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How Does Atticus Use Racial Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

853 Words4 Pages

Racism is a theme that has run through the world during all of history. In “To Kill A Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, the main character is a girl named Scout, growing up with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus, in a racist town in Alabama called Maycomb during the Great Depression and the early 1930s. Atticus is a lawyer and he has to defend a black man named Tom Robinson against the claim he raped Mayella Ewell. The Ewell family has no money or education. He loses the case because of racial prejudices, but he hurts the pride of the Ewell family. Jem and Scout are fascinated by Boo Radley, a man who lives in solitude, and even though he seems very scary to the children, he ends up saving them from the wrath of an angry Mr. Ewell. Atticus is very understanding of human nature, unprejudiced regardless of race, and he is a good father by teaching his kids important values that everyone should learn from and live by. …show more content…

He is a good lawyer, and this emotion he can perceive helps him with his job. Atticus destroyed Mr. Ewell’s reputation, even though he had little to begin with. “So if spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella Ewell one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take” (Lee 218). Atticus knows that Mr. Ewell beat his daughter, and Atticus is willing to take some bullying to help out another person. Mayella has a family that doesn’t help or care for her. Atticus sees this, and he understands the Ewell’s blamed Tom Robinson for rape, because Mr. Ewell doesn’t want to get in trouble. Also, Hitler is in power, and Scout learned about him in class. Scout talks about Hitler to her father, and he responds, “‘It’s not okay to hate anybody’” (Lee 246). Atticus has good ideals, and realizes you shouldn’t hate anyone, even if they are inhuman. Atticus understands how Mayella and Tom feel, and he is able to be a good lawyer and a very caring person while understanding how to uphold your

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He does not judge people right away because of their actions. Miss Stephanie Crawford also states, “Mr.Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him” (Lee, 291). After all that Mr.Ewell has done to Atticus, he does not bat an eye. Atticus was

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Atticus can not see the bad in anybody. He can not see the bad in how Hitler is, “‘puttin’ [the Jews] in prisons and taking away all their property and he won’t let any of ‘em out of the country and he’s washin’ all the feeble minded’”(Lee 327-328). Atticus is too nice to be an effective parent. If Atticus continues to teach his children that everybody is good, what happens when they encounter the bad people? Atticus’s belief that everybody in the world is good is false.

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Atticus tries his best to teach and show others-specifically Scout and Jem-how to judge what is right and what is wrong. First, Atticus tells Scout a very valuable life lesson. This is said when Scout was complaining to Atticus about her day at school, he said to her, “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” (Lee 30). Atticus is telling scout that she cannot truly judge someone's actions until she sees things from their side. This is something that Scout only understands near the end of the novel, when she sits on Arthur Radley’s front porch and tries to see what he see when he sits there, and she imagines how Boo see the events in the novel and in doing so began to understand him.

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Father, lawyer, and friend, the gentlemanly Atticus Finch hopes to shape the character of his children. The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is the story of the childhood of the young girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Throughout the book, Scout’s father, Atticus, tries his best to raise her and her brother, Jem, the right way as a single parent. To Kill a Mockingbird exemplifies the way the character of Atticus Finch either uses ritual or abandons it in order to develop certain character qualities within his children. He is specifically focuses on the development of honesty, courage, and humility.

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Atticus is the lawyer for Tom Robinson, the man falsely accused of raping a white girl. Atticus teaches Jem and Scout, that just because a man is black he is not a bad person. He teaches them not to judge a person by the color of their skin.

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The novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written in 1960 by Harper Lee in the point of view of a young innocent girl named Scout. One of the main messages that Lee has (need a new word than – indicated or set out) is racism, it plays an important role which strongly impacts many character’s lives unfairly and changes the relationship between two. Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” shows that it is wrong to hurt someone who does no harm to you, for example, black people are innocent but no way did they have as many rights as white people did. Black people lived hard lives because society was judgemental, irrational and most importantly, racist. As Scout and Jem grow older they learn to cope, take responsibility and are introduced to new aspects of life, one of which is racism.

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The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, tells the story of two children, Jem and Scout Finch living in Maycomb, Alabama, around the time of the Great Depression. Their father, Atticus, also happens to be a lawyer and tries teaching the children strong moral values, such as not holding prejudices against others based on skin tone or social background. In addition, Atticus happens to be defending an African-American man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of rape by one of the more undesirable members of the town, Mayella Ewell and her father Bob. In the end, however, Tom cannot escape the racism that plagues Maycomb and after many hours of deliberation by the jury, he is convicted and sent to jail. There Tom tries to regain his freedom and escape but he is shot and killed.

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He was appointed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson for raping Mayella Ewell. Most townsfolk caught news of this and instantly began to give Atticus dirty looks and began calling him vulgar names. Atticus, is a very nice person who wants to do the right thing, and he has an opinion about people who disagree with him defending Tom Robinson. “They’re certainly entitled to think they, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions.” (120).

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The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set during the depression in a small town called Maycomb. The novel is a coming of age story where you are taken through the eyes of Scout(Jean Louise) Finch who has to face the vices of society. The novel takes you through the issues of classism, sexism and racism and how the main characters; Scout, Jem, Atticus and Calpurnia protest the vices of society. Racism, being so evidently expressed in the novel, is one of the main vices of society that is being protested in the novel to kill a mockingbird. Towards the end of the trial, prior to a long, intense debate between Tom Robinson’s lawyer Atticus and Mayella Ewell’s lawyer Mr. Gilmer, Atticus turns to the court and says “Which, gentleman,

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“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”(Lee 30). These are the words of Atticus Finch, the wisest character in the famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. He is a fictional man that embodies human traits that all people should strive to emulate. In the novel; narrated by Atticus’ daughter Jean Louise Finch, more often referred to as Scout; Atticus defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white female, Mayella Ewell. The main message of the text is the prominence of racial injustice, specifically in the 1930’s, the era the novel takes place in.

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In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.

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Atticus is a lawyer, and he is asked by Judge Taylor to take the case. Judge Taylor trusted Atticus on this case. Atticus also showed that he could be trusted, by the things he did in spite of the case. For example, he protected Tom. If Atticus didn’t trust Tom, and thought that he did rape Mayella Ewell, then he perhaps wouldn’t have done what he did.

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