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Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Injustice and discrimination aren’t uncommon in places like Maycomb County or even common places today. There have been many accounts of bad treatment according to gender and race. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it expresses these two discriminations quite well throughout the story. From a child unable to really live without a disgusted side-eye to a man who was shot and killed innocent. This story displays thorough examples of real-life situations affecting thousands of people and their everyday lives. Sexism is something that is and forever will be a problem in society. People each day struggle with criticism often according to their gender. Their are many that are being marginalized to do or not to do certain things …show more content…

Racism presented people with pretty limited and, in some cases, a short life. Like Sexism, Racism is something that forever will be a part of life. People around the world suffer from racism and are being judged each day just by the color of their skin or their ethnicity. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it states, “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried. 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 in life.’” This is a good quote for racism because it explains that no matter what, in those days if a black man was ever put in trial against a white man, the white man would win. This is the case that happened to Tom Robbinson, a black man who got accused of raping a white19-year-oldd girl named Mayella Ewell. Turns out Mayella actually was the one who took advantage of Tom, by kissing him on the cheek. Tom was found guilty still in the end, and one day, running scared away from the prison gaurd, was shot 17 times and died. Unfortunately, this is not where the lines of racism ends. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it states, “Lula stopped, but she said, ‘You ain’t got no business bringin’ whit chillun here—they go their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?’” According to this quote, its saying, just like with gender roles back then, there was also a line between race. Black and white people had different things and places for themselves. They seperated themselves as much as they possibly could, not helping the racism that burst sharp as a needle through their economy. Back then, if you brought a white child to a black church, at least one person would get up and start to say something. Black people had it really hard those days, and with the rudeness of some back then, its not a surprise some

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that prejudice divides communities and that persecution of innocent people is evil; furthermore; these two minor themes reinforce the major thematic idea that a simple assumption can divide people. When Tom Robinson is put on trial for supposedly raped Mayella Ewell, the racism in Maycomb surfaces and creates conflict. In the novel, a stranger says, “You know what we want,” ‘another man said.’ “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.”(172). Some drunken men want to harm Tom Robinson for the wrong that he did.

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The disgust on other races were growing, and people were growing more oblivious and denied change. In the article LIFE and Civil Rights: Segregation in 1956 South Carolina by Ben Cosgrove it says, “The white sharecropper’s wife, LIFE wrote, ‘also approves of segregation and will not let her 9-year-old daughter play with an 8-year-old Negro neighbor. This is the reason she gives: ‘If our landlord came down here and saw her playing with a colored boy, he wouldn’t respect us. Only poor class whites do that. We’re trying to keep our self-respect and keep the highest level socially we can.

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The theme of prejudice is a main topic throughout the novel. The novel takes place before the civil rights movement in Maycomb County, Alabama. The story follows Atticus,Scout,Jem, and Dill as they journey through a world of prejudice towards black people. Atticus who is a lawyer is defending Tom Robinson who is accused of rape. The trial seems rigged as Tom is black and the accuser saw that as an opportunity.

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In To Kill a Mockingbird one of the themes portrayed by Harper Lee is that prejudice is a disease with deep and far-reaching roots. This theme can be seen throughout the book, whether it is based on race religion or even social status. One of the first instances of prejudice that really drives the story is when Scout tells one of her schoolmates, Cecil Jacobs, to take back what he said about Atticus, to which Cecil responds, “You gotta make me first! My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank”(102). This moves the story forward because it is one of the first instances of racism that Scout witnesses in the novel.

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When they arrive, a woman named Lula says, “‘You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here--they got their church, we got our’n…’” (Lee 136).

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To begin, in To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee emphasizes racism following the death of Tom Robinson. The novel states, “Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneer's mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in 'em” (Lee 322). In the novel, this is an example of the mindset of many people in Maycomb preceding the death of Tom Robinson. This reveals that the people of Maycomb use their established

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The Prejudice of Maycomb County Prejudice has plagued the United States of America for decades, and still plays an important role in the lives of everyday people today. Moreover, it can be in the form of racism, sexism, classism, or one of many other countless methods of presumption towards others. Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, chooses to illustrate the prejudice of Maycomb County through the use of characters’ actions and dialogue. Aunt Alexandra may be full of pride, but she is prejudice nonetheless.

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, reveals the truth that people do not always act respectably towards the good, but instead treat innocent people negatively because of prejudice. In the novel, a peacemaker who does not intentionally wish to inflict harm upon others symbolizes a mockingbird. On the other hand, a mad dog is someone considered as a threat to the community. Conflict should be prevented by changing one’s perspective but continually arises when mad dogs irrationally attack innocent mockingbirds.

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Essay In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County. The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.

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“As Mr.Dolphus Raymond was an evil man accepted his invitation reluctantly”(pg.200) Dolphus Raymond is known for having mixed children with a black woman. This makes him appear as an outcast and a bad person which shows both discrimination and good vs evil, which is especially expressed in the trial of Tom Robinson and Mayyella Ewell. In Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, she uses the trial to create the themes of good vs evil and discrimination. Bob Ewell shows this through what he says, what he thinks as well as the language he uses, also how a trial is set up, and what happens in the testimonies show good vs evil. It also shows discrimination by where the people have to sit, with the section specifically for black people.

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TKaM Notes: USE PRESENT TENSE Thesis: The most obvious form of discrimination in Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird is racism; however, there are other types of prejudice and discrimination that typify relationships among the novel’s characters. It varies between a troubled boy and his town, a lonely woman and her fellow Baptists, and two siblings against the rest of their school. Each of these stories has common ground, but specify into contrasting situations. One might say, how can discrimination cripple a person's being?

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