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How Does Lee Use Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Scout, who is the protagonist, is six years old and lives in Maycomb County, Alabama. She has the talent of reading when most people her age still can't and that is thanks to her father, Atticus who is a lawyer and her cook who In addition, the historical novel has a lot of gender inequality, injustice, and racial discrimination. Scout is a young girl, who is not like other girls, for she is like a tomboy who likes to play outside, play with her brother, and get dirty. Furthermore, she knows the laws that only a lawyer would know because of her father Atticus. On the other hand, she lost her mother, and her father is hardly around, so she doesn't have a parental figure around. Unless you consider her family cook named Calpurnia that reprimands her when she doesn't behave properly. There is racial discrimination in the novel when a black male is accused of rape and when Atticus, Scout’s father, agrees to be his lawyer. As a …show more content…

Last, everyone in the Maycomb is frightened of him due to the fact that he has a mental illness. Despite his illness, he rescues Scout and her brother Jem, who were walking home from a game when they were ambushed by a man walking nearby. The man hurt Jem causing him an injured arm, and unexpectedly Boo Radley rescued them both and took them home safely. This action alone changed Scout’s perception of him into an appreciative one. Overall, “To Kill A Mockingbird shows the effect of injustice, discrimination, and inequality. There are many challenges Scout and her brother face must face, but they overcome them all one by one, and the least expected character Boo Radley helped them face one of them. Scout learned that you can’t believe the rumors that go around and thanked Boo Radley for his help as a result of being concerned about Jem’s injury

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In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, and Witch Hunt by Marc Aronson, prejudice is rampant. It has many forms, it can be easily seen, but yet it is rarely noticed. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus hopes that he “can get Jem and Scout through [the trial] without bitterness, and without catching Maycomb’s usual disease [racial prejudice],” similar to the Salem Witch Trials and that “Tituba’s appearance and heritage probably were not what influenced the girls [to accuse people of witchcraft and act strangely], the fact that she was Indian was enough.” Atticus explains that during the trial of Tom Robinson, racial prejudice is going to become very apparent to Jem and Scout. He doesn't want his children to go down a path of biased views of people

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It’s an awful feeling knowing that no matter how hard you work, you’ll never earn as much money as your white counterpart. Sadly, this has been the case for hundreds of years for African Americans living in the United States. To Kill a Mockingbird reveals the everyday struggles that African Americans endured during the 1930’s. Many of the events in the novel were based on the author, Harper Lee’s life. Just like Atticus, Lee’s father was also a lawyer.

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Scout Finch, a once disorderly girl, changes a lot when her father, Atticus, takes the responsibility of defending a black man. Scout matures quickly when she is faced with discrimination and hatred towards her father. The atmosphere of discrimination in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee affects Scout, by creating a hostile environment that teaches her important lessons, forcing Scout to protect herself and her father, and learning that challenging the traditional way of life was not always wrong. It must have been a confusing time for Scout Growing up in Maycomb, because once her father took the role as an attorney for a black man, everything started to change.

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Throughout the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, the readers can see how Scout changes her view about Boo Radley. Because of their nosiness, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to drag Boo out his house and to the outside world. Their innocent actions combined with Boo’s actions changed the image of Boo, in their minds, from “a malevolent phantom” (10), a person who kills cats and eats squirrels to a neighbor they can trust, who saves them from Bob Ewell. Scout says at the end, “Boo was our neighbor” (373). The readers can see a great change in their relationship.

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Discrimination has been and still is a cruel problem in America. Although as a country prejudice and discrimination have improved America will never fully achieve racial and social equality. Books such as To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee show us what racism and prejudice were like in the past which is not completely different from what’s happening today in the modern world. In To Kill a Mockingbird Tom Robinson is on trial for raping Mayella Ewell.

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Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.

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Boo Radley is a very quiet man who got into trouble with the law at a young age and has stayed inside his house since. Around town, he is seen as a bad man who is very weird for staying inside his house, and rumors about him are everywhere. Scout and Jem hear about this and are very interested about this, so they go and mess around at his house. Even with all these people thinking he is a weird, crazy person, Boo Radley is still a great person. When there was a fire, the kids were outside when it was cold, and Boo Radley was nice enough to wrap a blanket around Scout.

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Innocence is a time in one’s life of carefreeness and peace. In youth, children have yet to experience the harsh realities of life, and when they do, it is often hard to cope with. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays Maycomb’s prejudiced ways through an unfair trial of an innocent man, and through the treatment of certain members of the community. The young narrator, Scout, and her older brother, Jem, experience growth and learn compassion when the trial exacerbates Maycomb’s intense intolerance. In this novel, Lee uses the characterization of the Finch children to demonstrate that innocent children who have been exposed to their community’s prejudice, often have trouble adjusting, but need a mentor figure to help them mature.

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Boo Radley is compassionate for the children as they communicate through presents and the mysterious hints. As Scout grows older her perspective on Boo changes, from a creepy guy to a friend. Boo Radley is the mockingbird to Scout's understanding, just like Tom Robinson was a mockingbird to Jem. From Atticus's teachings she has learned to develop into a young lady. Atticus's lessons and Boo Radley impacted her view on the world.

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“Our Mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absences.” In the beginning of Harper Lee’s Novel To Kill a Mockingbird a young girl named Scout portrays a character like no other. Scout plays a cheery, imaginative, curious, tough, and a bit of a tomboy at the same time sort of character. She lives in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama with her older brother and father, but no mother. Having no major female influence in her life, other than their housekeeper/caregiver Scout had a close relationship with her brother and preferred to run around on the dirt roads, climb trees and do just about anything that the average little boy enjoyed doing instead or acting more like a girl.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

And eventually, after Boo saves Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell, and she takes him home, Scout realizes that “... Just standing on the Radley front porch was enough (Lee 374),” for her to see through Boo’s eyes. She finally begins to understand Boo and why he acts the way that he does. Ultimately, teaching her that she shouldn’t listen to rumors or judge someone simply because they are different. The town of Maycomb is a perfect setting for To Kill a Mockingbird.

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If not for the major characters, the minor characters have played an equally important role in Maycomb with their contrasting views. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is mainly about Jem and Scout growing up under the difficult situations created in Alabama during The Great Depression. Stereotypes and discrimination are major problems in Maycomb. Scout and Jem Finch are raised by Atticus, with the help of Calpurnia, their maid. In the first part of the book, Scout, Jem and Dill are fascinated by Boo Radley because of the rumors they hear about him, and they try everything to make him come out of his house.

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Florence Nightingale 2 Florence Nightingale was a legend in her period and was one of the greatest modernizers in nursing. In her 90 years, she accomplished great things in the nursing field. Her accounts of nursing health, environment, and humanity are outstanding and still accurate to this day. Nightingale transformed nursing and changed the way nursing was regarded. She still impacts nursing today and issues during her time continues to persist.

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In the story Boo Radley plays the role of Scout and Jem’s guardian angel. He watches over them and helps them when they get into trouble. In the first chapters, the kids make fun of Boo, they taunt him. All they know about him is what they have heard, that he is a crazy man. Throughout the story though, Boo proves them wrong.

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Children go to school to gain knowledge, but life can give children the most important education. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem, and Scout are two growing children navigating life in the 1930’s in racist Alabama. They see racism throughout their town and have to navigate how they want to live their lives or follow their town. In their own school, they see racist people, and they often question what they hear, see, and learn.

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