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Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

903 Words4 Pages

Louise Champagne
Mrs. Lindsay
Language Arts
4 March 2023
Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird
Prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on actual experience. It can drastically affect people’s everyday life. Prejudice also plays a strong role in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee shows prejudice throughout her novel in many ways. Some of these include Scout’s opinion of Boo Radley, Aunt Alexandra forbidding Scout to have Walter Cunningham over for dinner, and the jury convicting Tom Robinson despite there being no evidence. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates many forms of prejudice through several significant characters.
Scout has always been afraid of the Radley house because of all the rumors surrounding it. …show more content…

During his trial Mayella Ewell testifies against him. There are many holes in her story, however the main one is that the bruises on her are all on the right side of her body, suggesting that a left-handed person hit her. Her father, Bob Ewell, is left handed, while Tom Robinson’s left hand is mangled from being caught in a cotton gin. When Tom Robinson goes up to the stand to testify, he states that Mayella Ewell invited him into her home to help her get something from a shelf. He helped her, then she ran up to him and hugged him, then kissed him on the cheek and told him to kiss her back. Bob Ewell, as told by Tom Robinson, then yells “you goddamn whore, I’ll kill ya” (Lee 104). Bob Ewell knows he is beneath many white people, but still believes his family is better than the black people. When he sees his daughter kissing Tom, he views that as extremely shameful, for Mayella, and for the family. This causes him to come up with the lie of Tom Robinson raping Mayella. It is clear to the reader that Tom did not rape Mayella, and Atticus states to the jury, “This case is as simple as black and white. The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place” (Lee 108). However, even after all that Atticus proved, the jury convicted Tom Robinson, who later died trying to escape prison. The jury came into the trial believing that all black men were not to be trusted, or were criminals. They convicted Tom Robinson before they even met him, because of their

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He instills fear in Mayella, therefore she feels obligated to lie during the court trial, blaming Tom Robinson for raping and choking her, causing the bruises along her neck and face. Mayella stutters when being interrogated by Atticus, almost revealing a sliver of truth when she says, “No I don’t recollect if he hit me. I mean yes I do, he hit me” (Lee 248). This proves to Atticus and those viewing the trial that Mayella is indeed untruthful and nervous to deliver answers with her father overseeing her. Because she was present for the court trial, Scout Finch learns that Bob Ewell is guilty, especially after Atticus reveals that Bob is left handed.

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Up till this point everyone in the courtroom learned that Tom Robinson’s left arm is crimped and is way too weak to even scratch the girl, let alone hold her down and attack her. As Mayella kept stating that somehow Tom Robinson was the one that hurt her he finally asked, “ How?”(Lee 249). The question left the whole room in suspense to wait to see if Mayella’s response would be valid. It truly seems that Atticus has this case in the bag.

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Bob Ewell called Sheriff Tate after he supposedly found Mayella. Sheriff Tate confirmed that Mayella was bruised very badly on the right side of her face. Knowing that Mr. Ewell is left-handed and Tom’s left arm was crippled did not favor Mayella’s

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Lee’s character, Atticus Finch, argues against the jury by uncovering the lies of the Ewells, trying to evoke the jury to see the Ewells as the real criminals in this case. By using pathos, Atticus Finch attempts to switch the narrative and begins by stating that Tom Robinson is the real victim of Mayella’s crime, and wanting to forget her crimes, she tries to convict Tom Robinson. Atticus continues criminalizing Mayella by pointing out her crime of tempting Tom Robinson. Atticus emphasizes that Mayella broke an unspoken rule in their society by kissing a black man. Finch then continues by explaining that while the facts of what occurred are still undetermined, what is confirmed is that Bob Ewell is left-handed and was there when the crime

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When Reverend Sykes whispers to Scout and Jem and says,”He got caught in a cotton gin, caught it in Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s cotton gin when he was a boy … like to bled to death … tore all the muscles loose from his bones-” This shows in detail how Tom became disabled and how and why he can no longer use his arm. Mr. Robinson’s left hand was disabled when he was just a boy and now he can no longer use it. Mayella's right side of her face was beat up so someone punched her with the left hand. These details help prove the innocence of Tom

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Bob Ewell was the plaintiff who was accusing Tom Robinson of raping his daughter, Mayella Ewell. During the trial, they called up the plaintiff to testify what he saw. Bob Ewell was under oath but still ended up lying to win the case described. Atticus saw what he was doing and ended up calling him out on everything, subtly. It was shown that Bob Ewell was left handed while Tom Robinson was crippled on that side of his body.

