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Essay Comparing To Kill A Mockingbird And The Help

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‘You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view, until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.’ Says Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. The messages in ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ and ‘The Help’ are presented differently but are still quite similar. In both books, importance is placed on being able to view things from other people’s perspectives in order to fully understand. The two leading characters in both books, Scout and Skeeter, make a journey which leads them to new perspectives and understandings. Their journeys both involve them facing obstacles in which they learn about oppression and the black person’s point of view. Their exploration is contrasted with the two character’s Atticus and Aibileen, who both …show more content…

Maycomb is suffering from a lot of prejudice, and many of the people in Maycomb are, in fact racist. When Tom gets poorly accused for raping and beating a white woman and immediately goes to court. Considering the fact that he is black, he has an unfair disadvantage; people will be judging him on his race, not his alleged actions. The book takes place in the 1930s, but there is still racism around today. During Tom’s trial, the jury and the court are basing their decisions off of what Tom looks like; his skin color and not on what his actions were. Tom’s case eventually came to a decision on whether he was guilty or not. Despite all the evidence that showed he was innocent, he was still found guilty. Lately in the media, there have been a lot of news stories about police officers who claim to be “taking advantage of their badge” by shooting or arresting innocent people, most people that the police have claimed to arrest for no reason are black. Most people in society, ours and Maycomb, seem to be okay with this because they seem them as a threat; ad idea they’re basing off of

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Hilly Holbrook, from The Help directed by Tate Taylor, and Aunt Alexandra from To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, are very similar. They both deeply care about maintaining their reputation in their respective towns. In The Help, Hilly received dozens of toilets on her front lawn after Skeeter ordered them for her. When she sees the toilets at her house, she becomes embarrassed and furious (Taylor).

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In this novel, there are some parts that show racism. Atticus is the best lawyer in Maycomb. In chapter 9, he started to defends Tom Robinson. All the people in Maycomb disagree about defending Tom, Negro men. However, he believes Tom Robinson and Atticus work hard to defend him.

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Racism means hate towards another race and injustice mean unfair treatment, according to learner 's dictionary. In Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson, an African american lawyer, was helping people get justice for the colored community. Another book similar to Just Mercy is, To Kill a Mockingbird, which made in 1960 was written by Harper Lee. Harper Lee addressed many issues about racial injustice too. Just Mercy was written in 2014,

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Scouts developments throughout the novel revolve around the lessons she is taught be three people, Calpurnia, Miss Maudie, and Aunt Alexandra. These three characters each have their own lessons to teach including forgiveness, understanding, equality and much more. These lessons allow Scout to have a wider perspective of the situation she finds herself in. Scout in the novel is presented to us as a growing a developing character. The lessons she is taught by her three feminine influences help her development a lot in the throughout the novel as they are a wide variety of lessons most likely helping think of what to do in most situations she finds herself in.

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“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it.” Harper Lee had used the tragic situation of Tom Robinsons trial to explore many themes including, racism and differences in privilege. “To kill a mockingbird” written by Harper Lee explores many situations linked to the broad idea of racism throughout the systems of Maycomb and differences in privilege in many different ways. The quote that Atticus argues with explains that in Maycomb, all men and things are equal.

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To Kill a Mockingbird Argumentative Essay Racial equality and discrimination is a founding issue that has been spread throughout every part of the world, To Kill A Mockingbird was written and published by Harper Lee in 1960, this time was dominated by civil rights protests and some of the first hippie movements following the crushing reality of the Vietnam War, the 60s also saw the struggle against segregation and racial equality. It is no surprise that the extreme political conflict affecting her life and world would greatly impact her writing and influence how she perceived the world during the writing of To Kill a Mockingbird. the influence of the fight for racial inequality is shown greatly in her book as she depicts the everyday life

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In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.

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Option 2 Literary Analysis To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being

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The testimonies reveal how deep-rooted the racism within Maycomb runs, as it is present even in court rulings and how casually present it is. The court is taking place, and the order of prosecutor’s witnesses who are: Mr. Heck Tate, the sheriff; Mr. Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father; and Mayella Ewell, the one who is accusing Tom Robinson of raping her. When it’s Mr. Ewell’s turn to speak, he does so with many racial slurs and slang embedded in his accusations. When relaying what he saw to the jury, he points at Tom and yells “―I seen that black n*gger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!” Mr. Ewell, who, although, has never been a part of a court case or viewed one, doesn’t truly care, or notice, that so far into the formal case, not one person has used racial slang to talk about Tom, and uses the term n*gger quite casually.

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Tom Robinson is a young African-American who's been accused of raping and abusing Mayella Ewell, a young and closeted white woman. Racial discrimination is hinted throughout Tom’s trial as Atticus Finch explains to Jem that a white man’s word will always win over that of a black man’s - "... In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life" (220). Atticus explains to Jem that in the courts of Maycomb, a black man’s state of innocence or guilt is truly determined by a white man’s testimony.

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To Kill A Mockingbird and I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings are two novels about two females and their endeavor with racism. Although these two girls are two different skin colors they face the same very harsh world from their own point of view. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout, the main character, has a father, Atticus, and a brother, Jem, that live in the south as a family. Her father is assigned a case as a lawyer to defend a Negro man against rape, throughout that time the family is severely harassed about Atticus’s assignment.

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450 Words | 2 Pages

That’s one part I didn’t like about the book. The stereotypes of the black families of Maycomb. As soon as Bob Ewell turned Tom Robinson in for “raping” his daughter the whole white community believed it because he was black. He was a kind, loving father and husband. But no one bothered to get to know the real him or see past the color of his skin to really know that.

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In the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, why must an honorable black man die for a white man’s actions? The book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, takes place in the 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama. Atticus Finch, father to Jem and Scout, has been assigned a legal case to defend a black man. Tom, the black man, was accused of raping a white woman, Mayella. The story is about how his kids, Jem and Scout, live during this time, and everything Atticus does to fight for Tom.

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(Pg 276) A person that has control on the outcome didn’t even stand up to help the trial of Tom Robinson. This unjust area is completely dependent to the racial thoughts in Maycomb. Not only that but black people aren’t welcomed into this area due to the possible punishment that could happen to them. They could be held accountable for something they didn’t even do.

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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.

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