Examples Of Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

A stereotype is a widely known saying which reduces someone’s entire identity and puts them into a single category with set characteristics which do not necessarily apply to them. For example, racial stereotyping is seen when individuals from the Middle East are automatically assumed as being terrorists. In addition, gender stereotyping is seen when all women are expected handle all the housework. Within Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, the character of Scout is affected by gender stereotypes, because she is constantly being told that she is a girl and is expected to act like so. Additionally, the character of Boo is affected by ableist stereotypes, because the children are highly frightened of his presence in Maycomb. Lastly, the

For example, this is seen in the way the young Finches describe him. Readers will witness an example of this in the following quotation, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall...he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained...There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (Lee 16). Within this quote, one sees the theme of stereotyping because the children have no trouble describing Boo with monstrous and inhuman qualities based on what they had heard about him and his peculiar personality, thus developing the theme of stereotypes in the novel. Meanwhile, the adults of Maycomb, such as Miss Stephanie, are no different from the children themselves. Readers can see this in the quotation “Jem received most of his information from Miss Stephanie Crawford, a neighborhood scold, who said she knew the whole thing” (Lee 13). As one can see, the the reference to neighborhood scold shows the theme of stereotyping because it reveals that Stephanie Crawford’s nosiness and blindly spread rumours caused Boo to be put in an undesirable category among others, thus developing the theme of stereotyping in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Later in the story, Scout

For example, Atticus explains why this is so at the trial. Readers witness this in the following quote, “‘You gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption—the evil assumption—that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women’” (Lee 273). One can immediately sense with the reference to all Negroes the theme of racial stereotypes because Atticus emphasizes that their society’s ways of generalizing all black people and disregarding their true identities was the inevitable cause of Tom being falsely accused, altogether developing the theme of stereotyping in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. In addition, Aunt Alexandra does not approve of Atticus defending Tom. This is evident when her grandson, Francis, says “‘Grandma says...now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin’” (Lee 110). Through reference to the term nigger-lover the theme of stereotyping shown because Aunt Alexandra was among the many white people of Maycomb who did not even care about the details of Tom’s case because they knew as a black man he would stand no chance automatically, and that it would do nothing for Atticus but spoil his own