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Stereotypes and misconceptions in To Kill A Mockingbird
Stereotypes to kill a mockingbird
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n the novel “ To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee gives many examples of prejudice throughout the entire story, Scout, Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond, and many other characters are stereotyped or prejudiced throughout the story. Atticus Finch has two kids names Scout and Jem, they live in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb. This takes place during the great depression so a lot of people are poor, but Atticus is a lawyer who gets a very important case. African Americans were all prejudiced because the color of their skin, Tom Robinson was also prejudiced because he was African American, Some white people were prejudiced also because Black people thought they did not belong with them. African Americans are prejudiced because the color …show more content…
of their skin in the novel ¨To kill a Mockingbird¨ a lot. In the book people use words that describe and mean African Americans for bad things. In the book it says ¨Nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything-like snot-nose.¨ This shows that whites did not think negroes were good people at all, they used something that described them as being snot-nosed and bad. White people are also prejudiced a little bit in the story. The negroes didn’t want white people to be around them, in the novel it says “Lula stopped, but she said, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here—they got their church, we got our'n”. The black people think the white people aren’t supposed to be there and they don’t belong. They don’t want segregation but they don’t want to be around white people, it doesn’t really make sense. A character in “To Kill a Mockingbird” named Tom Robinson was accused of rape because he was an African American.
Tom Robinson was an innocent man who didn’t rape anyone, but because he was black he was accused without any hard evidence. In the text it says “The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells‘. The evidence boils down to you-did—I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’— are you acquainted with the Ewells?” They don’t think Tom Robinson’s word means anything because he’s black. If he was a white man they probably would’ve believed him. The final character i’m going to talk about is Boo Radley. Boo Radley was a character who was misunderstood, he was always locked up in his house and he rarely ever came out. This caused a lot of people to think badly of Boo Radley as a horrible person. In the novel it says “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” The people believed he didn’t act human at all, they thought he was some type of beast. Nobody knew Boo at all and nobody wanted too. Boo was a great person he was just
prejudiced. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee gives many examples of prejudice throughout the entire story, African Americans, White people, Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and many other characters are stereotyped or prejudiced throughout the story. All these people were being prejudiced and stereotyped for no reason, mostly because of their looks. All these people in the story didn’t deserve how they were treated by other people, everyone deserves to be treated equal. No matter your skin color, race, personality etc.
Three students kicked out of a high school for threatening to bring a gun to school. Why would they? Because people were prejudice against them because other students thought they were “losers”. Moral: You shouldn’t not like a person because they aren’t like you. Prejudice was far much worse in the time period of To Kill A Mockingbird. But, Prejudice is the reason for much social injustice. Three characters named Nathan Radley, Atticus Finch, and Aunt Alexandria show us this in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
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
racism in the society is not as strong as it used to be but it is
Prejudice is arguably the most prominent theme of the novel. It is directed towards groups and individuals in the Maycomb community. Prejudice is linked with ideas of fear superstition and injustice.
Prejudice, a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason nor actual experience, is an exceptionally large dilemma in society today. It is an every day reminder of how uncharitable we, as a human race, can be. Even in the early 1900s, as Harper Lee illustrates in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudiced assumptions have always been causing predicaments. To Kill a Mockingbird, an award winning novel written by Harper Lee, tells the story of how Scout and Jem Finch grows up in a small Southern town suffering through the Great Depression. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee expresses the theme of prejudice throughout the majority of her characters. Not only does she have many themes in her novel, but she is also able to incorporate them in many of her characters at once. The theme of prejudice is seen through Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson.
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.
Prejudice as defined by the Merriam Webster’s Dictionary is, “a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when it is not reasonable or logical.”prejudice is prevalent through many of the characters in the book. Scout, is the book’s narrator and is 7 at the beginning of the book. Her father, Atticus is a lawyer in the town of Maycomb, where the story takes place. Tom Robinson, a black character, is also very important throughout the plot of the book. Tom was accused of raping a white girl, Mayella and was sentenced to a trial which the book centers around. Throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, she implies that prejudice, whether it be social
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.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee describes the theme of prejudice throughout the novel by a series of events. The story follows the young protagonist and narrator Jean Louise "Scout" Finch and her elder brother Jeremy Atticus "Jem" Finch. Prejudice is evident in the book at many different times. From Jem and Scouts first encounter with Boo Radley to the court trial of Tom Robinson. During both of these cases the characters represented are prejudiced to a point, whether it be socially or racially. The two described here come face to face with prejudice when they try to break free from the rules of Maycomb counties society, resulting in negative consequences. Stereotypes and misjudgment also play a key role in the prejudice that the characters have to face. It shows how people are bent and shaped to fit and adhere to societies standards and expectations.
Racism. racism is the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race, based on the belief that one's own race is superior. This belief has been around for many years, ever since the beginning of humanity. Many experts say that racism started in the colonial era and is know starting to diminish. Nonetheless there are still people who believe in the supremacy of their race and think someone's ethnicity makes up their personality. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the people of Maycomb treat African Americans like they're second class citizens. In this Novel, Lee expresses one’s appearance doesn't change people of other ethnicities character and opinions. In which Lee means your appearance can’t change
Having read about slavery in the early 1900’s, an individual might find the happenings within To Kill a Mockingbird to resemble something out of a history book. In the late 1800’s through the early 1960’s, there were many economical battles with the decision on slavery. From the end of the Civil War until the 1950’s, the Jim Crow Laws are in effect. The Jim Crow Laws were meant to keep equal peace between races but turned by white people to use against the black man. In the novel’s case, a man named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of rape due to the color of his skin.
Prejudice is a strong word. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a black man, Tom Robinson, was accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, and was brought to trial. There were distinct views concerning Tom Robinson's innocence – views influenced by prejudice. The townspeople of Maycomb believed in Tom's guilt while Atticus and the children believed in Tom's innocence.
During that period of time, Boo Radley was subjected to rumors and made out to be nothing short of a monster. Believed to be “about six and a half feet tall… [with] a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten” (lee 00), he was blamed of any criminal activities that happened in the neighborhood. After the Tom Robinson trials and witnessing the racial prejudice against him, Jem reaches a deeper understanding and sympathizes with Boo Radley. He “begins to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside” (Lee 304). The discrimination that society holds against him has a stronger effect than his father’s influence.
According to Wikipedia racism is defined as ideologies and practices that seek to justify or cause the unequal distribution of privileges or rights among groups that are conceptualized as racially or ethnically different. These can take the form of social actions, practices, beliefs, or political systems that consider different races to be ranked as inherently superior or inferior to each other, based on presumed shared inheritable traits, abilities, or qualities. It may also hold that members of different races should be treated differently. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates racism through the harassment of Helen Robinson after the trial, treatment of Tom Robinson in jail, and the views
Have you ever experienced racism first hand? Do you commit acts of racism? Do you know people who do? Racism is a huge problem in society today, as well as in the past. Almost everybody has been involved in some way or another. People have known about this problem for a long time, and many stories have been made about it. This book displays many themes from todays society and our recent past. In the Novel, some characters are racist in many ways. The Novel talks about racism and brings it to light.