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Influencing Generations In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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Influencing Generations The novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written and published by its author, Harper Lee, establishes a well-analyzed portrayal of the 1930s, specifically focusing on racial discrimination in America. The story reveals how African Americans regularly experience harassment and face prejudice from whites. However, Lee not only brings awareness of oppression through the storyline but also shows the reader coming-of-age moments the narrator, Scout, experiences in her perspective as her views about social inequity change and grow from situations involving race she witnessed. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage in which Scout hits Francis after Francis insults Scout’s father, Atticus, by calling him an inappropriate word for defending …show more content…

I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a ******-lover, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family—” (94). From this, we can infer that Francis tends to get racist remarks from the adults around him, especially from Aunt Alexandra, as this is evidence that Aunt Alexandra is a racist. Francis’s racist remarks directly come from what he heard from Aunt Alexandra’s commentary about Atticus’s case. Furthermore, Aunt Alexandra can be seen as a racist when she moves into the Finch’s household and talks to Atticus about Calpurnia during one scene: “And don’t try to get around it. You’ve got to face it sooner or later, and it might as well be tonight. We don’t need her [Capurina] now” (155). Aunt Alexandra is not fond of Calpurnia because she is an African American and, as a result, wants Atticus to remove her from the household. Both Aunt Alexandra and Francis’s behavior proves that not only racism exists in Maycomb County generally, but also in the current Finch family

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532 Words | 3 Pages

Aunt Alexandra’s relationship with Cal is also another example of how she supports segregation. In the text, Scout (Atticus’ daughter) finds out that Aunt Alexandra disapproved of him on the trail of defending a black man from her cousin Francis, “[Aunt Alexandra said that Atticus] turned out a nigger-lover and we'll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb agin. He's ruinin' the family, that's what he's doin'" (Lee 110). This demonstrates how ashamed she is that her brother is defending a black man and that she is scared of what other people will think. One more example that Aunt Alexandra supports segregation is that she is very concerned about the children and Cal’s relationship.

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479 Words | 2 Pages

At the beginning of the book, when Aunt Alexandra was first introduced, she was seen and told to be very racist and malevolent against colored people. And it didn't help that the Finches maid, Calpurnia, was colored. Immediately when she arrived at the Finches, she would tell Calpurnia to, “put my bags in the front bedroom,”

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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

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620 Words | 3 Pages

Calpurnia serves as an amazing role model and mother figure to the children, and yet Aunt Alexandra wants to fire her. She had raised Jem and Scout, and plays an indispensable part of their lives, showering them with discipline, structure, and love. Aunt Alexandra, however, barely existed in the children 's lives up until she moved into the Finch’s home, yet she inflicts great injustice on Calpurnia by failing to recognize the necessitous part of the family that Calpurnia fills. Scout even overhears Aunt Alexandra saying, "...you 've got to do something about her. You 've let things go on too long Atticus, too long.

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Josh Dudovitz Mrs. Kennedy English 8, Period 6 1 March 2016 To Kill A Mockingbird Essay The book To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s. In this novel, Harper Lee uses signposts and craft moves such as tough questions, contrasts and contradictions, and symbolism throughout this book to try to build up a mood. During the 1930’s Aafrican Aamerican people were not treated as equals and did not have the same rights as white people. Scout and Jem’s dad, Atticus Finch takes a case where he defends an African American man, Tom Robinson, who was accused of rape by a white woman.

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When people discriminate against Calpurnia, Atticus hates this because he considers Calpurnia a Finch. Atticus has shown multiple times throughout the novel that he will stick up for others and doesn't discriminate against people who are black. Atticus, as an adult white male, has immense power, he won’t stop himself from using his power to stop Aunt Alexandra from discriminating against Calpurnia. Tom Robbison is a 25-year-old black man with a wife, kids, and a job. This life was thrown away when Mayella Ewell, a nineteen year old white girl, claims Tom assaulted and raped her.

