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Social Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Some people do not accept things as they are, but as they should be. In the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, three characters exemplify this. These characters willingly pay the price in order to stand against the dark issue of racism. From the pages of this book, their voices teach us that when culture displays hostility towards minorities, each individual has a choice: to follow or to stand up for truth. Although the time period in this story occurrs long ago, the lessons remain. These characters, Atticus, Dill, and Tom, portray forward thinking about social injustice. To begin, Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout, portrays forward thinking by his feelings and actions towards people of different races. Throughout the book, Atticus stands up for his beliefs to the utter dismay of his family, friends and community. While defending Tom, an innocent black man, to the court and hearers, Atticus proclaims, "You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white…But there is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has …show more content…

When asked why he had the inclination to assist a poor, white girl, Tom replies, ““I felt sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em—” “You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her? Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling.” (264). Although Mr. Gilmer sees Tom’s pity as disgusting, those who look more closely at Tom’s action see a rare beauty. Tom, a Negro man, whom whites have likely mistreated and “spat” upon his whole life, looked at a white girl with pity and mercy. Although Tom has more reason than most to let resentment grow in his heart, he chooses kindness. Remarkably, Tom displays forward thinking by his sensitivity towards members of the race who have mistreated

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To Kill a Mockingbird In To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson goes on trial. In this novel the townspeople, Atticus, and the children's views and outcomes of Tom Robinson’s trial are being presented. There is much racism and hatred of the blacks making the trial unfair for Tom to be seen as innocent through the jury’s eyes because he is a black man.

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This essay will show you the fear, the good versus bad, and how it leads to injustice for this black man. Fear is what makes us stop and think. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man decides to help a white woman, but gets caught up in a conundrum and runs. “ I was runnin’ so fast I didn’t know what happened .”(Lee 260). This black man, Tom Robinson, ran because he knew that if he got caught ,he would lose the argument, just because he was black.

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There has always been a fear of black male sexuality, perpetuated by stories of white women being raped and defiled by black men. When Mayella Ewell makes the charge of rape, Tom's judgment comes not from the facts, but the stereotypes that clouded every jury member and every citizen of the town. They do not take the time to understand Tom, but fear and hate him unfairly. The only mistake he made was that he took pity on Mayella and often helped her by helping her in the household chores that he needed help in. He pitied Mayella for her deplorable condition and so helped her whenever possible.

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In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Atticus Finch is Jem and Scout’s father. He is stern but fair with his children. He is a great father to the children and we can tell this from the life lessons he teaches them. These life lessons include the teachings of compromise to teach his children how to empathize with others around them. Atticus is the least affected by the deep seated racist prejudice throughout the novel, he speaks and acts for what he believes in.

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966 Words | 4 Pages

The context of the time and the use of textual form allows the responder to interpret the important ideas within the texts, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” directed by Robert Mulligan and, “Jasper Jones,” written by Craig Silvey. The ideas of equality, opportunity and hardships all rely on their context and textual form to be successfully conveyed. These ideas all add to the notion of the corruptive prevalence of injustice in the world. In the film, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the malignant presence of injustice is portrayed through a similar idea that every person should be treated equally by the law.

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“Remember it 's a sin to kill a mockingbird.” this is a quote from Harper Lee’s book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”. This book shows that how white people treated black people unfairly in that day, but Atticus still teaches his children the right way, and do the right thing. Atticus, as a justice lawyer, choose to help the poor black young man to prove the truth, even though he knew that this will not work, but he still choose the right thing. As a father and a parent, he chooses to teach his child the right thing, and treat his children as an adult.

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People constantly change as time passes and therefore their perspectives continuously alter as well. The classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, portrays the lives of two children, Jem and Scout, during the Great Depression, as they mature in a small, dull, and segregated town called Maycomb, Alabama. However, the once peaceful city, seen through the eyes of Scout Finch, suddenly shifts when the citizens falsely accuse a black man named Tom Robinson of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell. The children’s view of the peaceful town transforms into a racist and stereotypical community of hypocrites. Furthermore, Scout was not the only white citizen of Maycomb to understand the unfair customs.

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Racism is one of the most problematic issues society has faced today. It has been increasing day after day in our cities since the early centuries. Injustice is something that is not fair or impartial. An example of injustice is Breonna Taylor. Breonna's house was broken into by 2 white police officers who shot and killed her.

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Over the past 4 months my 8th grade class has been reading the book To Kill a Mockingbird. It takes place Maycomb, Alabama during the late 20’s early 30’s. This was dark times for everyone with the Great Depression, lack of jobs, and overall tough times for all. To Kill a Mockingbird touches base on racism, sexism, classism, ageism, and breaking the “social code”,Something that I feel truly outlines the entire book was discrimination. Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex.

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Compassion and understanding refer to the deep sympathy and grief for others when they encounter misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the pain, as well as the psychological process of comprehending. Thus, in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the theme of needing compassion and understanding from the audience through events that the main characters experience that force readers to reflect upon their own society and see how the social issues of Maycomb are still prevalent today and conclude that without compassion and understanding for others, we cannot take action against these issues, so the cycle of prejudice and injustice continues. Throughout the novel there are several prejudice and racist events

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Injustice; the lack of fairness or justice. Years have passed since everyone officially became equal, but still in this world today there is injustice. Still in this world through some peoples eyes everyone does not look the same. If our world keeps the mindset that they are in today that word will always exist and never go away. To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic modern American literature novel and was immediately successful.

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In today’s world we are very well aware of racial discrimination which remains an issue in our country. Racial discrimination is present everywhere we see it in our everydays lives yet we choose to ignore. The book To Kill A Mockingbird presents a topic of racial discrimination depicting it in a character called Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson reminds us of the dark past of racial discrimination which shows us the power of simply being a different color.

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How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.

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To Kill a Mockingbird Essay ¨Inequality is the root of social evil¨ (Pope Francis). In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee shows that social inequality affects everyone. As the book goes on, Lee proves that racial inequality was one of the greater stresses in the 1930’s. Social inequality does not just exist only with race; it interferes with wealth, family backgrounds, age, and even your beliefs.

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Gerardo Bautista Period 6 10/26/16 To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Today There are many social injustices cases but they are treated differently and they involve the law but back then in the early 1300s people were treated different and people had different opinions about justice and people's rights. To Begin, in To Kill A Mockingbird they were many good people that did even better this to help people out like Tom Robinson, Tom was a Black Young man that was very helpful, he helped the white lady a lot because he thought it was the right thing to do, once he tried to help the white lady with his door and in the process she kissed him.

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