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Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Prejudice is defined as judging someone based on personal bias without really knowing them. In To Kill A Mockingbird, there are all kinds of prejudice shown through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. From her perspective, we get an insight into the prejudice she sees and faces. Prejudice has shown itself in many forms, including ageism, sexism, and racism; it has affected the way people view each other and has negatively affected their lives. Ageism is a type of prejudice that happens to both young and old people. When it started snowing in Maycomb, Mr. Avery blamed the cold weather on the kids. “‘See what you’ve done?’ he said. ‘Hasn’t snowed in Maycomb since Appomattox. It’s bad children like you makes the seasons change’” (Lee 87). He claimed that it was the kids’ fault that the bad weather occurred based on his opinion and personal bias without having …show more content…

This is shown during a confrontation between Mrs. Dubose and the kids. Mrs. Dubose disapproves of Scout's choice of clothing, as she deems it wasn’t something a girl should wear. “What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways” (Lee 135). Mrs. Dubose criticized Scout’s clothing and told her she won’t do well in life if she continues her ways. Besides Mrs. Dubose, Jem has also commented on Scout’s ways. When Scout disagreed with Jem, he told her she was acting more like a girl. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them” (Lee 54). Jem disapproves of Scout’s feminine behavior and comments that being a girl is something negative. His views affected the way Scout perceived girls. She considers being a girl as something bad while being a boy is something good. Sexism mostly affected the opinions of how women are viewed and

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Atticus sends Jem to go and talk to Ms Dubose after he cut all the flowers in her garden. Scout is worried for her brother so when her and Atticus were sitting on the couch he told her: This case, Tom Robinson’s case, it’s something that goes to the essence of a man's conscience. Scout i couldn't go to church and worship God if i didn't try to help this man.

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Scout shows she realizes what being a girl really is while watching others. “Calpurnia seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl”(Lee 115/116). Scout has had her standards of what women should be by her brother, but once Scout sees Calpurnia working she realizes otherwise - to show her womanly traits instead of hiding them. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with”(Lee 41). Scout has always been taught that girls are bad, and boys have everything that could ever be good - she can not be one of the bad girls if she doesn't act like one.

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Dubose” (Lee 115). Expecting a positive response for the first time ever, but to her understanding Mrs. Dubose retorted in a pragmatic tone, “Don't you say hey to me, you ugly girl!” (Lee 115). Scout wasn't that shocked though because that's all she would ever do, make cynical comebacks to everything she would say. Not only would Mrs. Dubose criticize the children, but she would talk disrespectfully to them about their father, Atticus.

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This shows that Mrs. Dubose is criticizing Scout because of what she’s wearing, and telling her what she should be wearing. She has certain opinions about how things should be and how boys and girls to act like and behave like, and the Finch children are both the exact opposite of her beliefs. Because they are so different

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453 Words | 2 Pages

Aunt Alexandra does not like the fact that Scout wears overalls and would like Scout to be more “ladylike.” Furthermore, an old lady who lives down the street from Scout has very high gender expectations about Scout too. This old lady is named Mrs. Dubose. She did not like the way Scout dressed and expected from her to be wearing a dress when out in public. As Mrs. Dubose states, “‘And you—’ she pointed an arthritic finger at me—‘what are you doing in those overalls?

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When it was snowing in Maycomb, Mr. Avery blamed the kids for the bad weather. “‘See what you’ve done?’ he said. ‘Hasn’t snowed in Maycomb since Appomattox. It’s bad children like you makes the seasons change” (Lee 87).

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997 Words | 4 Pages

“There is no greater disability in society, than the inability to see a person as more”-Robert M Hensel. The book To Kill a Mockingbird, explores the powers and prejudice of racism in the 1930s. During the Great Depression, a young girl named Scout, starts to notice more injustice within her town. Through her eyes, we witness the pervasive racism that exists in her community. Harper Lee’s

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To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells a story of racial prejudice during the Depression and how it is combated. The main development in the novel is that a Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella. Many people in the town of Maycomb, particularly people involved with the case of Tom, have a negative attitude towards African Americans. Prejudice was a terrible issue in the South during the Depression, but Atticus Finch shows that racial injustice can be combated in two main ways, each having different levels of effectiveness.

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Racism has shaped America's history since it was founded. During the civil rights movement, there were many attempts to call out hate, like MLK's speeches or people boycotting segregated buses. However, not all attempts conveyed the message that they wanted. For example Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, is a book that was written during the civil rights era, about a young girl named Scout, who lives through her father, Atticus Finch, defending an innocent black man named Tom Robinson. It tried to tackle racism and how to solve it, but instead black voices, like Tom, and Calpurnia were barely represented, in a story centered around race.

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Alabama in the 1930s was full of racism and prejudice. Harper Lee uses her book To Kill a Mockingbird to express the problems and bring them into the minds of ordinary people. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses mockingbirds to represent innocence, the Radley Place to represent mystery, fear, and understanding, and the sick dog to represent the illness of society. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee uses the mockingbird to represent innocence.

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Dubose, the sick and elderly neighbor of the Finch family. Jem and Scout walk past her house every day to get to town where they always experienced a nasty encounter with Mrs. Dubose. She had once said, “Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say good afternoon, Mrs.Dubose” (115). As it is noticeable, her language is cruel, yells and harasses them, and never speaks with pleasant words.

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Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, presents a depiction of 1930s America, exploring several themes including the blatant racism which was considered normal in that time. Throughout the novel, racism and the corresponding inequality is a key concept that is developed. The novel was inspired by Lee's real life as the authors’ mother had bipolar disorder and rarely left the house, while her father, a lawyer, owned a share of the local newspaper. Lee would have grown up hearing about lynching’s and injustices surrounding the treatment of people who were not considered equal at the time, black people and mentally and physically disabled people like Lee’s mother. Lee successfully demonstrates how the system was corrupted by societal prejudices

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1157 Words | 5 Pages

How did prejudice happen in this world that God made? Prejudice is an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason. In this world, there are a lot of prejudice. Prejudice doesn´t happen suddenly but it happens from a root. Everything happens from a root and that causes to be or do something.

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Lee uses anti stereotype to emphasize this. An example of this is when Scout feels left out from Jem and Dill because she is a girl. Scout said, ““I beat him up twice but it did no

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“ (page 135). People have a set thought of how women should look. Most women in Maycomb do not approve of the way Scout dresses because it’s not “ladylike”. She grew in overalls and playing games that boys were meant to play in others opinions, but no one likes that because of the women stereotype. Mrs. Dubose did not approve of the way Scout dresses because she looks like a boy.

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