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Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” The book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is set in the town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. Despite first appearances, the community of the town festers with prejudice towards anyone who doesn’t fit the mold of an average citizen. This animosity towards so many people can only result in lasting damage. The characters of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Arthur Radley, and Tom Robinson have been some of the people most strongly affected by the sheer amount of prejudice in Maycomb, Alabama due to being faced with hatred and rejection as a result of their differences.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird shows the prejudice creates distrust within community with how Bob Ewell treated the Finch family after Tom Robinson’s trial. This is shown throughout the book, like after the trials Bob Ewell came up to Atticus Finch and spit in his face because he did not agree with Atticus, “Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life” (290). Bob did this because Atticus stood up for Tom Robinson and Bob did not agree with Atticus for doing so. This proves that Atticus, who was a trustworthy lawyer, had become distrusted by members of the community because he stood up against prejudice.
“To Kill A Mockingbird,” a novel by Harper Lee novel tells the story of a 6-year-old named Scout, who’s living in the 19th century during a time of normalized racial discrimination. Harper Lee uses conflict of the Tom Robinson’s case and characterization of Tom Robinson, in order to represent and point out the idea of discrimination against people of color, can lead to social racial oppression in court in American society. A characterization that’s important is Tom Robinson ( a black man). He’s portrayed as a generous man; “‘Were you paid for your services? “‘Not after she offered me a nickel the first time.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County in the late 1930s, where characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will experience prejudice Maycomb brings during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin, and class. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and they all contribute to how events play out in the small town. Many of those in Maycomb face and express sexism, racial discrimination, and classism their whole lives. This disables the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace.
The lessons Lee displays about racism make To Kill a Mockingbird relevant and extremely important to society. When Scout asks Jem, her adolescent brother, what the issue with a mixed race was, Jem replied, “Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere” (215). Lee put the level of racism in the 1960s on full display in this quote, and society has since become more accepting of both mixed races and other races, though without the important reminder of racism in the past, society could never become more accepting. Thus, To Kill a Mockingbird’s instruction of the issue of racism is highly important to society as a
Are you interested in the evolution of the modern day species and how they have changed from thousands of years ago? Scientists and many people say it's because of evolution. Evolution is when different kinds of organisms have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth. There are a lot of reasons and explanations why species have changed do to adaptation, competition, and history are all big factors.
Bob Ewell accuses Tom of raping his daughter, Mayella, unjustly. Unfortunately, even though the town knows Tom is innocent, he is still said to be guilty only because he is black. In Maycomb the dynamics between whites and blacks are similar to the ones in Baltimore, Maryland, in “Hairspray.” This connection shows that it was not just a made up story about inequality; racism was a real problem in the twentieth century. To Kill a Mockingbird is based in a time thirty years prior to “Hairspray,” but the same problems are
In Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee writes about the coming of age of a young girl named Scout. It is set in the town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. This town happened to be a very racially driven place. Lee touches upon many societal problems and flaws, some of them being justice, and the consequences of prejudice. One of the main ones highlighted in the story is racism.
By analyzing the struggle of these individuals throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader observes that the prejudiced society hurts the mockingbirds; this is important because the author demonstrates it is a sin to harm an innocent being. To start, Mayella Ewell symbolizes a mockingbird that the discriminatory society misjudges as a result of her low social class. When Scout is in first grade, readers see that the Ewells are poor and struggle to survive. Atticus tells Scout, “the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations” (Lee 40).
“[W]hen she was a few yards beyond the Ewell house, she looked around and saw Mr. Ewell walking behind her” (Lee 334). Previously, in the same page, Mr. Link Deas had verbally reprimanded the Ewells for “chunking” at Helen, and this example shows that some people in Maycomb still had negative feelings towards African Americans even after the trial. In To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown that prejudices and discrimination existed before the trial, and persisted after the trial. The discrimination displayed in To Kill a Mockingbird tended to be caused by internally held beliefs, which is especially seen in Bob Ewell, who frequently takes out his rage on African Americans, and Mrs. Dubose, who held prejudices towards African Americans and outwardly expressed these by using racial slurs.
In Harper Lee's “To Kill A Mockingbird” there is a recurring theme of bigotry. During the 1930s racial intolerance was at its peak. This is expressed when Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. Since Tom Robinson was black it would be easier for Bob Ewell to win in court. The people in Maycomb were oblivious to what was right in court.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” is a classic novel of modern American literature that was published in 1960. Author Harper Lee loosely based the plot and characters of the story on her childhood. Bob Ewell, the main antagonist of the novel, is a drunken white man who lives off of welfare. He and his family are the eyesore of Maycomb. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”
Final Essay Outline: Thesis Statement/opening paragraph: In the story To Kill A Mockingbird, discrimination and the act of being prejudice is common among the main characters, on both the receiving and serving end. Certain characters, like Scout and Jeremy Finch, Bob Ewell, and the town folk truly create the main problem and set the theme of the story. For example, when Bob Ewell accuses Atticus Finch of being an african-american lover, because he is defending Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, according to Bob. Boo Radley is accused of being dead by Scout, Jem and Dill.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.
Harper Lee touches upon many social issues in To Kill a Mockingbird. Among these issues is the matter of racism in America during the 1930s. This novel focused on the issue of racism through the case of Tom Robinson which conveyed the strong hostility towards African-Americans in Maycomb, Alabama. Other various occasions in the novel exhibit racism’s potential and influence in this country including Aunt Alexandra's disapproval of Calpurnia, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s hidden life. Through the results of these instances, Harper Lee shed a new light on racism and how it will always persist in America.