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In Harper Lee's revealing novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the opinion that most Caucasians have toward African-Americans plays an important, interesting, and disturbing role in the development of the story. Although every nation has experienced some sort of hardship or injustice, the fact that racial tensions and problems existed in a highly destructive manner less than a hundred years ago disturbs me. In the selection, a young school-boy, Cecil Jacobs, attacks the protagonist Scout; he states that Scout’s father “[is] a disgrace” because he defends an African man in court (Lee 76). In addition, Cecil uses the n-word in front of other children at school as if its usage strengthened his argument. Along with the rest of the novel, this section shows the positive change that can happen in a mere century if people realize their mistakes and work to amend them.

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(Lee, 72). In this quote, Aunt Alexandra frustrates Atticus with the motive of wanting him to fire Calpurnia due to the color of her skin. Calpurnia is a black woman raising white kids, so she is always seen as a lower-class person in Aunt Alexandra’s eyes. Atticus holds his ground and advises Aunt Alexandra that he will not be firing Calpurnia because she is the backbone of the family. Since she does a lot for the kids and plays an active role in raising

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This is proven when he retaliates Aunt Alexandra who wants to fire Calpurnia: “You may think otherwise, but I couldn’t have got along without her all these years. She’s a faithful member of this family and you’ll simply have to accept things the way they are” (Lee 137). Calpurnia is a black woman, someone with a gender and race possibly considered the least worthy of anything in an inequitable society like Maycomb. Despite this, Atticus defends her against his sister and says that she should be able to stay and work in the Finch house as she desires. He is not affected by the many biases that could be imposed upon her.

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In the early 1900’s, one’s ethnicity, financial status, education and popularity were many factors in determining one’s place in society. Along with the day to day life, those factors shown to have an effect on one’s say in many situations. In spite of this, Harper Lee enunciates the idea that with great courage, anyone (of any background) can stand for what they deem is right, even with foreseen inevitable consequences and obstacles. She displays this in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird. In consequence of Atticus defending the case of Tom Robinson, a black man, in a racist era, both of his children Scout and Jem get attacked by Bob Ewell.

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Grace Merriweather, and Bob Ewell. Aunt Alexandra is one character that is prejudice against African Americans by not liking Calpurnia taking care of Jem and Scout. Aunt Alexandra is also racist against people like the Cunninghams because they are in a lower-class than the Finch’s. Mrs. Merriweather is another character that also does not agree with what Atticus is doing for Tom which leads to her showing behaviors that are prejudice against Tom for being African American. Also, by showing disrespect to her servants, Mrs. Merriweather shows people that she is racist.

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The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, centers around a young girl named Scout and her older brother Jem, following their growth as they discover the complications of the social norms instated in their community during the mid-1930s. As they were raised by a progressive-minded father, the two witnessed firsthand the inequality and stereotypes that the variety of people around them faced. Harper Lee presents this aspect repeatedly in the novel through the eyes of Scout and Jem, who are newly discovering these constructs: prejudice for race, going against traditional social norms, and the gaps between social classes. The two act from a mostly neutral perspective, uninfluenced by the hateful racism and stereotypes that many in

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779 Words | 4 Pages

Life is overfilled with messages, like weeds in a sea in unmaintained grass. Whether it’s warning a person, or pointing out a flaw; these little lessons are there to further grow the positive parts of that person’s personality. A simple demonstration of this is To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. An old, children’s book serving no meaningingful purpose is what it may seem, nevertheless, it actually is a novel that offers a unique outtake on all aspects of human life. In the book, two children Jem and Scout, who learn about equality, racism, and social class through court cases, tea parties and more.

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Although racism was a dilemma across the country, it could mainly be found in the deep south portion of the United States in such states as Mississippi, South Carolina, and Alabama. In the Finch's household, they had a maid by the name of Calpurnia who is of the African American race. The Finch’s have had Calpurnia around since the tragic death of Scout and Jem's mom. Calpurnia has helped the children with their school work and other activities such as religion. Since Aunt Alexandra has come along, she believes that Calpurnia should go to not have the families name have a target on their back just for Calpurnia being black, "Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to.

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Day 7 Theme: I think that the theme in this book is that power can drive people crazy. For example it made the prime minister so paranoid that he took the job of any retired minister. Power also affected the lesser magicians. They aligned themselves with the commoners to take over the government and rule. Demons were also sick of the magician’s power over them so they tricked the commoners and magicians alike to summon their spirit into their human body.

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