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How Does Harper Lee Use Social Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was published in 1960. This novel is a realistic fiction book about a family who lives in Alabama during the Great Depression. This book has a real life plot centered around prejudice ideas that are very relatable to people who lived during the Great Depression era. Prejudice causes many social injustice issues in the novel. Many of them are based on the segregation of whites and blacks in the south during the Great Depression era. Aside from the main racial prejudice, there are two other types of prejudice, one being social class and the other gender. Prejudice is a frequent problem in the novel that really defines the plot and characters. The first and most prominent type of prejudice is racial prejudice. This prejudice is exemplified through white and black people. A main example of racial …show more content…

There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes” (302). This statement clearly shows how much social class prejudice was around at this time. A ten year old is talking about social class prejudice and demeaning people that were not like him and his family. Social class prejudice was such a present theme during these times that it affected people of all ages. The third type of prejudice in this novel is gender prejudice. A clear example of gender prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird is when Jem sees Calpurnia, the housekeeper, working in the kitchen. “She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl” (154). This is a sexist remark because Jem is inferring that women actually do not have any skills. Sexism or gender prejudice is another type of prejudice that is affecting children in this

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“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view” (Harper Lee). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a wonderful book that is enjoyed by many people. The book was published in 1960 but is set in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Lee shows many different ways of what was wrong with society during that time.

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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their

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When stereotyped characters are employed successfully in a novel, they can be very beneficial in achieving the author’s purpose. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the author’s main purpose is to convey the societal norms of racism, ignorance depending on class, how innocence can be destroyed due to prejudice, and even sexism in the 1930s. Rhetorical devices can be used to create a connection to the reader and improve the flow of paragraphs. Harper Lee uses metaphor, ethos, logos, and the stereotyped characters of Tom Robinson, Scout Finch, Atticus Finch and the jury to help portray the societal normalities of the 1930s town of Maycomb, Alabama.

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Scout Finch, Jem Finch and Dill Harris are the center of the classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee. Although this novel was published in the 1960’s it takes place during the Great Depression. These young children shape the story from a very dark time in history by simplifying the ideas of poverty and racial discrimination through their personal adolescent views. During this period of uncertainty, these children are naive to the fear which the rest of society possessed.     This novel takes place in Alabama.

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594 Words | 3 Pages

Alex Ferdinand December 3, 2015 To kill a mockingbird is a novel to talks about all different kind of stereotypes. The book takes place in the 30’s during the great depression and the author uses a young girl's perspective to show how these stereotypes are used so often and how terrible there were. Themes such as racism and sexism are portrayed by the author in creative ways. To kill a mockingbird is very much still relevant to today's society in a rascism point of view. The reason to kill a Mockingbird is relevant today is because of the growing revival of racism in our country.

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Social prejudice is shown throughout Harper Lee’s award winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee powerfully analyses the theme social prejudice, and its effect on people. Such as how the Social prejudice is discrimination based on your status in society. An example of social prejudice would be the Radley family, which consists of Boo Radley, Nathan Radley and Arthur Radley. As they haven’t been out of their house in years people are lead to believe the rumours.

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In the 1930s, significant in how social injustice has impacted what some races could and could not legally do. The readers see unfair treatment occurring early in the novel with an example of Tom Robinson “ The school for white students was a place black children only dream about” (page 72). In this quote it shows how back then due to one's skin color children would not have the same opportunity as whites.

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was originally published on July 11, 1960. This book is considered to be a staple in American literature. It is well written and seems like a very real story. It deals with themes such as racism, social inequalities, and the symbolic mockingbird.

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Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird much of the focus in this book is on prejudices and discrimination which is shown greatly through points of gender, race, and social classes. (P.A.W. 2) In To Kill a Mockingbird there is gender discrimination shown greatly

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Bias and prejudice influence the way people judge, think, and form opinions about other people or situations. Although they still exist today, bias and prejudice were especially present during the 1930’s in small, rural towns across the country. There were many examples of bias and prejudice in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee conveys that bias and prejudice are negative and effected Tom Robinson and the Cunninghams in an unfavorable way. In the story, Tom Robinson was accused of rape.

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An example of prejudice in this section of the novel is how Clayton McAllister ended his engagement with Miss Love after finding out that her father had raped her. The prejudice lies in the idea (without any basis whatsoever) that virgins are somehow more pure than the rest of women, or that if a woman isn’t a virgin, be it by her own choice or not, that that makes her any less worthy of marriage. Miss Love, being that she was just a child and was being taken advantage of by her own father, was not in any way responsible for what occurred, and had no choice in the matter. In this way, this sort of prejudice can be compared to that against skin color, gender, appearance, or sexuality, all of which are widely accepted as immoral. Mr. McAllister

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Prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird Prejudice in the 1950s was a problem and it still is in 2017. When it comes to the topic of prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys it is important that before judging someone, get to know them better. One example of prejudice Harper Lee uses in To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson. In the small town of Maycomb almost everyone assumes Tom is guilty of raping Mayella Ewell even though there is no evidence or reasoning.

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803 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird portrays many types of prejudice such as sexism, lifestyle and racism. Sexism is represented through respect and roles of genders. Women were considered weak, they were expected to be elegant and ladylike. It was expected that women stay home and care for the house and children. Jem would often tease Scout for being a girl.

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718 Words | 3 Pages

In the modern world, we are surrounded by judgement and discrimination. Nearly everyone is faced with hardships and insults based on their beliefs, habits, interests, and appearance. In a time of such hatred, there is a handful of pieces of literature that have spoken truth through the ages. One such book is To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression in the fictional southern town of Maycomb, Alabama.

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Although the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, took place in the 1930s, it ties closely into the Civil Rights Movement. This novel displayed the obvious superiority whites had over blacks. It took place during a time when colored people faced discrimination, prejudice, and racism. When the book was published in the 1960s, it made whites furious, resulting in a lot of controversy. Harper Lee had a goal when writing, she wanted to show the relation between actual events that happened during the civil rights and incorporate it into her own novel to show how cruel colored people were treated, specifically when whites accused blacks of doing sinful acts.

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