“‘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.’” (119) To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town called Maycomb county, located in Southern Alabama. The narrator, Scout Finch, goes over the past three years of her life from when she was six to eight. Scout’s brother Jem and her learn many things from their wise father -Atticus- and from their own experiences. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird author Harper Lee portrays the idea that prejudice and empathy conflict with each other in humans overall morals; this becomes clear when Scout and Jem learn to be able to see the evil of others, but to also focus on the good.
Prejudice can be very harmful, especially when it is used to put people in categories and defining them as a specific type of person. Miss Maudie talks to Scout about Arthur Radley: “‘The things that happen to people we never
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Atticus gives his final speech to the jury: “‘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 our women- black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of man. 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 looked up on a woman without desire.’” (273) There is not a certain person that just acts a certain way; black or white people will be people. They will do bad things and good things it doesn’t matter what they look like or where they come from. Only their actions define them as a person. Prejudice is ignorance and ignorance is blindness, blind to what’s happening to others and the
U3EA2 The“Queen of the Tomboys” grew up during the Jim Crow era; seeing justice unsatisfied in the Scottsboro trial at the tender age of five. Her father is a lawyer who was given a case to defend two African Americans in court, but he was unsuccessful due to racial norms in their home of Monroeville, Alabama. Many years Years later she was known by her peers as an individualist at the University of Alabama. While staying there she started by studying law but; first studying law and then then switched ing majors to become the aspiring writer known as Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird (TKM). In Chapter 9 of said novel, Lee’s young character Scout confronts a classmate who had “announced in
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee characterizes Atticus as a person who see’s the prejudice people in his town. As he said in a trial involving a black man, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view”, said Atticus (lee 30). In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird the people of Maycomb County are very prejudice. This is a lesson that Atticus tries to teach his children. This quote from the novel is saying that a person has to try and see a situation from the other person's point of view, before the make a judgement.
In the book, and in everyday life, prejudice is often promoted and portrayed by those who are only a step above the lowest class or people who are part of the normal crowd against people who are different. When talking about the insulting name that Atticus is being called, he said “Ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves” (Lee 108). It’s clear that he doesn’t support this type of vocabulary and he thinks that low people are prone to use it. In relation to low classes, an example is the Ewell’s treatment and vocabulary towards people who are one step lower than them like Tom Robinson. Another example of a majority against the minority is the treatment of the Finches.
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.”
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel which focuses on the lives of Scout and Jem Finch, two children raised in mid 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The novel deals with corrupt morals and ideals of society and how they affect others, often showing the injustice and wrongdoings done to those who are undeserving of them. This concept, although not uncommon in our society, is a relatively new idea for Scout and Jem. It is explained through Harper Lee’s famous quote which says, “‘[m]ockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us.
In the novel, the text also says “ to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, and some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white... 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 looked upon a woman without desire.” When Atticus says this it shows how he believes that even though black men aren’t perfect they’re human just like the rest of the people in the courtroom white or
Charles R. Swindoll once said: “Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born with prejudice; you’re taught it,” (Brainyquotes). Prejudice has been around for as long as man has noticed other unfamiliar humans; and will probably continue until the end of time. Harper Lee mentions prejudice numerous times throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, which is the story of a young girl who learns about the kinds of prejudices (especially racial) in the South through a black man’s trial, her reclusive neighbor, and many other characters to try to become a better person. Learning from history, including To Kill a Mockingbird, and identifying and seeing the faults of prejudices help the reader to become less prejudicial.
“Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy… That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is set in the racist county of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. All different types of people live in this town, the gossips, the unwanted, the misjudged and so on. Arthur Radley otherwise known as Boo is misunderstood and misjudged throughout the story. Categorized as a monster, life was hard for him so he always stayed inside.
“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome” (Parks, Rosa). To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee takes place in a small southern town in sleepy Maycomb County, Alabama during the Great Depression. Scout Finch lives with her older brother Jem and her father Atticus who is a prominent lawyer and a widow. Scout and Jem spend their time going to school and their summer spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor Boo Radley who never comes out the house.
There is a disease that can change the way you behave and can spread from any person to you. This disease is racism. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird shows how racism is like a disease spreading and infecting people, changing how they behave and act, but just like a disease is curable. Using information and evidence from the novel I will show you how the novel does this. The disease is described below.
Harper Lee uses symbolism to explain the idea of prejudice in the novel. She does this by letting the reader know the people of Maycomb’s feeling towards Tom Robinson with out knowing the whole story. For example, in to kill a mockingbird Tom Robinson is put to death for a crime he did not commit. This can relate to when Atticus says, “shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit tem, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird”. This means that it was also a sin to kill a tom Robinson.
Have you ever thought what would happen if one person started to believe in something that’s others didn’t. Then what if everybody else started to follow along. That reminds me of this game called Fortnite. One person started playing it then everybody followed along.
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the readers are introduced to Maycomb, a small town in Alabama. Throughout the book the main characters observe society, whilst realizing that the seemingly perfect social norms in the town are acts of prejudice. After viewing the effects these actions have on one another, the children begin to reevaluate their morals by becoming more open minded. When blindly following societal norms, the citizens are unable to realize society’s strong need to visualize themselves from the perspective of others. This renders them unable to understand if their morals are socially acceptable and come to terms with how they affect others.
You’re not born with prejudice; you’re taught it. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was written about the late 1930’s, and showed the perspective of a little girl, Scout, while her father defends a black man in court. The South in 1926 was a place of racial prejudice, with discrimination and inequality. Growing up in the South nearly her entire life, Harper Lee was exposed to the racist prejudice against African-Americans. Harper Lee was born on April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama.
In To Kill a Mockingbird prejudice in Maycomb is terrible. There are two major people in To Kill A Mockingbird that are prejudged severely. Boo Radley and Tom Robinson are the two main people who are prejudged. There is also one other man who prejudged, Atticus Finch. All three of these men are mockingbirds.