Through the close study of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird we are challenged to consider the racist attitudes of 1930’s America and how good people in the world, symbolized by mockingbirds in the novel, can become corrupt and their innocence destroyed. To Kill A Mockingbird is narrated be a 6-year-old girl by the name of Scout, and, through this perspective, we discover a sense of the innocence, inquisitiveness and fun filled life that comes with childhood. However, the novel, set in the 1930’s and written in the 1960s also comments on the harshness of life and, through juxtaposing good and evil characters, Lee makes a powerful comment on the way people should treat each other and condemns the racist attitudes of the time. Through the sequence …show more content…
of realistic events Lee encourages us to explore ideas such as, acquisition of moral values, racial injustice, growing up and good and evil in society. Ultimately, To Kill A Mockingbird accurately explores the difficulties faced by people in 1930s America and how the innocence of good people can be devastated by the prejudices of society Through the characterisation of Jem and Scout we the readers are encourage to contemplate the innocence of childhood. Lee does this by giving us an example of a brother and sister with both of them having the untouched innocence of childhood. The children then experience adult events throughout the novel, which affects the innocence that the children have to begin with. A true sense of childhood is exposed through the gullibility of the children who blankly accept the rumours of Boo Radley being a “malevolent phantom”. This suggests that the children can be influenced by society and conform to its ideas. Lee utilizes a gothic style of literature to create a sense of foreboding and create a sense of darkness around the fact that, through being exposed to difficult events, the children are forced to transition from childhood. The use gothic style of literature is most apparent in the novel through bizarre events, including the fire at Miss Maudies house and “ the coldest weather in since 1885”, highlights not only the appalling events to come but also the unbalanced nature of society. This is most apparent in the trial of tom Robinsons trial with the verdict being, “guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty”. The children witness Tom Robinson being falsely accused of the rape charges lends the children to who discover the evil in the world resulting in destruction of their innocence, as spoken by Atticus “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird” and, in this case Tom Robinson and the children are the mocking birds whose innocence has been destroyed. The juxtaposition between childhood and adulthood is highlighted by Jem’s dialogue prior to the trial, “Don’t do that, Scout.” when scout moves to crush the bug but Jem steps in to save it. This is an example of Jems sensitivity towards those who are oppressed. After the trial, however, the children have been toughened, as elucidated when scout states “the Radley place had ceased to terrify me, but it was no less gloomy”, indicating that scout and Jems youthful fear of the Radleys house no longer an important aspect of their life, as they now having a more adult like perspective on the world. By juxtaposing the children’s live’s with the harsh realities of society, Lee encourages the reader the innocence that we all once had as well as the difficulty of becoming mature and learning life lessons. To kill a mockingbird explores the moral nature of human beings and how some people are viewed as good people and other evil, the novel approaches this idea by juxtaposing such characters as Bob Ewell and Atticus Finch, one good the other bad. Mr Ewell is viewed as an antagonist throughout the length of the novel with him being a poor farmer whom has been hit by the great depression hard, he is an extremely racist man with him shunning white people who associate with black people calling them “nigger lovers”. Atticus however is a lawyer who even though has been exposed to the evil in society, has not lost his faith in people being able to be good. Events such as the trial of Tom Robinson express each characters personality, with Atticus trying to stand up the a wrongly accused black man, were as Mr Ewell is trying to falsely accuse him. Lee gives us this classic example of ‘good vs evil’ to convince the readers of the time that the racism that was being put on the black community was wrong. An insight into the personalities of each character is understood by the way they are viewed in the community, Mr Ewell of which is regarded as “ A bantom cock of a man” and “the discrace of maycomb for three generations”, suggesting that Mr Ewell is a coward and seen as ‘white trash’ throughout the community of Maycome. Although Tom Robinson can be overpowered by Mr Ewell for even though that he is a bad man, society of the 1930s allows Mr Ewell to have authority over Tom Robinson for the fact that he is white. By creating the coexistence of good and evil in the novel Lee gives paints a picture of how people should be, with people being judged by their personality and not generalized for their race. Throughout the novel we are encouraged to contemplate the wrongs of racial prejudice of 1930s America.
