In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, she talks about a white family in a town called Maycomb. It takes place during the 1930’s which was a hard time to grow up and live in and there was racism and struggles with money. Jem the son and his sister Scout spent much time with their friend Dill. Over summer they would like to spy on their mysterious neighbor Boo Radley. Their father Atticus is a lawyer and he is defending a black man named Tom Robinson, who is on trial for the rape of a white girl.
Idhaant Bhosle Ms.Morgan EN 100 (H) 8 March 2023 The Role of Language, Power, and Societal Status in Confronting Racism and Inequality in To Kill a Mockingbird Race has always been a defining factor in American society, shaping the way people interact with each other and the world around them. Similarly, In Harper Lee’s classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores how race structures relationships in terms of power, language, and social status. To Kill A Mockingbird is set in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s, the novel is told from the eyes of Jean Louise Finch, Scout Finch, a young girl growing up in a world where society is divided by the prejudices of others. Scout is the daughter of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, defending an African
Have you ever wondered why people are treated differently for something they can’t control, like skin color, gender, or race? This treatment is a persistent shadow in history, and it can be seen throughout the Robinson family. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the Robinsons exhibit some ways that black people struggle to feel involved in their town. Maycomb largely divided its people through racism, and the Robinson family were the ones publicly victimized the most in the novel. Lee uses this family to show that social inequality and division are complex and can affect anyone.
In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the most significant themes is race and social class cause inequalities. For example, the all-white jury decided an innocent black man’s verdict, when Judge Taylor polled the group, the vote was unanimous “guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty…” (Lee 112). The white men were all considered of higher class than Tom and going into the trial they all already knew the outcome. Furthermore, Bob knew that he could use Tom to cover up his mistakes and once he got his daughter to go along, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 128).
Social Inequality in, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Harper Lee demonstrates her terrific writing ability while displaying the theme of social inequality within, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ She uses literary elements like symbolism and imagery to allude to the injustice and prejudice in the town. Without social inequality many of the events in the story would never have happened, especially the main conflict. Lee also used both experiences from her own life and real world events as inspirations in the story. Social inequality in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is reinforced by both poverty and racism with black residents being considered inferior to all other people.
In the United States, we may say that social and economic discrimination no longer exists, however, racism and classism still apply in society today. An example of this is in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus Finch suspects that Mayella Ewell’s injuries don't match up to the story she and her father Bob Ewell are telling, so Atticus asks Tom Robinson to catch a ball and he catches it with his right hand as opposed to Bob Ewell who is left-handed. In the scene, Lee uses characterization and dialogue that Mayella uses to convey the theme that racism and classism rely on power structures that serve to diminish the importance of other human lives. This is important to the novel because it shows how racism affects the town of Maycomb. They knew Bob Ewell hit his daughter, but because Tom Robinson was a black man, he fell in the lowest class in their society.
Greta Thunberg once said, “Being young is a great advantage since we see the world from a new perspective and we are not afraid to make radical changes.” The open-mindedness of young individuals helps them to see the world and accept new ideas and social changes when an adult may not due to their previous experiences and biases. Unfortunately, younger people do not have as much knowledge or experience in the world, so they may not understand the importance or significance of some events. Throughout the events of the Historical Fiction novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the narrator Scout is a young, white girl living in Alabama with her family during the Great Depression and Jim Crow era. Harper Lee paints the picture of a typical southern town during this time, full of racial tension that was heightened due to the Great Depression and rigid social norms.
In any city there is social injustice, whether it be race, gender, class, or any other defining factor a person, there is always someone who think they are superior to others. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird she writes about a the injustices in a small town called Maycomb through the eyes of an impressionable little girl named Scout. Scout experiences racism, sexism, and hate against poorer people. In The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas writes about a girl named Starr who also see’s injustices in her more modern town Garden Heights.
Racism; an ongoing issue with the American people, as well as countries around the world. Racial opinions have been a problem throughout the history of the United States and still are. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee addresses many instances of racism, and displays how popular it was in America. For example, when Calpurnia brought Jem and Scout to the First Purchase church, a colored lady did not want whites going to their church. Also, later on in the story, the jury declared Tom Robinson guilty because of his skin color.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates that social inequality breaks down a society through the use of conflict, symbolism and irony. Social inequality plays a pivotal role in the novel because the whole conflict between Bob and Tom is wrapped in it. From the first accusation to the final conviction inequality is intertwined in every paragraph, every word. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that stands the test of time because while our society has made improvements, inequality will never truly go away. This novel displays characters you relate to, ones you despise, and all that you fall in love with.
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, in Maycomb County, there are unfair events that happen to people because of wrong things that others believe in. Since people in Maycomb County believe in those preconceived ideas, some of the characters like Walter Cunningham, the negroes, and Scout don’t get equal rights. Even if it’s the early 1930s, inequality still exists to this day: social, gender, and race/color. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, readers can see that prejudice and bias creates inequality. One reason why inequality is a central problem in To Kill A Mockingbird is where you stand in the economy.
The Still Mysterious Death of Edgar Allan Poe One hundred sixty six years later, Edgar Allan Poe’s death is shrouded in mystery and could be torn from the pages of his own works. Friends and family reeled at the passing of Poe, who died at the early age of 40 years old. Doctors at the time concluded that Edgar Allan Poe died of from congestion of the brain. This was an ambiguous term that described many causes of death.
How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.
Racism, family background, and wealth are the three main forms of social inequality that appear multiple times in To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee proves that the Negroes are not respected at all simply because of their skin color. They are so disrespected and looked down on to the point they have their own little community out of the town away from the white people. Although, the colored are racists towards the white people in Maycomb.
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.
