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Racial Ideology In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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In the quiet city of Maycomb, there lie loud rumblings of racial ideology. Maycomb is more than just a small town that is known for its racism. Maycomb is personified so that it takes on the weight and importance of characters such as Scout, and Tom Robinson. Scout's qualities might not fit into the town's dynamic as he's not old and tiring, though his youth brings a dynamic that changes the way Maycomb is perceived. Alternatively, Tom Robinson fits into Maycomb, but not in the way that many would think. Being a black male in a predominantly white area is a bad thing. Not that the setting has anything to do with racism, but racial ideology is understood with injustice, social class, and gender bias, in the small, dynamic town of Maycomb.
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In TKAM, women are restricted by societal expectations, as men's roles depend more on skin color than anything else. Calpurnia is a black housekeeper who works for Atticus, and takes care of Jem and Scout. Throughout the book, Calpurinia experiences racial encounters that illustrate Maycomb's racial ideology. In relation, African Americans are always on the suffering poor side. Tom Robinson is a victim of white leaders using their power to make false decisions that result in negative life changing events. Money relates to racial ideology in Maycomb, by creating certain stereotypes to associate with someone. Calpurina states her hardships with gender bias when she says, "It's right hard to say, she said. Suppose you and Scout talked colored-folks' talk at home it'd be out of place, wouldn't it? Now what if I talked white-folks talk at church, and with my neighbors? They'd think I was puttin' on airs to beat Moses."(127) Shown to have clear discrimination on behalf of Calpurnia when relating gender to race. Another girl, similar to Calpurnia, is struggling with gender bias. Scout, when she was younger, was bullied by her older brother Jem. Jem not wanting Scout to play games with him and Dill, Scout experiences gender bias. This is clearly shown when Jem says, "See there? Jem was scowling triumphantly. Nothin’ to it. I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin.''(39) Jem …show more content…

Injustice is shown throughout the book, as it appears in many scenes. It is most prominent when talking about Tom Robinson's case, and Boo Radley's family. As Tom Robinson's case is more prominent, Boo Radley's situation has an underlying situation of injustice. Tom Robinson is a struggling black man fighting for his freedom in a court of white racist judges.His injustice is shown when, "Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed." (245) Clearly, Tom Robinson's case is unfair, and injustice is distinctly shown. In this regard, Boo Radley is being treated unfairly because he is not considered to be a normal person in Scout's eyes. As the town of Maycomb blames Boo Radley for anything negative that happens, it shows the racial ideology in Maycomb. This is displayed when Jem says, "I hope you’ve got it through your head that he’ll kill us each and every one, Dill Harris," said Jem, when we joined him. "Don’t blame me when he gouges your eyes out. You started it, remember." (15) With Boo Radley being treated unfairly, injustice is clearly shown, bringing out the main point of racial ideology in

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An overwhelming topic in the novel is the brutality that individuals cause upon others by the prejudice, or 'the simple hell people give other people', as Dolphus Raymond puts it. It is not only the matter of the profound racial bias which is available in Maycomb yet the prejudiced, slender, inflexible codes of conduct that most townspeople wish to force on others. This bias is made all the all the more threatening by being delineated as "expected" conduct by numerous characters in the book. Against the foundation of this residential area such individuals as Boo Radley, Dolphus Raymond, many of the African Americans segregated from the whites, and, to some degree, Maudie Atkinson, are abused on the grounds that they don't acclimate. Tom Robinson is discovered blameworthy, despite

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In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, a six year old girl, grows up in the racially divided town of Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930’s. Scout is a curious and intelligent child who is confronted with a harsh reality of discrimination and injustice in her small town. Atticus Finch, Scout's father, is a well respected lawyer in Maycomb. Atticus took on the case of defending Tom Robinson, a Black man who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a young White woman. Atticus is aware that there is a lot of racial tension and prejudice in the town, and he knows that his decision to defend Tom Robinson will not be well received by many members of the community.

