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To kill a mockingbird and legal ethics
Social Differences In To Kill A Mockingbird
Social Differences In To Kill A Mockingbird
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“Religion brings to man an inner strength, spiritual light, and ineffable peace,” Alexis Rarrel. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, religion plays a significant role in not only the people but also the town. For example, Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, raises his children as a single man. Raising them to respect others and act rightly does not come easily even to a godly man. A considerable part of the story takes place in court, another place where religion resides. Most of the tragedies seen and To Kill a Mockingbird have some type of religious belief attached. Sadly, conflict continuously strikes because of the color of one’s skin. This continually happens in Maycomb. The theme of religion occurs quite a few times in the book,
In the town of Maycomb, a man who stands up against racism forever changes people’s views on racism. Scout, Jem and Atticus Finch all stand together against racism and prejudice in the tiny town of Maycomb. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in the town of Maycomb, prejudice is a disease, but Jem, Scout, and Dill are immune to this illness because of the people who raise them. For example, when Cecil and Francis told Scout that Atticus is a disgrace to defend Tom Robinson, even though Francis is Scout’s cousin. When Scout and Jem hear the verdict of Tom’s case they both cry and are angry about the sentence while the rest of the town is ecstatic. And finally when Scout doesn’t want Walter Cunningham to come over for dinner because she thinks that he is a disgrace. For all of these reasons, the Finch family must not be racist or prejudiced.
... Even so, compassion emitted from Atticus towards his children is able to shield them from the disease and make them much like Atticus, someone who would see it like it is rather than be blindfolded by the pre-conceived ideas. Wisdom and life experience are also shown as very desirable traits to have as they can motivate you through the toughest tasks and drive you to do what should be done instead of abandoning your duties. In conclusion, Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird highlights the horrible prejudice and ignorance towards black people in the southern town of Maycomb, but also shows wisdom and compassion as not only desirable but necessary traits to have to withstand the bombardment of pre-conceived ideas from the people surrounding you, and also portrays these qualities as a shield to people around you.
Why are different races and social classes treated so differently? Why was education so horrible at some points in time? Two of the characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are Jem and Scout. When Jem and Scout are growing up, they find out that many things are not as they seem. Certain people are not treated as well as others just because of the color of their skin, how they live, educational status, or even on just urban legend. At courthouses back then, blacks had to sit in a balcony. Many people in this time were so uneducated that they couldn’t read out of hymn books at church, if they had any. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different kinds of prejudice and educational problems in the 1930’s in Maycomb County, Alabama.
Prompt: Explain how the fictional Maycomb County in Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird represents many of the societal problems we have today, and explain how Atticus Finch's empathy for a ll people serves as a model we should all follow.
In the world, present and past, people have always been divided. A hierarchy has existed alongside humanity, and yet, no matter what position a person is in, there will always be persecution. People maltreat people, and oppressors will always exist. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, includes characters to show the reader the regularity of this idea, some more so than others. Harper Lee uses the characters of the Finches, Dolphus Raymond, and Bob Ewell to show that persecution affects everyone, regardless of race or position in the social hierarchy.
Harper Lee wrote, “when Atticus turned away from Mayella he looked like his stomach hurt.” during the trial. (chapter 18) People tried to force their way into prison and kill Tom Robinson. A group of white men including Mr Cunningham really wanted him killed as the town believed the white family’. They chose the Ewells over Tom Robinson because he is black. There were two churches in Maycomb, one for the blacks and one for the whites. This is another example of racism. They also had separate seating arrangements in the courthouse for white and black
“We see the town of Maycomb in its worst light, willing to execute an innocent man for a crime he did not commit rather than question their belief in black inferiority and their social taboos about interracial relationships” (Felty 299). This quote may seem extreme, but it is completely accurate in Scout’s hometown of Maycomb, Alabama. In the town of Maycomb, prejudice and discrimination are a common theme in the lives of its citizens. This is shown in various ways. For example, African Americans are treated as lower class citizens because they are discriminated against by white people.
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.
