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How Hypocrisy Plays Out in To Kill a Mockingbird
Write an essay about hypocrisy in To Kill a Mockingbird.
If you were to look up the word “hypocrisy” in a dictionary, you would find that it is the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which the person’s behavior does not follow. You can picture this as a person saying one thing that they believe but turning around and doing something that totally contradicts it. This happens in society a lot of times and we can find examples of this in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird.
In the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1900s, people are extremely hateful towards all the black people in their society. People in Maycomb want nothing to do with them and if they so much as lay a finger
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Miss Merriweather gets all weepy-eyed and soft-hearted at the thought of the poor Mrunas in their deplorable situation, yet she does nothing more than put on a show of sympathy. Nearly in the same breath of air, she turns around to gossip about the black people in her own neighborhood, people who also have a deplorable situation that she could truly do something about. Instead, she proclaims to the black people, "you live your way and we'll live ours." (page 234) These actions show her hypocrisy because she flaunts virtue and charity, but does not act on or even care about a nearly identical situation in her own …show more content…
This man beats his children, is a drunkard, is racist and ignorant, and yet he claims to be a hard-working, family-oriented man with total honor and morals. He gets up on the witness stand and continues to claim that he is on the high ground, all the while lying through his teeth and doing a dreadful job of covering up his more dishonorable qualities. His character and actions are built on what the people in the community think of him. The entire time that he was being questioned in court, he acted like a know-it-all, making him seem like the superior one in the situation. Having this kind of attitude made him feel as if he were the one doing the questioning and that he was in control of what happened in that courtroom. He wanted to come across as an innocent citizen, while hiding his home life behind lies. Later, after the trial when Atticus made him out as the liar that he was, Atticus explained the motives behind Bob Ewel’s threats. He said, “See if you can stand in Bob Ewel’s shoes for a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with. The man had to have some kind of comeback, his kind always does.” (page 218) Bob Ewel was out to regain his credibility but Atticus had already revealed the hypocrisy in his character to the people of
The Ideas of Hypocrisy, Prejudice and Dignity in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird In Maycomb, the town in which Harper Lee's book 'To Kill a Mockingbird' is set, hypocrisy and prejudice are prevalent in most of its citizens. Although many of the characters morals are admirable, you soon realise that what people say and what people do are not always related. Mrs Grace Merriweather falls into this category. She is seen to be 'the most devout lady in Maycomb' and her eyes 'always filled with tears when she considered the oppressed' yet she is just as prejudiced to the black citizens or 'darky's' as the majority of the ladies of the 'Maycomb Alabama Methodist Episcopal Church South' are. Mrs Merriweather appears to be the most hypocritical character in this chapter.
An example of this would be the teacher telling the children that "Over here we don't believe in persecuting anybody in the process. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. The irony in it is that the reader knows that the majority of Maycomb are prejudiced against the blacks and to say that Hitler was wrong in being prejudiced, was hypocritical. Atticus though, a good idea. wasn't prejudiced, and this was what made him different.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, many things occur to be simple and everyone’s happy, but it’s not always peachy in Maycomb Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird tells of a little girl’s love for her family and life living in a racist community filled with judgmental people (Shackelford). This was the time where black people were treated unfairly in courts, especially in Alabama (Johnson). Alabama was the most racist part of the south, everything was separated and blacks were treated like dirt that the whites walked on. In the book, blacks did not have many rights and had to be servants and workers for the whites.
Another example of racial prejudice in the novel is at Aunt Alexandra's `lady's meeting'. It also shows the hypocrisy that took place in Maycomb. Miss Merriweather goes on to explain the "sin and squalor" that is suffered by "those poor Mrunas" and makes herself seem most ethnically aware, but the she refers to Helen Robinson as; "That darky's wife" The way that Miss Merriweather uses this term as if it is everyday language shows that Negroes are not respected, and are given quite offensive names.
