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Race relations and its impact on society
Racial stereotyping effects on society
How race relations impact perceptions
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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows a misunderstanding in society by demonstrating to us how society isn’t perfect. From a child’s point of view children incorporate misunderstanding by learning from their personal experience. I wasn’t aware of how bad our Earth was being destroyed. A similar event happened when Napoleon helped France and everyone thought that Napoleon was France’s savior but what France didn’t expect was that Napoleon had other ideas and was ambitious and planned on destroying cities and killing people in order to obtain power. Nowadays racism isn’t seen as much but people still discriminate and judge people by how they act, look or how economically stable people are.
Society is not how we have “painted” it to be.
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As a child we are absent to our surroundings. When scout says to Calpurnia,”He ain't company, Cal, he's just a Cunningham”(24) Scout didn't understand to not discriminate a person by their wealth or social class. People don't understand the Cunninghams and treat them less than another person because they don't have money. If people knew how bad the Cunninghams were affected and that they are humble farmers. Children grow up with ideas that their parents influence on them.
Sometimes the child's parent isn't always correct and led to the child having misunderstandings. When Cecil Jacobs says that Scout Finch’s dad defends niggers and is a nigger-lover only because Atticus is defending a dark skinned man named Tom. Tom is accused of rape, but Atticus is put in charge of defending him. Cecil says that his parents think Atticus is a nigger-lover. Cecil and his parents don’t understand to not judge people.
Many times people misunderstand or misinterpret something or someone without knowing the truth. For example when a celebrity is judged for something they did without knowing the cause of it first. Also misunderstandings happen in religion. Now with what is going on with terrorists many innocent people are being treated unfairly. People who are jewish or muslim are fret and judged and discriminated as terrorists.
Children grow up with the ideas that the child’s parents influence on them. this may sometimes led to a misunderstanding. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scout and Jem also have misunderstandings. Atticus, Scout and Jem’s father, has taught and educated them well, but people like Cecil Jacobs don’t understand what Atticus is doing for Tom. In the world people have been taught to judge someone who is different. Racism is very common, and people are judged by religion, sexuality and skin
color.
People place judgment on one another every day based on differences. Sometimes it is done subconsciously; sometimes it is done on purpose. In the book The House of Sand and Fog, by Andre Dubus III, two different cultures were represented; Kathy represented the culture of the western civilization, whereas Behrani represented the culture of Persians. People judge one another based on unimportant things, and get judged based on those same things as well. Two cultures were used to amplify how different their cultures were from one another. Throughout the book cultures vocalized what they did not like about the other cultures by placing judgment on people based on ethnicity, appearance, and status; despite how different the cultures were, they had something in common, negative judgment. In a world where there is so much diversity, the only way for all cultures to get along is to place judgments aside and accept the differences.
In Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" shows and teaches many lessons throughout the passage. Some characters that learn lessons in this passage are Scout, Jem, and Dill. Scout and Jems father Atticus, is taking a case that affects their lives in so many ways. They all learn new things throughout the story and it impacts their lives greatly. There are lots of things including the trial mostly that change the perspective of the world they live in. The kids are living in the Great Depression and it shows just how bad things really where. Scout, Jem, and Dill have experiences that force them to mature and gain new insight.
The author George Elliot once said “don’t judge a book by its cover.” Appearance can be very misleading, and you shouldn't prejudge the worth or value of something by its outward appearance alone. This philosophical idea has been included in many works of literature, including the timeless classic To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee. The novel takes place in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Many citizens of Maycomb tend to make judgements based on outward appearances alone. In the novel, Lee uses minor characters such as Boo Radley, Mrs. Dubose, and Tom Robinson to convey the book’s theme of prejudice.
Needless to say, because Atticus is defending Tom Robinson, an african american, it gets his family criticized for defending “Negros”. Cecil Jacob tells Scout that her father “defends nigger” (Lee 74). Mr. Bob Ewell calls Atticus a “nigger lover” for defending Tom Robinson. Ever since Atticus took the case for Tom Robinson, The Finches became from being applauded to criticized for defending Robinson, and again applauded for trying his best to defend Tom
As previously mentioned, the point of view in this narrative is from Scout. Her upbringing has been respectful to the African-Americans in her society and she shows this with her relationship with her maid, Calpurnia. Other children her age have adopted their parents' racially prejudice views, causing her of many problems. Atticus's lawsuit seems to isolate his children and Scout is taunted with remarks in the playground. Her only retort is violence and Atticus, as an virtuous father, does not condone this behaviour either: "My fists were clenched I was ready to make fly. Cecil Jacobs had announced the day before that Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers."
