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Theme Of Gender Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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The novel To Kill a MockingBird is about what is happened in the life of Jean Louise Finch aka Scout the Main Character. Throughout the novel To Kill a MockingBird, the author Harper Lee gives the reader insight into haw discrimination about racial, gender, socioeconomic affects the community. To Kill a MockingBird takes place in Maycomb,Alabama. This story takes place in the 1930s.Some main characters in the novel are Atticus Scout and Jem’s father, Scout, Jem, Calpurnia is a black women who takes care of Jem and Scout. In the novel To Kill a MockingBird there is a lot of socioeconomic discrimination. In the Novel there is a family called The Cunninghams and they are very poor but they work very hard. “Miss Caroline went to her desk and opened …show more content…

In this quote it shows gender discrimination. “But I kept aloof from their more foolhardy schemes for a while, and on pain of being called a girl”(Lee 55). This quote shows how it bothers Scout when they call her a girl even when she is a girl. Here is another quote showing gender discrimination. “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagine 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 54). This quote also shows how Scout thinks that being called a girl is bad when it is not. In this quote it also shows gender discrimination when Jem is talking to Scout. “ Jem was scowling triumphantly. ‘Nothin‘ to it. I swear, Scout,sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin’ ”(Lee 50). So in this quote it says that it is mortifyin to be a …show more content…

In this first quote shows a lot of racial remarks. “ “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an‘ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!”(Lee 102). This quote shows how the people of Maycomb are being racist because they want Tom Robinson who supposedly raped a white female to hanged from a water-tank. The is a person in the story that is called Francis who is very racist towards black people. “Francis rose and sprinted down the catwalk to the old kitchen. At a safe distance he called, “He’s nothin‘ but a nigger-lover!”(Lee 110). In this quote it shows how Francis is being racist and mean to Atticus and Tom Robinson. He is being racist to Tom because he is black and he is being mean to Atticus is because he is backing up Tom Robinson and Francis is calling Atticus a nigger-lover. Another person who is racist in the novel is known as Mrs.Dubose and she is racist towards black people as well. In this quote Mrs. Dubose also says that Atticus is backing up black people and trash. “ Jem said softly, “She said you lawed for niggers and trash” (Lee 138). So in this quote she is referring black people as trash and that they are

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Scout is showing courage when she does not care what others think. For example when she was at school and Cecil Jacobs says Atticus “defends niggers” Scout is quick to defend. She yells, “You take can just take that back, boy”(Lee 99). Though she is wrong, Scout must think to herself she is to be the one to stand up for her father.

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1702 Words | 7 Pages

I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl its mortifyin’.” (38) When rolling around in a tire, Scout found herself petrified, after she landed in the neighborhood legend’s yard. She was too scared of the supposed murderer within the house to move, so Jem then found it necessary to ridicule Scout for her fear and girl-like behavior. Despite Jem and Dill being Scout’s only friends, they still turn her away or shame her from and during their daily games solely for being too much of a girl. Scout thinks being called a girl is a terrible insult because she doesn’t want to identify with the weak image most women supposedly have.

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803 Words | 4 Pages

Atticus is asked to defend an African American man named Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white woman. While Atticus knows it’d be impossible to win he is willing to fight to the end knowing Tom is innocent. During all of this ordeal, Atticus is up against his white folks, who disguises him. Atticus is not the only one who is affected, but his kids too, “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a lie i do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral…

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

Francis, who is not much older to Scout, is already displaying racism, revealing the problematic rhetoric going around Maycomb County. Later in the novel, the day before Tom Robinson’s  trial a mob made of white men attempt to kidnap and lynch

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514 Words | 3 Pages

He had announced in the schoolyard the day before Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem” (Top of page.62). Through this quote it is clear that Scout has gotten into trouble and many fights before. This is also a step closer to being more mature and lady like.

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1232 Words | 5 Pages

Scout is again being taunted by a peer for her father’s defense of a black person. Although Atticus has tried to instill in his children a sense of morality, it is tested by the racist residents of Maycomb. Scout here learns of prejudice that she doesn’t understand because Atticus has raised his children to be logical and to value a person for themselves rather than their skin color. Blatant racism is also demonstrated on page 135 when Ms. Dubose says to Scout and Jem, “‘Your father’s no better than the niggers and the trash he works for!’” The fact that an old woman is attacking young children for their father’s profession, shows how Maycomb is deeply rooted in racism.

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887 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee masterfully wove strong traits into these women, making the book so much more meaningful. A real and serious theme lies behind the lighthearted tone and jokes of women, sexism persists to linger even in Scout’s world and today’s. Starting out with feeling uncomfortable in her own skin because of her gender, Scout went to acknowledging and valuing the strengths of women by the end of the book. She witnessed men and boys alike talking inconsiderately and being sexist in general, yet she stayed true to herself in the end. Albeit hard times troubled her family and threatened her life and those of her loved ones, Scout herself acts like a determined, strong-willed girl in similarity to the women around her.

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1049 Words | 5 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird there are lots of racial, gender, and religious, discrimination. Which is shown a multiple amount of times throughout the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee which takes place in Maycomb Alabama, where there is a lot of racial discrimination. But there is also some gender, and religious, discrimination.

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1317 Words | 6 Pages

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The author Lee demonstrates some major themes such as social inequality, intolerance, education, legal justice and bravery through this character. The title To Kill a Mockingbird symbolises innocence where Lee explores this through the eyes of Jem and Scout who are kids of Atticus Finch. He is one of the most honest, patient, kind, fair, respected and admired men in Maycomb during the Great Depression. Atticus is known for his moral character throughout the book.

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645 Words | 3 Pages

41, and Atticus finds out. Scout gets worried that Atticus might know that what they were playing was related to the radleys, and tells Scout that she “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.” this is one of the biggest examples of gender in the book, and shows that being a girl is the highest and worst insult, even amongst the children. And a few pages later, Scout says that she tried to avoid Jem and Dill because she was called a girl once and didn't want to be called a girl again. This really cements how much of an insult it is to be called a girl.

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714 Words | 3 Pages

Dystopia is an imagined place where everything is degraded, and the condition is bad. In the materials we have covered, dystopia was created either with the use of technology of with the use of totalitarianism. Many times, totalitarianism is justified with the purpose of having a stable government and technology is justified by making things easier for the people. These two have their own similarities and differences in terms of dystopian discourses that reflect the contemporary fears of what could happen in the future.

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1108 Words | 5 Pages

In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates that social inequality breaks down a society through the use of conflict, symbolism and irony. Social inequality plays a pivotal role in the novel because the whole conflict between Bob and Tom is wrapped in it. From the first accusation to the final conviction inequality is intertwined in every paragraph, every word. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that stands the test of time because while our society has made improvements, inequality will never truly go away. This novel displays characters you relate to, ones you despise, and all that you fall in love with.

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1169 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.

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106 Words | 1 Pages

He wants Scout to change who she is to fit his idea of what being a woman is about. In Jem’s mind, women and girls should not be opinionated and “rough”, they must be feminine and frail.

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730 Words | 3 Pages

Fairly early on in the book, Scout tells us about how Jem told her to go find girls to hangout with, “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”(54). In this example, Scout had just finished trying to convince Jem that Atticus knew they were making fun of Boo Radley. The quote shows how Scout is expected to act like a girl and hangout with girls, because girls shouldn’t play rough with the boys. In another example, Aunt Alexandra tries to change the way Scout acts,

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