The theme that I see in To Kill A Mockingbird is that there is hypocrisy in Prejudice. As Scout goes about her life, the reader notices Prejudice everywhere including the school. When Cecil speaks in class after the current event Presentation on World War 2, He says “There are no better people in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me...well, I don’t know for certain, they’re supposed to change money or somethin’, but that ain’t no cause to persecute ‘em, they’re white ain’t they?” (Lee 248). Cecil says he doesn't understand why Hitler would hate Jews, because all the Jews did was help, yet he makes it clear that anyone that if they were not white then it was alright to persecute them, though like the Jews
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows the reality of the world in the 1930s through the point of view of a little girl named Scout. She starts as a carefree tomboy, but learns to be more ladylike as the story continues. Her life really starts to change during a trial where her father is defending a black man. Also, she learns that killing a mockingbird is a sin.Overall, she grows up throughout the book, and starts to realize all the issues of Maycomb.
Tom Robinson, the man falsely accused of raping the poor, white woman, Mayella Ewell instills a sense of abject horror in most Maycomb citizens. Most of the irrational fear of Robinson is simply that, a fear. In the eyes of the residents in Maycomb, Tom resembles a snake in the grass, waiting for the right moment to strike and injure as many Whites as possible. Emancipation in the 19th century, still fresh in many Southerners’ minds, had already threatened to maneuver the black man socially ahead of the white man with its ongoing momentum. Ewell, therefore, relishes the opportunity to slander Robinson as well as to free himself of abusive charges towards his daughter and condemn a black man with the supportive racism of his peers. The accusation of being innately malicious, ignorant and spiteful is ironically how the black man appears to the vast majority of Maycomb's population. Most of those who describe Tom in this manner would fit that very description, waiting only to suppress Blacks and prolo...
As Scout grew up in Maycomb, she learned about the people who live in Maycomb. By being exposed to events with explicit discrimination, judgment, and racism, Scout has become aware of the negative aspects of Maycomb residents. Scout’s visit to First Purchase African M.E. church, showed her how discrimination impacts the lives of African-Americans. As justified by Dolphus Raymond, the people who live in Maycomb are awfully judgmental, and the lack of fairness and justice caused by racism affects serious situations, as demonstrated during the Tom Robinson trial. All of these experiences have opened up Scout’s eyes, giving her a better understanding of the residents of Maycomb County, and how negative many people can be.
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.
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.
1. In your own words, please summarize the author's main points. It talks about having unethical behavior, and embezzling money as a Girl Scout, and in turn suffering the consequences in the long run. The lesson taught her how to resist the temptation to embezzle money. It also taught her to never set unrealistic goals, and to always take responsibility for your own actions.
Have you ever judged someone because of their race or how they live? If so, It means you are prejudice and there are plenty of examples of it in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee began To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s, after moving to New York to become a writer. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement. Critical response to To Kill a Mockingbird was mixed: a number of critics found the narrative voice of a nine-year-old girl unconvincing and called the novel overly moralistic. Nevertheless, in the racially charged atmosphere of the early 1960s. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, prejudice is described as judging someone without knowing them, and Racial and
Webster dictionary defines prejudice as a feeling of dislike for a group because of sex, race, and religion. It’s when a person doesn’t like another person because of something beyond their control. “A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.” said Edward B. Hurrow, American Journalist and Broadcaster. People will base their opinions off of other people's opinions. They think they’re forming their own opinions when in reality they’re following other people’s prejudices. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are many instances of prejudice such as Black vs. White, judgement of Boo Radley, and criticisms made by Mrs. Dubose.
One of the most prevalent themes is social inequality and racism. These ideas affect everybody in Maycomb and this is evident when Jem says “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes”(302). When Jem divides “the Negroes” from everybody else, it shows that even though Jem is not racist, there is inherent racism in the town of Maycomb.
Hypocrisy is as much a part of Maycomb’s society as church and community spirit. For example, Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa, but she thinks black people in her community are a disgrace (p.234). The hypocrisy of this teaching is shown as soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’. This is due to the fact that she herself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow at the killing of innocent black men. Furthermore, it is obvious Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter, Mayella, and that he is the one who violated her, not Tom Robinson (p.178). Since there is such hypocrisy in Maycomb, there are excuses made for whites. The jury probably thinks that if they pronounce Tom innocent the citizens will mock them as they do to Atticus. Harper Lee uses hypocrisy to show how the people of Maycomb are so engulfed in a variety of elements that they unknowingly complete acts of unjustified discrimination.