The passage I have chosen is from the book, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In this passage Atticus Finch is trying to teach his children, Scout and Jem, the real or his definition of the word courage. He is explaining to his children that courage is more than just men with guns. He says to not connect courage with fighting, but to associate it with standing up for what you believe in. It takes little character to point a gun and pull a trigger, but it takes a whole lot of courage to accept a difficult challenge in which you can ultimately be defeated in. It made me realize that courage goes beyond a physical act, it shows one's integrity and strength. I learned that a person is courageous when they follow their own beliefs and stick to
Thomas Gray wrote “Ignorance is bliss,” in his poem, “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College”. As children grow up, they learn about many unpleasant things, and Scout is no different. She is introduced to many harsh concepts like prejudice. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses deception and racism to show Scout’s coming of age.
The children that grow up with racism end up teaching their children, or even other people the same idea and the “bubble of racism” begins to grow bigger. To put this into detail, a quote from Francis says “‘Just what I said. Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin” (Lee, 110). In Francis’ statement, he seems to be quoting after Aunt Alexandra, who is Francis’ grandmother. He says in the quote that she tells him how bad it looks to side a Negro and insults Atticus in the process. This ties in that Francis, who is a child of the later generation, learns from the people who are racist and joins the bubble. Another quote that comes from the novel is “Tom Robinson shut his eyes tight. ‘He says you goddamn whore, i’ll kill ya’” (Lee, 260). In this scene Tom Robinson is testifying his side of the story. He tells the court that when Mayella’s father saw her hugging Tom, he was already about to hit her. This is a very powerful scene that accurately ties in with the idea that parents, no matter how much their child loves them, can be in the wrong. Bob, Mayella’s father, was teaching her this lesson that loving, caring for, and respecting a black man was like a taboo to their family. His angry words express it
Harper Lee depicts justice, morality, and ethics through the characters of Atticus, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley; however, the mockingbird may be the most prevalent symbol in To Kill a Mockingbird. “As a child, Harper Lee was an unruly tomboy. She fought on the playground. She talked back to teachers. She was bored with school and resisted any sort of conformity.” Lee’s inspirations for writing this book probably came from memories of her childhood and early life.
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s during the time of segregation between blacks and whites. Two of the main characters, Miss Maudie and Atticus, say it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Miss Maudie is an old lady that lives down the road from Atticus and his two children: Jem and Scout. Several times in the novel they say this is a sin because of a mockingbird’s innocence. The title, To Kill a Mockingbird, is appropriate for this novel because it follows the meaning of the book and two of the main characters, Tom Robinson and Boo Radley, are innocent people.
In writing the point of view of the story can alter what the reader is able to pick up on and comprehend. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the first person narrative changes what the reader can perceive. The novel is narrated in the voice of a maturing girl. The only thing the reader is able to know is what Scout hears and thinks. In this novel Scout’s first person narrative alters how the reader views characters such as Mrs. Dubose and Boo Radley and also gives a limited view of the night Bob Ewell attacks the children.
There are many different types of race, religion, and languages all over the world. People tend to grab the first type of information they find and tag that person(s) with it making them a target. They do not know the person but have an idea about how they might be regardless if they know the information it factual or not. People retain this information through language. They interpret a misconception since they believe the information retained is true. Misconceptions about others can be hurtful and mean. Many times children and teens who target others for their race, religion, or language gather this information from school, parents, friends, and the news.
One of the many examples of this is when Scout and Jem’s cousin Francis teases Scout about her father’s involvement in the upcoming case. Francis yells, “He’s nothin’ but a nigger-lover!”(Lee 84). Even though this isn’t the first time Scout was teased about her father’s job, it’s one of the most significant because of her reaction and because of the fact that it came from her own family. Francis was repeating what he had heard Aunt Alexandra say about her brother, even if she didn’t use those exact words. Even though the kids aren’t being made fun of directly, it hurts just as much to hear their dad being criticized and made fun, especially when they don’t have the power to stop it. An example of an adult teasing the kids can be found on page 102 when Mrs. Dubose yells, “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!”(Lee). Scout often talks about the hateful, nasty things that Mrs. Dubose called to the children as they walked by her house on the way into town, but this is one thing she said that pushed it over the edge causing Jem to destroy her flowers. It was one thing to say that Atticus was a nigger-lover, but saying that he was no better than a black man was entirely more offensive and hurtful. To Atticus it didn’t matter because he believed all men were created equal, but the kids didn’t understand that you could have your own beliefs, they just knew that being called the equivalent to a black man was one of the worst things anyone could say about
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has a large number of themes that help expand on the story and provide life lessons to the characters and reader. Perspective is one of the major themes in the novel and repeatedly shown through the dialogue and actions of the characters. The book is set during the Great Depression in the small town of Maycomb County. The author majorly focuses on racism and how it affects a trial that occurs in the story. Jean Louise “Scout” Finch is a girl who’s life the reader follows over a period of three years in which she learns about the “real world” from experiences such as the trial. In those years, Scout and her brother, Jem, speculate over a man named Boo Radley and in the end realize that their perspective
Sometimes, the problem of misinterpretation could arise due to other differences like gender, class or standards which also affect the beliefs, values and attitudes irrespective of being from the same