The racial prejudges is present throughout the novel with Maycome being set in ‘the deep south’ of America, a place that under the influence of the Jim Crow laws and an ingrained ideology of white supremacy. Due to the novel being written in the 1960s, lee challenged people of the time to conceder the wrongs of racial discrimination. Lee does this by giving us an example of racial discrimination through the court case of tom Robinson, a falsely accused black man for charges of rape. By creating a biased court case lee can manipulate the reader into feeling sorry for the innocent Tom Robinson. Even though Atticus prove tom Robinsons innocence for he is unable to use his left arm, the verdict is still a repeted “guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. This verdict is based on the fact that Tom, who is black “felt sorry” for a white woman, to the jury a black man was not capable of feeling sorry for any white person. This idea of tom feeling sorry for the white Mayella Ewell is noticed by Atticus in the court case with Atticus attempts to do the almost impossible feat of changing the minds of the of the white jury with the cleaver pun “its just a simple case of black and
white”. In conclusion, harper lee creates a novel that encourages the readers to consider a number of ideas including, acquisition of moral values, growing up, racial prejudice and the co existence of good and evil in our world. Lee successfully does this by creating a set of c realistic events that lead to good people, symbolised as mockingbirds in the novel, getting their innocence destroyed. As stated by Atticus “shoot all the blue jays you want, but it is a sin to kill a mocking bird”, this means that
The world is an unfair place, high social standing is longed for by most. America in the 1930’s was not the place you wanted to be if you were not born a white, rich, man. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee illustrates the inescapability of social class and the heartbreaking reality of cultural barriers. In the summer of her fifth year, Jean Louise Finch, or “Scout” for short, discovers the true colors of the world’s injustices for the first time accompanied by her ten year old brother Jeremy Atticus Finch, or “Jem,” and her neighbor’s seven year old nephew, Charles Baker Harris, or “Dill.” Together the three children come to see there are many deep layers to the residents in every town, even a small, quiet one like
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
Not only is To Kill a Mockingbird a fun novel to read, it is purposeful. Harper Lee wrote the novel to demonstrate the way in which the world and its people should live together in harmony through a basic moral attitude of treating others with respect and kindness. The novel received the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, which places it among the best adult novels ever written; although it achieved this high recognition, today’s primary readers are adolescents. However, at the turning of the twenty-first century, one might wrongfully assume Harper Lee intended To Kill a Mockingbird a novel for adolescents and ignore its lessons for adults. According to “’Fine Fancy Gentlemen’ and ‘Yappy Folks’: Contending Voices in To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Theodore Hovet and Grace-Ann Hovet, Lee’s work is important because she does not supply the normal assumptions most in America harbor regarding the origins of racism. To the contrary, they argue that “Rather than ascribing racial prejudice primarily to ‘poor white trash’ (qtd. in Newitz and Wray), Lee demonstrates how issues of gender and class intensify prejudice, silence the voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans’ conception of the causes of racism and segregation” (67). Reading To Kill a Mockingbird provides its audience with a basic moral code by which to live and encounter individuals who appear different or make choices unlike those made by the mainstream populace. Therefore, this novel becomes part of our moral culture; regardless of age, people learn from the moral codes taught by defense attorney Atticus Finch, his children, and his community.
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 “To Kill a Mockingbird” there are many examples of racism. During the 1960s when the book was published, racism was acceptable and Black people were constantly dominated and ridiculed by Caucasian people. This novel written by Harper Lee is based on racism against Black people and the refusal of people to treat everyone equally.
The novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by author Harper Lee has various examples of racism and prejudice throughout the entirety of the novel. The book is set in the 1930's, a time in history when things like racism were not uncommon at all. Though intolerance and segregation were pointed in majority towards african americans and people of dark complexion, different examples and accounts of bigotry towards whites were noticeable as well, although not nearly as often. There are acts that are so minimal and discreet, that you barely notice them, however beside those, there are blatant acts of racial intolerance that would never occur in our time. Harper Lee addresses several of those ideas in her novel.
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.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic literary novel written in 1960.To Kill a Mockingbird is a book written about a town called Maycomb County in the Great Depression. Throughout the novel, each character portrays actions that represent their thoughts on racism. Racism is a large issue in the novel, but it’s what makes the novel a classic. The novel demonstrates the difficulties of the time era in a way that the reader can feel more emotion to.
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
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee, the novel portrays examples of racial and social prejudice through the way mankind acts towards other people without even thinking. Within the book, Harper Lee raises awareness about racial, social prejudice and Loss of Innocence by the way people act towards African Americans and How children learn during the Great Depression in the 1930s.
Welcome to the Weekly Column. Today’s topic is about the idea of racial prejudice in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee. The reason for this choice of topic today is to educate you on racial prejudice, conveyed through perspectives of characters in the novel which relate to our society today. The events, the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the Charleston Church shooting support this idea and can hopefully open your eyes to the dreadful racist acts still happening today. Since none of you are black people in the 1930’s, I will have to show you what it was like for them at the time.
conquering racism. In the first placeFor example, racism tends to be passed down through generation. Also, humans categorize situations based off first experience. Another example would be the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. Harper Lee’s
Racism today is considered a terrible thing, but if we go back a few years to the 1930’s racism was considered normal. Racism is defined as “A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam Webster Dictionary). One of the main themes in “To Kill a Mockingbird” is Racism: we see this in he way the whole community resents Atticus for defending Tom Robinson, in the outcome of Tom’s court case, and in the way Bob Ewell harasses Helen, Tom’s wife. Racism starts to show it’s ugly face when the community becomes aware of the fact that Atticus is planning on defending Tom.
The author of the story “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee, had show us how the colored people were treated to each other in a community; specifically one of the main character, Scout, in her own hometown in Maycomb, Alabama. At the time, she had no idea about what racial discrimination was, and she didn’t know that it was in her community. Soon, she realized that her community was nothing but the same type of people, heavily judged each other throughout the story.
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.