, simply because he is black. Discrimination of class also occurs in the novel. The best example of this is when Scout goes to school and puts everyone into their own social class. An example of this is on the first day of school when Scout tells Ms. Caroline, “Miss Caroline, he’s a Cunningham”. Miss Caroline doesn’t understand because she isn’t from around there, but it makes sense to Scout
For many years, citizens tried to prevent people having stereotypical judgments. People are being discriminated in our daily lives, and in Maycomb, this is shown in abounding ways. Not all members of the society are treated equally, for example, women are not respected the same as men. Everyone is judged, based on their race and sex on the small things that they do. Discrimination such as sexism and racism in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird negatively impacts the way in which characters act and react to each other.
The definition of Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. Harper Lee uses the idea of racism as a huge part of theme in To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout this book Lee hints and creates symbols for this theme. Jem, Scout and everyone living in the fictional town of Maycomb during this story are affected by racism, which is the most important theme in To Kill a Mockingbird.
Racism in To Kill a Mocking Bird " That jury took a few hours. An inevitable verdict, maybe, but usually it takes' em just a few minutes. This time" (Lee 297).Says Atticus, a lawyer in the Maycomb county who is defending a black man. To Kill a Mockingbird was written in 1930s by Harper Lee. During that period, racism was a very common practice for the people due to the Jim Crow Law.