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In reality he was a victim of Bob and Mayella’s plan to cover up what truly happened, which was that Mayella tried to seduce Tom and Bob saw it. Atticus proved to the jury that Tom didn’t rape her and that he didn’t hit her, “… Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led exclusively with his left… Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses-his right hand.” (Atticus, pg. 232). Atticus also implies that it was Bob Ewell who hit her when he saw what she was doing by asking a rhetorical question, “Her father saw it… What did her father do?”

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Mayella Ewell hints at an uglier relationship with her father than is ever revealed, and along her guilt and pressure from her father, she puts the blame for the abuse on a black man who could easily be convicted, setting Bob Ewell free. Mayella was lonely, and frequently tried to talk with Tom Robinson, “As Tom Robinson gave his testimony, it came to me that Mayella Ewell must have been the loneliest person in the world...: white people wouldn't have anything to do with her because she lived among pigs; Negroes would have anything to do with her because she was white...” (Doc E). Mayella's own guilt and self-conscious force her to claim Tom Robinson has raped her so that he will be taken away and she will no longer be tempted. The Ewells seemed to have picked Tom Robinson as the man to blame because he was black, and blacks rarely won court cases over

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Making it hard for him to beat up a person. His bad arm also does match up with the accusation that he hit her left eye. Ewell on the other hand being dominant on the left hand could have the potential to hit her in the left eye, more so than Robinson. Atticus draws attention away from Tom and puts it on Bob Ewell. Saying he had motive and could be more than capable of beating Mayella.

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Atticus uses his credibility as a renowned lawyer in Maycomb County and his confidence in Tom Robinson 's to prove the jury of Tom 's innocence. He also uses the simplicity in differentiating between black and white to show the simplicity of figuring out who is lying in this case, and who is not. He then goes on to say "The state has not produced one iota of medical evidence to the effect that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. The defendant is not guilty, but somebody in this courtroom is."

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Social prejudice is shown throughout Harper Lee’s award winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee powerfully analyses the theme social prejudice, and its effect on people. Such as how the Social prejudice is discrimination based on your status in society. An example of social prejudice would be the Radley family, which consists of Boo Radley, Nathan Radley and Arthur Radley. As they haven’t been out of their house in years people are lead to believe the rumours.

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In the aftermath of Tom’s attempted escape from prison, which eventually led to his death, “Maycomb was interested by the news of Tom’s death for perhaps two days,” (240) as it was “typical of a nigger’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run the blind first chance he saw” (240). The author’s application of this description distinctly portrayed how Maycomb’s warped perspective of Tom’s death was achieved through the racism that inspired many to believe all African Americans were stereotypical criminals and in Tom’s case it was no different. Critically, Maycomb’s prejudice shines through in this description of its lack of sympathy towards an innocent African American’s death and highlights ignorance as an alarming after effect of racism. Before the court had begun to issue its final verdict, ““Atticus had used every tool available in court to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case” (241) as “in our courts, when it’s a white man’s words against a black man’s, the white man always wins,” (220). The author’s description of the court’s ruling was definite and expected because as Atticus explained, society is biased, therefore the court of all white men were always partisan towards voting in favor of a white man without allowing any arguments against him to sway them.

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Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird Prejudice in the 1950s was a problem and it still is in 2017. When it comes to the topic of prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys it is important that before judging someone, get to know them better. One example of prejudice Harper Lee uses in To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson. In the small town of Maycomb almost everyone assumes Tom is guilty of raping Mayella Ewell even though there is no evidence or reasoning.

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Looking back, the superheroes you admired gave you a sense of justice that involved a punishment of incarceration or even death. However, this does not bring back the lives of the dead or fix the issues of the inflicted. As you get older, you may come in contact with a few stories that challenge that very notion of justice, such as “Hamlet”, by Shakespeare and “Killings”, by Andre Dubus. These stories share a similarity in that both characters, Hamlet and Matt respectively, seek retribution in their journey for justice as nearly all justice stems from that, the desire for retribution. HAMLET : Hamlet’s defines justice as a punishment for those who have wronged others.

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