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How Does Lee Use Segregation In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In Harper Lee's book "To Kill a Mockingbird," racism and segregation are themes that are influenced by the society in which Lee lived. Jim Crow laws were a common example of segregation; they forbade inter-racial marriage and required black and white customers to be separated in establishments and public areas. An instance of this would be “"The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their black and white clientele separated." (#2-Jim Crow laws)” This lack of communication between black and white individuals was enforced in places like Monroeville, Alabama, Lee's hometown, probably having an impact on how she views racial discrimination going forward. Lee may have witnessed …show more content…

According to Scout on page 259 of chapter 23, “"No everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowiin'. That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothing's wrong with him, though. Naw Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks. "(Pg 259) She stands up for Walter Cunningham, acknowledging that his life circumstances, rather than his family's financial problems, define his worth. This situation shows Scout's views on equality. At the end of the book, Scout reflects on the nature of her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. She thinks to herself, “"Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor, too. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing and made me sad." (Pg 320) Even though these actions are modest, they have a big impact on Scout because they help her see that Boo is a kind and loving person in their lives rather than a villain. Scout's journey is ultimately one of maturation and awareness as she discovers how to embrace kindness and empathy in a racist

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You weren’t born reading The Mobile Register”(Lee 22). Scout was also very thoughtful as shown in this quote “No, everybody's gotta learn, nobody's born knowin'. That Walter's as smart as he can be, he just gets held back sometimes because he has to stay out and help his daddy. Nothing's wrong with him. Naw, Jem, I think there's just one kind of folks.”(Lee 37).

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Unlike Jem, she is not nearly as impervious to prevalent biases present in her community. They constantly interfere with her thoughts on her peers and it shows. When Walter Cunningham, a classmate of Scout’s from a less wealthy (and less privileged, one might argue) family joins them for dinner, she gives no thought to Walter’s value and deduces it as close to none, insisting that “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham” (Lee 33), no doubt as a result of uneducated surrounding authority figures, such as the undeniably ignorant Miss Caroline. Furthermore, Scout quickly succumbed to the primitive fables behind Boo Radley. Her point of view, which is of the likes that “Boo Radley drove the scissors into his parent’s leg” (Lee 13), has been distorted by rumors of the Radley family borne of nothing more than childish boredom and the lack of palpable

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How Did Harper Lee Use Segregation In To Kill A Mockingbird

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What is your take on racism and segregation? This essay is about how Harper Lee’s society were shown through her characters while writing To Kill A Mockingbird. The society shaped and influenced Harper Lee to write To Kill A Mockingbird by teaching her how people can be different from one another. For instance, in the text it states, “In the south, Jim Crow laws mandated segregation in all public facilities from 1876 until 1965, and therefore sanctioned discrimination against black people throughout Lee’s childhood” (Shmoop). To sum up, when Harper Lee was growing up in Alabama there was segregation and people treated different races differently.

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When walking home after dropping Boo home, Scout had a thought to herself about her neighbor Boo and it was about how neighbors bring each other gifts and how “Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls,a broken watch and chain, a pair of a good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad.”

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Segregation is “the action or state of setting someone or something apart from other people or things or being set apart.” The Jim Crow laws is a “alegalized segregation between blacks and whites.” Harper Lee includes elements of segregation into her book by when Calpurnia runs to the Radley’s front door to warn them about the bad dog running wild amoungst the streets. Scout then wonders “ Shouldn’t she go to the back door”. Another example is when Scout is being bullied at school for the fcat that her father is defending a black man.

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Boo has helped Scout change her viewpoint from thinking that he’s a scary person who always stays inside to finding out that he actually cares about her and chooses to live inside because he prefers to stay where he can observe what’s going on in the town and protect people when needed, which helps teach Scout that you can’t assume things without knowing the facts. Scout starts out believing that Boo is a mean person who is out to her her and she quickly learns that Boo’s intentions aren’t to hurt her, but rather help her when she needs it most. For example, in the beginning of the book Scout was scared of Boo Radley and the Radley house as shown, “I ran by the Radley house as fast as I could, not stopping till I reached our porch”(Lee 44).

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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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“Neighbors bring food with death and flowers with sickness and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and a chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives.” (Lee 171). In this quote, Scout is somewhat puzzled on why Boo is giving her and her brother such odd presents.

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The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow Laws. The Jim Crow laws are a disgusting set of rules. The Jim Crow laws had the goal of keeping white people separate from black people(Pilgrim 1). They thought they needed the rules because they believed that white people are supreme to black people in every way(Pilgrim 2). This belief founded their need

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Scout then realizes that boo isn't such a bad person. You're right we better keep this and the blanket to ourselves. Someday, maybe, Scout can thank him for covering her up.¨ ¨Thank who?¨ ¨Boo Radley¨. Scout was too focused on the fire to realize Boo who she had previously thought was different and weird because she was young and believed anything.

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Scout’s growth can also be seen after she walks Arthur home. She stops for a second and thinks: “Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a pair of good-luck pennies, and our lives. But neighbors give in return. We never put back into the tree what we took out of it: we had given him nothing, and it made me sad” (Lee 373).

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