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As Tom Robinson an African American man, The Ewell family goes against him in trial. Tom Robinson was accused of raping and beating Mayella Ewell on the night of November 21’st . With a Jury and Judge who are all white folks, Tom already knew there was no chance of him winning. While having a conversation with Jim, Atticus mention the injustice in the courts by saying “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins”. (Pg.251-252).

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The stories of Maycomb are twisted to portray innocents as monsters. Boo Radley is presumed to be a mad man that is locked up in his own home. Reading this book, I have learned a lot about judgment and courage. In the beginning of the book, Scout and Jem’s biggest fear is Boo Radley.

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Maycomb is still very segregated in the community. Not just by race, but also by the social class. In the story, Atticus finch is appointed to defend a black man named Tom Robinson who has been accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. When

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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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The town decreed him guilty, despite the evidence that Tom was physically incapable of committing the crime. As such, Maycomb ‘shot the mockingbird.’ Boo Radley’s innocence reflects the mockingbird. Boo is subject to discrimination because he lives differently to the majority of Maycomb and they cannot comprehend this. He prefers isolation, and the town conjures up awful speculations to justify his way of life to themselves.

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This town is petite old and suffocated with a repeating cycle of racism, and discrimination. You may view it on the surface as a small town where everybody knows each other and keeps to their own business. This novel was based around a Georgia town where all its citizens are racist and discriminatory towards many black individuals. As I said earlier you can see the reality of the town once you are past the surface of Maycomb. In its fullness, it is a very racist town, as you are able to see throughout the story.

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Maycomb would be described as a multiculturally sensitive town. Almost everyone in this make-believe town is ignorant and racist. Scout's father defends a black man, It describes the life of a young girl, Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, during segregation (Lee 3-323). To Kill A Mockingbird

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What is a very apparent concept in the story is the inequality and prejudice that exist in the small town. In Maycomb, the wealth of an individual is a way that consistently divided the social status of the townspeople. For example, The Finchers and other middle class people have more prestige and social status over the lower class townspeople, such as the Cunninghams and the Ewells. The most common and discriminatory inequality in the town is that the race of an individual would unjustly determine their social status. For example, the blacks, despite having more amiable qualities than the Ewells, still remain at the bottom of the social hierarchy for the only reason being their race.

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Although by seeing these clear acts of racism, readers are reminded that although it may happen frequently it can prove to be problematic. Also, racism can cloud the minds of others and make them think irrationally, and how people who view their racist actions as normal and acceptable are wrong and close-minded. Therefore, the novel To Kill A Mockingbird teaches us the importance of treating others the way we would like to be

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The story is filled to the brim with examples of discrimination based on class, race, and gender. The Maycomb community is an invidious environment, unpleasant and unfairly discriminating against colored people. Maycomb is a representation of larger societal issues, where xenophobic people, unable to stand up against social norm, lead us to an ineffable dystopian world; where every person of color is atrocious, every woman is weak, and people who are of lower class are objects to be used and

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That’s one part I didn’t like about the book. The stereotypes of the black families of Maycomb. As soon as Bob Ewell turned Tom Robinson in for “raping” his daughter the whole white community believed it because he was black. He was a kind, loving father and husband. But no one bothered to get to know the real him or see past the color of his skin to really know that.

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Wright and Piper have varying, and often contradictory, interpretations of a number of scriptures; notably Romans 2:27-30. Regarding this passage, Wright attempts to prove that Paul’s argument to the Judaizers was that “there is no road into covenant membership on the grounds of Jewish racial privilege” (Piper, 146). Whereas, Piper uses this as proof of the works-based-righteousness that supposedly plagued the First Century Jews. Piper primarily argues from 2 Corinthians 5:21 to claim that Christ’s “active obedience” has been imputed to the Christian, not merely an act of clemency. This is one of the main issues between Piper and Wright’s theology.

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Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.

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