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Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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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 …show more content…

Maycomb was a town divided by race and social status, for example the educated middle income Finch family of narrator Scout, the poor white family Mayella Ewell (accuser character) and poor black man Tom Robinson (the accused character). Lee uses this setting to highlight the ways societal prejudice are reinforced. Lee’s use of language devices such as symbolism and social justice metaphors. This emphasises the social and cultural divisions that exist within the town. “The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord’s kindness am I.” (Chapter 24, pp261). This statement is a powerful message of equality as at the time only Black Americans where automatically considered ‘bad’ solely on race and regardless of actual character. Considering the time and place expectations of 1930s southern America, this behaviour upholds the expectations of society. This is a direct result of Lee’s positioning to show that some people use choice to work around contextually appropriate values and …show more content…

There is irony demonstrated in Lee’s development of Atticus’s character who would shoot a dog (personification of a helpless person) to put it out of its misery as Atticus did, but would defend the right of a man marked for death to live, as Atticus again did in taking the case of Tom Robinson. The symbolism in both these events are reflective of the overall symbolic theme in Lee’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Chapter 10, pp100). Lee highlights Tom Robinson’s death through symbolism, the death of any innocent is a sin. The symbolism is reflected in the apt title with the destruction of innocence, due to racism, as the main theme of this

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that prejudice divides communities and that persecution of innocent people is evil; furthermore; these two minor themes reinforce the major thematic idea that a simple assumption can divide people. When Tom Robinson is put on trial for supposedly raped Mayella Ewell, the racism in Maycomb surfaces and creates conflict. In the novel, a stranger says, “You know what we want,” ‘another man said.’ “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.”(172). Some drunken men want to harm Tom Robinson for the wrong that he did.

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To kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence. Mockingbirds do not cause harm or trouble; in fact their only purpose is to convince others with beautiful music. Tom Robinson’s death can easily be compared to that of a mockingbird; it did no good but also prevented no evil. Mr. Underwood chooses to write an article that basically every citizen of Maycomb can understand, and this proves to the reader the obvious connection between Tom Robinson and the symbol of a mockingbird. Mr. Underwood chooses to ignore the prominent racial barrier that separated Tom Robinson from justice, and chooses to focus on his disability instead.

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The ever present distaste from whites in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, shows the issues that blacks had to deal with constantly. Lee was able to portray this hatred by putting and important character, Tom Robinson a black man, on an unjust trial for the alleged rape of a white woman, Mayella Ewell. This classic story reveals the awful conditions and intense racism during this time in the southern Unites States. Some of the many African Americans affected by southern white racists in court or otherwise include the Scottsboro

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879 Words | 4 Pages

Though “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson… in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case.” Despite being a generous man who never hesitated to help those in need – including Mayella Ewell, whose family was seen as unworthy of assistance by many – Tom Robinson was still subjected to racial prejudice and paid the price of his life, akin to killing a mockingbird because it did not serve any good purpose and is therefore an act out of pure spite and cruelty. Tom never had a fighting chance: “[he] was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed”, emphasising his helplessness in the face of danger, relating to mockingbirds as vulnerable prey animals. Tom Robinson’s death was “likened… to the senseless slaughter of songbirds by hunters and children.” “Hunters and children” represent people who impose unnecessary harm onto “songbirds”, whose defencelessness is emphasised by the fact that even children are capable of killing them; this is truer for Tom Robinson, whose vulnerability stems from society’s discriminatory views, something he has no power over.

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Has one ever wondered if racism will ever end because it seems no matter how many years go by, it will live on forever? Luckily there are people in this world who are willing to fight for what is right just like Atticus Finch. In the To Kill a Mockingbird passage, in which Atticus ends the court case with a powerful statement where he is defending Tom Robinson, a black man in the southern state of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930s, Author Harper Lee uses irony and imagery to help develop the theme that the color of people’s skin does not define them as a person and does not automatically make them an awful and guilty person. To commence, Lee uses irony to establish the theme that one can not automatically be guilty because of the color of their

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Intro: The historical fiction book “To Kill a mockingbird” is a story of a lawyer, Atticus, and his two children growing up in the south in the 1930s. In this, Atticus takes a case wherein he has to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. This man is not guilty, but because of the town’s unfounded prejudice and racism, he is sentenced as guilty anyway and ends up dying. In this book, the theme of courage is shown in many ways, using the diction that Harper Lee uses to describe Atticus, the symbolism of Tim Johnson, and the details of Mrs. Dubose’s situation.

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Lee uses Miss Gates’s ironic views of Hitler and Tom’s trial to show how racial prejudice causes crimes against African Americans to be considered less than crimes committed against white people. A mockingbird is then used to symbolize Tom Robinson as an innocent person wrongly convicted of a crime because of his skin color. The misunderstood characterization of Arthur Radley shows how society will let prejudice guide their imaginated view on the lives of people they don't understand. All three characters provide examples of how a preconceived opinion of one person or a whole race can cause drastic misunderstandings and

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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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857 Words | 4 Pages

Essay In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, there are many important messages shown throughout the book. However the primary focus was set on racial prejudice that existed in the 1930s-1940’s in the fictional town of Maycomb County. The racism in the novel was very much a reality in 1930s-1940s America. A very good example of the racial prejudice that existed was in the courtroom during Tom Robinson’s trial, an innocent Negro man held against his will for a crime he did not commit.

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788 Words | 4 Pages

It is a common belief among humankind that we have the ability to think rationally. Additionally, factors such as bias, memory, judgement, and personal psychology demonstrate the nonsensical sides to our mind and behavior. Our perception of humanity promotes the inequality of different races, classes, and ages, which proves the statement: “It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this” (Russell.) Ironically, people have a bias against humanity and its rationale, considering the fact that we are all human.

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830 Words | 4 Pages

As can be seen, Lee’s usage of Tom Robinson’s trial and the racial discrimination and prejudice seen throughout it helps reinforce the theme of social injustice throughout To Kill A Mockingbird. Another encounter that the

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1202 Words | 5 Pages

In "To Kill a Mockingbird," Lee provides a scathing critique of the racial inequality, injustice, and prejudice prevalent in the society of Maycomb. Through the portrayal of the trial of Tom Robinson and the subsequent events that unfold, Lee exposes the deep-rooted racism and discrimination that existed during the Jim Crow era in the South. She also critiques the societal norms, values, and expectations that uphold these injustices, such as the pressure to conform to racist attitudes and the fear of challenging the status quo. Lee's social critique adds depth and relevance to the novel, making it a powerful reflection of the social issues of its

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1244 Words | 5 Pages

In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.

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936 Words | 4 Pages

Jan Lopez Mrs. Herrick English 2 Honors Pd 4 16 January 2018 To Kill a Mockingbird: Essay #1 Throughout history, an individual’s status in society would have been determined by one’s affluence. Discrimination based on one’s level of wealth are one of the fundamental values acknowledged in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel resides amidst the prevalence of segregation and economic declination of the American Great Depression, thus instituting a difficulty in one’s survivability.

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1108 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the novel Harper Lee uses symbolism of many things to strengthen the theme of social inequality. The title of the book is the most obvious use of symbolism. The mockingbird is an animal meant for pleasure. It sings a beautiful song and hurts nothing and no one. When she receives an air gun as a gift, Scout is instructed to leave the mockingbirds alone for “its a sin to kill a mockingbird” and they pose no threat.

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