ipl-logo

Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

692 Words3 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee showed examples of prejudice in the time and place of the novel. Prejudice is “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason” (Dictionary.com). Tom Robinson and Boo Radley were victims of prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird. Tom Robinson was a victim of prejudice during the court case. Boo Radley was a victim because of the preconceived opinions formed by the kids of who he is. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how prejudice is wrong through the events that occur to Tom Robinson and how Boo Radley is described by the children. The novel takes place in Maycomb County. In Maycomb, colored people were not treated fairly even after the civil rights movement. …show more content…

Boo Radley was depicted as a strange man who never came out of his house. “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom” (Lee ch 1; 9). They described him as a vicious ghost based on rumors they heard from other people even though they had never seen him before. This is prejudice because the kids formed an opinion on who Boo Radley is even though the only thing they knew about him was that he doesn’t come out of his house. Their preconceived opinion of Boo Radley was completely wrong. Throughout the novel, Boo Radley only does good things for the children. When Miss Maudie’s house burned down Boo Radley put a blanket around Scout to keep her warm. Also, in the novel, Boo Radley saves Scout and Jim’s lives when Bob Ewell tried to kill them. The opinions the children had at Boo Radley in the beginning of the novel are an example of prejudice because they knew nothing about who Boo Radley was.
Prejudice is still a problem in today's society. People still judge one another based on things like race, ethnicity, social status, wealth, and even age. It is common in today’s world for people in older generations to have opinions on the younger generations without knowing who they are. People continue to make preconceived opinions of other people without knowing who they

Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    276 Words  | 2 Pages

    Prejudice is preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. According to Oxford Dictionary. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird prejudice is one of the main topics. This is demonstrated in the trial and The kids tresspancence into the Radley yard & Lulas reaction to Calpernia bringing Jem & Scout to the Jim Crow church.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    862 Words  | 4 Pages

    The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee has many powerful characters that have been greatly affected by the prejudice system back in the 1930s. Tom Robinson, Dolphus Raymond, and Boo Radley are all characters from this novel who have had biased accusations made against them. Tom Robinson, a twenty-five year old black man with a family of his own, was falsely accused of raping nineteen year old Mayella Ewell. Dolphus Raymond is a white man who is married to a black woman and is profoundly judged for his decisions. Boo Radley is a very mysterious character in this book, he has a very parochial outlook on things as he has hardly ever left his home.

    Read More

  • How Does Lee Use Societal Judgment In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1009 Words  | 5 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, was released during the Civil Rights movement. Lee grew up in the racist South during the Great Depression which greatly influenced her novel. The story takes place in Maycomb County, Alabama during the 1930s and is told through the eyes of a young tomboyish girl named Scout. Atticus Finch, her father, is the defense lawyer for Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white women. In Maycomb, opinions rumors spread like fire and the town is quick to construct opinions about those who are different.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    662 Words  | 3 Pages

    Prejudice meaning adverse judgment or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge of the facts, was a huge factor in the novel, '' To Kill A Mockingbird'' by Harper Lee. There were three types of prejudice throughout the book, they are the racism prejudice, gender prejudice and the social classes prejudice. Also prejudice was pretty common thing in the middle 1900's, so be glad you weren't raised then. There are handfuls of examples throughout the book, some of them being very discreet. ''

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Society Quotes

    747 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the themes is that people should not be quick to judge others based on the labels given by society. During the story, the children judge Boo Radley based on what other people have gossiped about him and what comes from their imagination. “Jem gave a reasonable description of Boo: Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained-if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped and he drooled most of the time.”

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    175 Words  | 1 Pages

    Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird , Jem illustrates prejudice by being biased towards Boo because of her fear of him. In her description of Boo, she describes him as a "6-and-a-half-foot tall man who eats raw squirrels and cats. His hands are blood stained because he eats raw animals. There is a long-jagged scar that runs across his face; his teeth are yellow and rotten; his eyes pop, and he drools most of the time" (Lee.14).

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1013 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Presence of Prejudice In Harper Lee’s great depression era novel To Kill a Mockingbird, she fuels a raving battle against prejudice in a steadfastly racist society. The protagonist, Jean-Louise “Scout” Finch, looks on as the fires of prejudice rage all around her beginning “the summer Dill came”(3), and ending when “Bob Ewell fell on his knife”(314) several years later. During the period between these events, Lee kindles situations that, “ain’t right”(242), like the diffident treatment one lawyer gives when cross-examining Tom Robinson, a black man wrongly tried and convicted of rape, and later on where Tom’s defendant must remind the jury that not “all Negroes lie, that [not] all Negroes are basically immoral beings,” (232) and even a

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    191 Words  | 1 Pages

    The trial was decided before there was a verdict. The kids have a sort of prejudice towards Boo Radley. “You all’ve gone crazy, he’ll kill us”. This kids think that he is some kind of monster it is a more innocent kind of prejudice but it still in some ways is a prejudice.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1214 Words  | 5 Pages

    Prejudice is discrimination based upon false belief, false statements, and inexperience. An example would be discrimination towards Muslims, based upon the idea that they are nothing but bomb-carrying terrorists. However, many people who are prejudiced don’t mean to be but are mentally forced to be, and this is because their society is built on prejudiced people, and so they are more than often prejudiced because of the mental impact their

    Read More

  • Examples Of Biases In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1053 Words  | 5 Pages

    He mainly experiences prejudice due to gossip and rumors which go around about him throughout the town. At the beginning of the book Jem and Scout were educating their friend named Dill about their mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley, Jem proceeds to give a description… "Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained. "(page 13) The exaggerated stories describe Boo Radley as a violent individual. Due to the running rumors about him is seen as an outcast in society and is rarely seen outside of his house.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1031 Words  | 5 Pages

    Rather than simply staying silent one must actively oppose the oppressor and fight back to eliminate these injustices. In To Kill A Mockingbird we should learn the effect of prejudice in an individual’s life because we witness several situations and examples of prejudice resulting in fear, anger, and death. Direct impacts of prejudice towards Tom robinson The effect of racism and classism

    Read More

  • Boo Radley In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

    511 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the novel we see this when the kids try to get him to come out. This shows that Boo Radley is misunderstood because The kids think that boo radley is some weird, creepy, sketchy person,when in reality they don't actually know him or the truth. Furthermore, on page 43 when scout was asking miss maudie if boo was dead and why he won't come out if the house, this also shows that Boo Radley is misunderstood. This shows that Boo Radley is misunderstood, because,the kids were always asking questions about him and the never really understood much about him.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    903 Words  | 4 Pages

    Some of these include Scout’s opinion of Boo Radley, Aunt Alexandra forbidding Scout to have Walter Cunningham over for dinner, and the jury convicting Tom Robinson despite there being no evidence. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates many forms of prejudice through several significant characters. Scout has always been afraid of the Radley house because of all the rumors surrounding it.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Quotes

    2004 Words  | 9 Pages

    The loss of innocence and the destruction of the innocent are also another major issue. In the novel, some examples of prejudice include the children’s prejudice towards Boo Radley. He is a misunderstood, innocent yet haunted person. He is believed as a myth and monster, but he is in reality a real person. Eventually the children mature and grow, to see him no longer as a myth, but as a real person they finally understand.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Social Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    977 Words  | 4 Pages

    Boo Radley had been kept in isolation for so long, he didn’t know how to communicate or socialise properly. He has been misunderstood as a malevolent person, when he actually is a benevolent person. He displays this when he put a blanket around Scout, whilst she and Jem watched the fire. As readers, we are shown social prejudice by the assumptions made about the Radley’s. Another example of social prejudice is the

    Read More

More about Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document