In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee one of the essential questions is: how do our own personal stereotypes help shape how we experience the world. The stereotypes in this novel had affected the people of Maycomb’s thought process. Stereotyping is the process of generalizing people and broadly categorizing them based on narrow minded observations of characteristics that they have. Most people are stereotyped due to their race, gender, age, unknown identity, or social class. The main character in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is Atticus Finch, a middle aged man living in Maycomb Alabama. Even though he is a southerner he isn’t racist and he believes that everyone should be treated equal, Atticus teaches his children empathy and not to discriminate against other people, he does his by telling them “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.” Even though Atticus treats everyone as equals he gets affected by the town and their prejudice way of thinking. Because Atticus accepts Tom Robinsons case he gets called a “nigger lover” and him and his children get treated differently by the town. …show more content…
Another person who is stereotyped in this novel is Mrs. Dubose, a woman who is also known as “The meanest old woman who ever lived”. Mrs. Dubose is one of the many people who are against Atticus and she is one of the people who call him a “nigger lover”. At the beginning of the novel Mrs. Dubose is depicted as an angry old lady, who is an overall seems to be bitter and has a horrible attitude. In reality Mrs. Dubose is an old woman who is suffering from an addiction that she is trying to break. She knows that she isn’t going to win her battle with addiction but she tries anyways and uses Jem reading to her as a distraction to make it easier for her. After Jem realizes what happened to Mrs. Dubose he understood what her problem