Jasper Jones Racism Quotes

In the novel Jasper Jones the ideas of racism, family and friendship are greatly influenced by the context of the novel. This essay will explain how an understanding of the time, setting, context of the author and my own context influences each of these ideas.

The context in Jasper Jones influences the idea of racism a lot and also affects the characters. Jasper Jones is set in 1965, in a small town called Corrigan in Australia. The Vietnam War is going on in the background of the novel and affects a character called Jeffrey. Jeffrey is a young Vietnamese boy. His family is not welcome in the small town of Corrigan and are abused and bullied. In the novel Jeffrey’s mother gets hot water spilt on her because the ladies husband died in the

Charlie forms his values, attitudes and beliefs from these books and admires qualities of the characters in some. One character being Atticus Finch, when Charlie needs to make a decision about something he often refers back to Atticus and says, “What would Atticus Finch do?” With an insight of where Charlie gets his attitudes, values and beliefs from, we can understand why he behaves the way he does and why he is so smart and intelligent. The reader can understand why Charlie doesn’t bully Jeffrey and why he has respect for his family and doesn’t judge them. The reader can also see why Charlie and Jeffrey’s friendship works so well and why the respect each other.

My own context also influences the ideas in the novel. I am from a small town in WA so I can relate to some situations in the novel to do with the rumours and how some people can be named the “bad guy” in town. I also can relate to Charlie and Jeffrey’s friendship because I have a similar one. This gives me more understanding of the novel and makes me relate to it more.

With an understanding of context in Jasper Jones, the reader can relate more to the characters and understand the novel’s ideas of racism, family and friendship. We can get an idea of how the author constructed the novel and why each character was placed where they are through the time and setting of the