How Does Race Affect Language In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Martin Luther King Jr exclaimed, “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she uses the character of Scout as a narrator, to express the story of her father, Atticus Finch, who defended Tom Robinson in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. During the course of the book, Scout and Jem, Scout’s brother, learn crucial lessons from her dad, such as understanding people’s point of view and innocence. Even though separation according to race is encountered in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that race also shapes people’s language, their social relationships and social status, including their behavior between themselves. She wants to demonstrate that race also affects conduct between people.
Harper Lee has depicted the separation between Caucasians and African-Americans in To Kill a Mockingbird by showcasing how White talk and African-American talk influences conduct between people of different races. For instance, when the children, Scout and Jem went to the church with Calpurnia, and they accessed the church. Subsequently, Scout stated, ‘“Calpurnia tilted her hat and scratched her head, then pressed her hat down carefully over her ears.’ Meanwhile, Calpurnia said, ‘Now what if I talked white folks ' talk at church, and with my neighbours? They 'd think I was puttin ' on airs to beat Moses’” (139). Specifically, Scout stated, she “scratched her head,” referring to Calpurnia, …show more content…

To synthesize, this depicts that even though division based on race is experienced in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee represents that race also influences people’s usage of language, their social connections and social standing and how they treat each other because she wants to depict that race also influences conduct between citizens. Today, in the Southern United States, there’s more equality and conduct isn’t officially influenced by race but is our work done