Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

With a world of people entitled to a variety of beliefs and coming from diverse backgrounds, acceptance emerges as people hurt and build up people. By nature, humans are judgemental, they all have first impressions of others without any realistic evidence. Thus, for the good of our society and the progression of it, they learn to acknowledge each other’s flaws and uniqueness. However, a line must be drawn when personal beliefs become capable of hurting those who blindly embraced the differences as well as others in their surroundings and becoming a detriment to the welfare of a community. When accepting the differences of others, people need to adopt an open mindset to the extent when harm is directed towards a community or individuals’ welfares.

The inability to accept a person or groups of people corrupts an entire society. Corruption of Maycomb’s unjust preconceptions such as the mistreatment and wrongdoings projected upon Boo Radley and Tom Robinson illustrates the struggles that people, who do not meet the expectations or standards of society have to endure. Maycomb embraced a traditional mindset of flawed preconceptions in which deteriorated the credibility and forward progression needed on the basis of the unity of their society.

A man born black or white shouldn't determine his character or innocence in a legal court, but in the case of Tom Robinson, the jury couldn't allow a black man's truth overcome a white man's accusations. Tom Robinson’s pure intentions with Mayella brought him an undeserved fatein trial where eyes diluted at him in pure disgust and scruting soley on his skin color. Because the white residents of Maycomb can not and will not accept a colored man to be anything but sinful and inferior, they damge the “one human institution (Lee 274)” where “all men are created equal (Lee 274)”. Thus, Tom Robinson captures the picturesque flaw of Maycomb’s “blind spots” and proves that with the white community’s inability to look past Tom’s racial origins, they ultimately destroyed the purpose of a legal jury system as well as allowing Tom to serve a punishment for a crime that Bob Ewell most likely committed. They allowed a guilty, alcoholic and most likely abusive man escape the law, and imprisoned an innocent black man who ultimately ran to his death knowing that no one could save him from an unjust jury verdict. Boo Radley resembled a ghost that haunted the town of Maycomb,

in which everyone knew and felt his presence but no one dared getting close to his residence. His life went up in flames when rumors mocked his sanity and morality, making him to be a shy shadow trapped in a prison he called his home. Yet, in the end, Scout found him out to actually be “real nice.” Thus, one man received 17 bullet holes to his body because he performed acts of kindness to a miserable girl that falsely accused him of rape and abuse, while the other lacked a life of social interactions because of one incident that strung along multiple exaggerative rumors that labeled him as a “malevolent phantom (Lee 10)” all because people could not accept look pass the differences of their race or past and evaluate them for their character instead. Harper Lee created a work of art with her cherishable novel that highlights the injustice and Maycomb’s unwillingness to accept differences which led to the irreversible life changing effects of two pure hearted men. In life, “there’s just one kind of folks-folks (Lee 304)”, and with that differences should be celebrated not barred or prevent a person from living their life fully.
Not only does refusing to embrace difference cause harm to others, being closed off and unable to open up to people and his or her surroundings can ultimately lead to one’s own demise.

Being an enthusiatistic filmaker with his sights set on creating a documentary to capture the different responses people had to a question, Yoni seeks out that individuality of others and embraces their uniqueness. On the other hand, Sergei isolates himself from the rest of the world because he cannot bear the thought of social interactions due to his upbringing and cultural experiences. Because Sergei couldn’t shake himself from the constant nagging in his mind that everyone is out to hurt or take advantage of him, he cannot or moreover doesn’t know how to properly assert a situation or act towards friendly strangers such as Yoni. Thus, though it is understandable that Sergei grew cautious over the years due to the life he had back in Russia with the KGB always breathing on the necks of his family, his overly guarded walls came crashing down against him when he couldn’t see a person to have anything but bad intentions. Sergei demonstrates how one must hold an objective view to be to accept others. Therefore, while taking cautionary measures to ensure that one does not get bitten by his or her nonchalant acceptance of others, complete rejection and building up defensive walls also results in downfall and despair as

well.
With having an accepting attitude towards others with varying ideals, one must also know a point to which limits are set on mindlessly embracing wrongful beliefs or actions. The Charlottesville incident, unfortunate as it may is, provides a great example as to why boundaries must be laid out to prevent violence, such as the death of others. In North Carolina, protesters and a crowd of white supremacists encountered one another, which led to a nationalist driving his car straight through a group of people, resulting in the death of one. Both groups came to publicize and spread their message on how they viewed the race equality of the United States, and though one should accept people for who they choose to be and live, in these cases, it is actually dangerous to give acceptance towards such an outrage. Violent conflicts like the that of Charlottesville illustrates why cautionary boundaries should be considered when
accepting others.
Similar to walking through a dark cave, learning when and how to accept a person's beliefs and ideals follows a corresponding guideline. There's always a light to the end of the tunnel signaling the exit to the other side, but how one gets there compares to how one goes about life coping with the differences of others. When running through life accepting people blindly and recklessly without any precautions, one will come out the other side with bruises and regrets. However genuinely feeling your way and making smart decisions about the limits of which differences are accepted or rejected, you'll leave unscathed. To the extent of jeopardizing the livelihood and momentum of a community striving for unity or individuals in their pursuits of happiness, acceptance must come with open mindedness as well as precarious limitations.