Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Learning for the better

In the novel, To kill a Mockingbird, there is a lot of racism because it took place during the early 1900’s. Specifically it will deal with the thesis; To Kill a Mockingbird suggests that racism is learned, so it can be unlearned. Racism is one of the main topics in the novel and also relates to the main morals from the book such as equality and human rights. To support my thesis, the claims are; Maycomb is a biased community where there is a lot of racism towards the African-American community because the community has adopted the idea that certain races are above others, although Maycomb is a prejudice community, there are some people who stand up for equality such as Atticus, and Atticus also teaches his children to not be racist because it is a bad moral and he doesn’t want them to become racist like the rest of the community.

To Kill a Mockingbird was set in the early 1900’s in the USA. During this time there were a lot of racist beliefs and opinions. In the communities, everybody had adapted the idea that the white community was superior than any other. Maycomb is a biased community where there is a lot of racism toward the African-American community and they are singled out from the other ethnic groups and blamed for things they have nothing to do with. This is an example that people have learned racism but not unlearned. There are many examples of racist acts in the novel, such as the saying that “Negro’s lie, and can’t be trusted.” This means that all of the African-American people can’t be trusted mainly for the reason that they are Black. In Maycomb There are really harsh words used to refer to any African-American such as ‘nigger’. “I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!"...

... middle of paper ...

... and eventually change the system in place right now. From all of this we can see that there is still hope in people such as Atticus and Jem because they are different then the community and have unlearned the racist ways of the community and are working towards helping the community unlearn it as well.

In conclusion, To Kill a Mockingbird explains how racism should be learned to be unlearned through various characters in the book. Maycomb is a racist community and people are racist towards the African-Americans. The book suggests that people should stand up against racism even if they are the only one just like Atticus. Atticus is also encouraging his children to do the same and stand up against racism. Overall, the idea that racism is something that is learned and therefore can be unlearned if a person is willing to treat each other equally, aside of the race.