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Examples Of Blindness In To Kill A Mockingbird

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¨Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed¨(pg 241). Tom Robinson, a young black man accused of a crime, is a main example of blindness to prejudice throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Taking place within the Great Depression and the Jim Crow era, these issues affected many people's lives. Throughout the novel, Harper Lee writes about issues with prejudice that are presented often through racism, social class, and sexism. Social class and sexism take a major part in the lives of the people of Maycomb and affect the way they treat each other. Tom Robinson, a young man accused of a crime because of his race, is a main example of the blindness to prejudice in this novel. Throughout the novel the author discusses the issue of racism and its effects on people. When Atticus Finch took on defending Tom in court, people told him that he would lose the case because of Tom's race. Atticus was upset over the fact that the courts were biased, no matter how much evidence shows that they were innocent. ¨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 …show more content…

I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could not do anything in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to be doing things that required pants¨(pg 81). This was the thought that Scout had towards being a lady. Scout thought that being a girl was one of the worst things. Reason being, being a girl meant being a lady. And being a lady meant living in a confusing world of wearing dresses and doing lady things. The expectations of being a lady upset Scout who would rather wear her clothes and be a tomboy and not care about being

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817 Words | 4 Pages

A Tomboy Or A Lady? Scout has already displayed her tomboy tendencies in the previous chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. She plays boys' games, such as football and rolling in a tire; she prefers her overalls to skirts; and she likes to fight. In Chapter 6, she: "leaped over the low wall that separated Miss Rachel's yard from our driveway."

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721 Words | 3 Pages

Instead, she wants to wear pants and a shirt. This is an excellent example of how she can appear as a tomboy to the reader since boys don’t wear dresses. Instead, they wear just a shirt and pants. Mrs. Dubose asks Scout what she is doing in overalls. Then, she says that Scout should be in a dress and camisole, and calls her a young lady (Lee 135).

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1009 Words | 5 Pages

Tom Robinson, a black man with a crippled left hand, is an outcast in society due to the color of his skin. When accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a traumatized white girl, the town views him as an abomination to society. As Tom’s defense lawyer, Atticus Finch calls out the town on their racial judgments as he states, “...confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings…” (Lee 232). A majority of the white community believes that Tom is a monster due to the color of his skin, therefore, when he is accused of raping Mayella, this intensifies.

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1446 Words | 6 Pages

“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with” (119). Being a girl had a negative connotation to it. Scout believes that girl activities are bad and boy activities are good. She convinced herself that she can avoid being a girl by averting feminine characteristics. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does.

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881 Words | 4 Pages

this quote signifies that scout hates being called and has hated being called a Girl since day 1. She always thought the way girls act and the things they liked and this was probably reinforced by the fact that scout and Jem don’t have a mom so scout is surrounded

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906 Words | 4 Pages

Scout Finch has received much praise for how she breaks the gender roles placed upon her, but while doing this she falls into the overplayed tomboy stereotype. Later in the novel Alexandra visits with one of her prime goals making Scout into a lady, “ We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys-”(Lee, 107) As with most tomboys Scout is told she will grow out of it when she gets older, and that she will become a girly girl to impress the boys around her. She is also told that the reason she acts this way is because she didn’t have a ‘real’ mother, and that to make her father's life easier she should be act like a girl, “I should be a ray of sunshine in my father’s lonely life.

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480 Words | 2 Pages

Throughout the story To kill a Mockingbird Scout develops numerous distinct personalities. When the book first started Scout was a young girl. She was portrayed as a tomboy. She fought, she got dirty, she refused to wear dresses and that was just who she was. She began to see that there was more to being ladylike and mature, she changed her clothes, activities, how she see’s the society she lives in, and how she acts.

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839 Words | 4 Pages

After reading Mr. Underwood’s editorial, Scout realizes: “Atticus had every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case” (Lee 276). Sadly, at this time in the South, slaves were free but black people still were under the Jim Crow laws and people did not see them as valued humans. Maycomb was blind and did not want to acknowledge his problems. Prejudice is the reason that Robinson was put in jail and later killed. Furthermore, in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson functions as an innocent mockingbird symbol.

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661 Words | 3 Pages

Scout is a tomboy who does not want to wear pink dresses frilly. In chapter 6 Scout, Jem, and Dill were spying on the Radley house and Scout gets scared, she suggests that they should return home. Jem responded with “Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home – I declare to the Lord you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day!” (To Kill A Mockingbird) Scout follows her brother and maintains her tomboy-ness.

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400 Words | 2 Pages

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee the character Tom Robinson is a victim of racial discrimination. The setting of the novel is in 1930’s in the state Alabama. During this time period African American people were still discriminated against and faced inequality. Tom Robinson is accused and later convicted of rape. The jury fully filled with all white men wrongly accused him although there was no evidence proving him guilty.

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532 Words | 3 Pages

Growing up in the early 1930s as a tomboy can be hard, especially in a prejudice society where there is gender discrimination and people constantly telling children and young adults to dress a certain way or to act a certain way. Through Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout confronts gender stereotypes with her dedication to remain a tomboy. She does not act like the typical, young Southern lady whose ways are always proper, causing women, such as, Mrs. Dubose and Aunt Alexandra, to take the situation into their own hands. For example, on Dill’s last night in Maycomb County, Jem and Dill decide to take a walk south, towards the Radley house.

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1355 Words | 6 Pages

(Lee 276). This quote demonstrates the harsh reality of the court system and greater society, and that Tom never really had a chance of winning the trial, just because of his race. Tom Robinson is living proof of the injustice not only in Maycomb, but in the world itself, and it teaches Scout to never judge someone based on their appearance. Scout overhears Atticus and Jack talking about

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969 Words | 4 Pages

Along with her brother Jem and her new friend Dill, Scout learns new things about the town she lives in. From the personalities of her neighbors to the segregation within the town of Maycomb, she is exposed to the real world around her. At only eight years old, Scout is looked at as being too young to know the reality of the lives of the people around her. Scout, along with being much smarter than most children her age, doesn’t act like society’s definition of a lady. She runs around in the dirt wearing overalls and doesn’t do any of the things that ladies do.

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432 Words | 2 Pages

The conventional way to dress for a girl was very different from the way Scout dresses, which is why her choice of attire is often frowned upon, but she insists that she “could do nothing in a dress”(p.90) When she mentions that, she gets the response that she “wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants.” One of the reasons why Scout is different from the other girls is because of the way she was raised. Her mother died when she was only two years old, so she didn’t have a big influence in Scout’s life.

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964 Words | 4 Pages

As Scout subconsciously learns all that there is in the real world, she received messages primarily from her aunt and some of her female neighbors, telling that she is falling behind of her assigned sexuality. Gender roles were firmly established for men and women. Women were supposed to be quiet, calm, child bearers and naturally dumb while men were the strong, smart, working people. The patriarchic views which spread all throughout the society stopped women from behaving in anyway like being masculine and such. Lee broke these stereotypes, making herself as a “tomboy”.

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