Examples Of Tkam In To Kill A Mockingbird

Through normal conversation and action, the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird reveal a deeper and more severe issue hidden amongst them: racism. TKAM is about a young girl named Scout in Alabama in the 1930s when her dad takes on a case of a young black man named Tom Robinson, who gets wrongfully accused of raping a white girl. Harper Lee expertly reveals the awful facts of a society afflicted by racism and discrimination through speech covered with prejudice, actions motivated by resentment, and a tone of superiority.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a powerful book that dives into the topic of racism in the American South in the 1930s using dialogue from the characters in the story. Harper Lee expertly captures the inescapable presence of racism

The way African Americans are discussed by the characters is one of the most blatant examples of this. For instance, Atticus responds to Scout's question about the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man who was wrongfully accused of rape, “The jury couldn't possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson's word against the Ewells" (Lee 208). This statement exemplifies the ingrained racism of many white characters in the book, who instinctively believe a black man's word is of lesser value than a white man's. Racist beliefs are reinforced and black people are dehumanized throughout the entirety of the novel with the use of derogatory phrases. For example, Tom Robinson, a black man, is referred to as “n*****” by Bob Ewell. Another character, Aunt Alexandria, also perpetuates racism by calling the black community “trash” and “darky” in order to ridicule them. These racial slurs show how prevalent racism was in the South at the time, and how it was

When the black cook for the Finch family, Calpurnia, is mentioned, Scout's aunt Alexandra dismisses her and implies that she is unfit to raise Scout and Jem. Aunt Alexandra declares, "You've got to do something about her...You've let things go on too long, Atticus, too long." Similarly Mayella, the daughter of Bob Ewell, also accuses Tom Robinson of raping her, but her evidence is filled with condescending remarks about Tom's color. She claims, "I said come here, n*****r, and bust up this chiffarobe for me, I gotta nickel for you." These quotes show that racism in Maycomb is not just an issue of overt acts of violence and discrimination, but also of deeply rooted attitudes regarding the claimed superiority of white