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Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

669 Words3 Pages

“You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.” - Malcolm X.
Racial equalities and civil rights for black people has been a struggle in the United States during the past centuries, and it still is an enormous issue. The Civil war did not only leave the South to abolish slavery, but also to improve their attitude towards people of colour. Racism claimed another form in the South later on – the racial tensions were still there, and there were loads of different ways for the black people to be devalued. Resistance against racism became more common as well, as they expressed themselves by writing books or even speak out loud about it.

During the first half of the 20th century, the Civil rights movement began, and meanwhile, the Ku Klux Klan grew bigger – they made it difficult for coloured people to be treated like equals. Black people were also hired as servants at white people’s residents, and were subjugated due to their newfound position. Furthermore, black people could not sit next to a white person on the bus; they had to be in the back, or in extreme cases, even go off the bus. The …show more content…

Firstly, there was Atticus, from “To Kill a Mockingbird”, who defended a black man in a trial even though he was being threatened to his life. Secondly, Skeeter from ‘’The Help’’, fought racism by writing a book from the perspective of black women, and her book ultimately changed the entire society. Thirdly, the film ‘’Mississippi Burning’’, where a little boy fought the KKK alone who had murdered three men. The little boy can be related to Atticus and Skeeter for they all showed great examples of bravery because of their effort and what they eventually accomplished in their societies. They all somehow fought for justice between the contrasting classes whilst the people in their towns merely turned

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“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-”... “-- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it” (Lee 39). Maycomb is an old town, a tired old town. When the weather is rainy the streets turn into red slop, grass grows on the sidewalks, and the courthouse sagged in square. In Maycomb lived Jem and Scout.

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Over the years many people have been prejudice to biracial children and adults. Many people believe that they are an outcast and don’t belong seeing as they aren 't necessarily one color. I believe as a biracial person myself that we are just as good and should be seen in the same light as every other person in the world. Many biracial kids and adults have been prejudiced against in different forms including being called only one color, not being able to marry the person they want, and being an outcast among other people.

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Discrimination has plagued mankind for thousands of years. During the time of Jesus, the Jews in Judea and Galilee hated the Samaritans. To travel from the southern region up to the north, a Jew would walk all the way around Samaria instead of cutting across. But often when someone hears the word “racism” he or she immediately thinks of the history between “whites” and “blacks” in the South. In the well-known novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, this tension exists in the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama.

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Discrimination can happen to anyone, anywhere and anytime. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates a variety of different kinds of discrimination. A person can be discriminated against because of who they are. Someone may be discriminated against because of what they do. Others may be discriminated because of what they look like.

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“Now don’t you be so confident, Mr. Jem, I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…” (Lee 179). This quote from Reverend Sykes in To Kill a Mockingbird is a sort of summary of how and why Tom Robinson was wrongly convicted guilty. It also gives a lot of insight on race relations in this time period. Unfortunately, racism has yet to leave society.

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544 Words | 3 Pages

The act of offering disrespect based on one’s skin color is a form of racial prejudice. Have you ever heard the phrase “never judge a book by its cover?” In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the people of Maycomb are shown to judge fellow citizens based on their skin tone. Prejudice in this book is represented by the acts of hatred and ignorance due to someone's color. The lives of the characters are transformed surrounding the issue of racism.

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888 Words | 4 Pages

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that Scout’s community of Maycomb, Alabama is not all good that there is discrimination, unfairness, and even evil because of the time period which was during the depression. “To kill a mockingbird” is to destroy innocence. In the novel Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, Mr. Raymond can be identified as mockingbirds, innocent people who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil. In the novel there are three young kids that are protected and has never truly experienced the evil of the world. In their neighborhood they get to know their community more and start to realize and see the good in people and the evil.

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In Harper Lee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning To Kill a Mockingbird, discrimination is constantly present against various members of society. The two major recurring themes in the novel are tolerance and justice; these themes greatly revolve around African Americans and discrimination at the time. Harper Lee even won the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her plain-spoken, yet accurate, depiction of societal views at the time. To Kill a Mockingbird is set in a small town in the Deep South during the time of the Great Depression and is narrated through the eyes of the young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. With this approach, the reader sees Scout’s development, as well as prejudice, through her innocent eyes.

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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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What if the world was still the same as it was back during the great depression. What if this was the truth. In To Kill a Mockingbird readers can see how prejudice affected people of color back then, and how it’s not so different from today. In the novel readers will find unfairness in court, hate crimes, and segregation. Today readers can still find these same issues, but in different forms.

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Many may argue that the novel To Kill a Mockingbird’s theme could revolve around class others say that it is about the development of the main character, but although these themes are relevant to the novel I think the main focal point is racism. Racism can relatively be found just about anywhere in the book and it helps tie the plot in the novel. This theme could be seen through the people that is in close proximity to her whether it being her neighbor or her family members, also the experiences she faces along the way, and through the overall trial. In the novel, some of her family members can be seen harassing scout, but it doesn’t just stop there even their neighbor would take part in the harassment. As we progress in the novel we will see the affects that this have on the family.

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“Racism is man’s greatest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason.” - Abraham Joshua Heschel. In this american classic that focuses on the social injustices in the deep american south in the 1930’s, readers see how prevalent the topic of racism is through the book. To Kill a Mockingbird is a fictional story said to be based on the experiences of the author, Harper Lee. The book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s and follows the life of a little girl named Scout.

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1502 Words | 7 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a book about the racial tensions and segregation that arose in the 1930’s. The general storyline is about the main characters, Scout and Jem. At the start of the story, Jem and Scout were always discriminating against other characters, especially Boo Radley. The town was split in half due to racial segregation and Atticus Finch, their father, was a lawyer who doesn’t care who he’s representing because he’s a man of integrity and decency. Scout and Jem eventually mature and start to understand the dangers of discrimination after they see that Boo Radley is just a human and not the person that they all made him into.

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693 Words | 3 Pages

Last year in Seattle there was an uproar of black people rioting for their right . People called this march ”Black lives matter” and citizens were fighting for equality; black people fought for equality since others had regarded them wrongly for having a different color skin tone than the majority. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells the story of a girl, Scout, facing the realities of bigotry in a court case where her father is defending an African American slave from a case he was accused for. Therefore, it displays how people decide to discriminate others for many reasons such as the shade of their skin or that they feel as if they are of a higher status. While others, such as Atticus, tried to embrace these differences simply because they understand them and think of them as normal people.

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791 Words | 4 Pages

In 2014, there were unjust acts still being aimed at African Americans; for example the case of Michael Brown, the case of Eric Garner, cases of Stop and Frisk, cases dealing with Mass Incarceration of African Americans. All of these cases exist in present day, and it begs the question did the Civil Rights Movement actually fulfill its intentions of ending racism towards African Americans, or did it allow a shift in the way America exerted racism? From the evidence of people in authority being convicted for illegal murders, the lack of mainstream media supporting movements such as “Black Lives Matter” and through my observation as a student living in a predominantly African American city (Far Rockaway- Queens), I feel that the latter is true. However, I do believe that racism as a whole is not as pronounced as it was before. But there is this social construct that limits people of African descent in achieving success or an education.

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