Throughout life, people are constantly learning to adapt culturally and politically, to the world around them. Overtime, we find it easier to cope with more changes more often, because we have learned to adapt quickly. We don’t all cope identically, some better than others. By using different strategies to cope, we make a difference in our life and the lives around us. In the three books, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a novel about a child in a small Southern town that is involved in a crisis of conscience. Siddhartha by Herman Hesse a story about a man searching for enlightenment, and Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe, about an African tribe member’s struggle with his own tribe and external forces. The three main characters all find
The town is plagued by ignorance and therefore prejudice, shown on a Sunday while Atticus is away, when Calpurnia decides to take Jem and Scout to her church, First Purchase, ‘paid for from the first earnings of freed slaves.’ “Negroes worshiped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays” (Lee 118). Lee uses irony in this quote in the sense that gambling is seen as a major sin, but white men do it in the church where black people worship, segregated from the whites. This is because if the black people, the ‘lesser’ people, worship there, it’s not a legitimate house of God and therefore they aren’t sinning in an actual church. Hypocrisy results from pious and righteous people acting in sinful and disrespectful ways because their prejudice and racism distorts their beliefs about the treatment of others. This is clearly portrayed when Scout is in the third grade and her teacher, Miss Gates tells the class that America is a democracy, but Nazi Germany, where Hitler persecutes Jews, is a dictatorship. “‘Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced. Prejudice,’ she enunciated carefully. ‘There are no better people in the world than the Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me’” (Lee 245). This is ironic because Miss Gates believes that no one in Maycomb is prejudiced when in reality the majority of
A small city nestled in the state of Alabama, Maycomb has got its faults, just like any other place in the world, but one of its main faults or (pg.88) “Maycomb's usual disease,” as Atticus calls it in the book is prejudice. Jem and Scout learn a lot about prejudice when a black man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell and their father, Atticus, is called on to be his lawyer. They realize the hate that people have buried deep within their heart when they see a black man accused of doing something only because of his color. On pg.241, Scout starts understanding this and thinks, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” As the case continues, up until the death of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout learn more and more about prejudice and how the hate that people have towards others causes them to take wrong actions. They also see how unfair it is that a white man can get treated better and think of himself better than a black man only because he was born white. This prejudice and the trial cause Jem and Scout to get in argum...
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story about equality. In the setting of this book (Maycomb, Alabama) the inequality of races is completely normal to people’s everyday lives. The disrespect of African-Americans in this book is an ordinary occurrence that most people have grown up accustomed to, but there are some who don’t wish to be a part of this discrimination. One of these people being Atticus Finch, the father of Jem and Scout. Atticus uses the world around him to teach his children how to give all people respect no matter what their race or social class is. Atticus Finch is a good-hearted, moral lawyer in the discriminatory town of Maycomb Alabama. Amongst the blabbermouths and discriminatory townspeople of Maycomb, Atticus wants his children to be different from them, and to learn how to respect the dignity of everyone using the changes in their lives to teach them.
To Kill a Mockingbird: Race Relations Racism is a problem that has been around for multiple centuries. In To Kill a Mockingbird, it demonstrates how racism can affect one person even in the court of law. In this story, the case of Tom Robinson is told. It is obvious that Robinson is a victim of racist people that see him guilty only because of his race, African American. From the beginning, it seems obvious that Robinson does not have a chance of winning his case, whether he is guilty or not.
In the opening chapters of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee introduces several subtle instances of racism. However, when Jem and Scout are welcomed into Cal’s Church in chapter 12, the reader really gets to travel behind the false disguise of Maycomb County’s white society to see the harsh realities of the injustices suffered by the blacks. The black community is completely separate from the whites -- in fact, Cal lives in a totally different part of town!
Use of character interactions, Maycomb’s culture, and numerous conflicts reinforce the notion that racial prejudice is the cause of certain wrongdoings. Jem, Scout, and Dill interact with other people in the community which ultimately results in them finding out about the evils of racial segregation. The culture in Maycomb supported the theme in various manners. Numerous conflicts are encountered throughout the plot that point towards unnecessary segregation. Atticus taught his children not to interpret a person by his skin color but rather based on his actions and his viewpoint. Everyone is equal, and as Scout said: “I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.” (304).