To Kill A Mockingbird Quote Analysis

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Racist people do not accept that people of color are equal to them; even if they are innocent, they can still be judged by the color of their skin. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). This quote, and the racist belief of judging good people by the color of their skin, run counter to each other. Where racism supports judging people by the color of their skin, the quote lets us know that mockingbirds are like people of color. Much like mockingbirds, innocent people of color don’t steal others food, they don’t live in barns, and they make our …show more content…

Scout, while on the steps of Boo Radley’s house finally understood what her dad had been telling her, “Atticus was right. One time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough” (Lee 374). Similarly, you shouldn’t judge and make fun of a black man before you know what is going on in their life, and what it is like to be them. Scout previously thought Boo Radley was a mean and scary man. After he saved Jem and Scout’s lives, she made an effort to know him better, and understood his anxiety of being outside alone. Once she got to know him, she realized he was an innocent and nice man, that she’d misunderstood. In another passage of the book, Scout asks Atticus what a “nigger-lover” is because Mrs. Dubose said Atticus was one. As an illustration, ‘“Atticus,’I said one evening, ‘what exactly is a nigger-lover?”’...’”Scout, ’said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything-like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain-ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes above themselves” (Lee 144). Through Scout’s point of view, we get a feel for her innocence; she doesn’t understand how most of the world acts, and how many people are …show more content…

White men treat colored men unfairly every single day and Atticus knows this is wrong. On page 295, Harper Lee writes, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it-whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is,how rich he is, or how fine of a family he comes from, that white man is trash” (Lee 295). This quote is showing how strongly Atticus believes in racial equality, and that it is wrong to treat a man unfairly because of his ethnicity. Another instance where you can see this is on page 273, where Harper Lee writes Atticus’ final speech of the Tom Robinson trial. The text states, “Which, gentleman, we know is in itself a lie as a black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women-black or white. But this is a truth that applied to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never who has ever looked upon a woman without desire” (Lee 273). This quote goes into depth about how Atticus believes that white people and people of color are

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