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Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their …show more content…

They are told that the person that lives there is named boo radley and that he an evil monster who has been locked up in his house for the rest of his life because he stabbed his father with scissors when he was young. “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that 's why his hands were bloodstained” (Lee 65). This quote shows the way the people of the village looked at Boo Radley even though they have not actually seen it for themselves. Throughout the story, there are not many people who have encounters with Boo Radley. However almost everyday Jem finds toys or random objects in the tree out front of the Radleys house. This gives Jem the idea that Boo isn 't some horrible monster after all. “Atticus believes Jem killed Ewell in self-defense, but Tate makes him realize that Boo Radley actually stabbed Ewell and saved both children 's lives.”(lee 28) This quote shows that the children had been put in a situation where the so-called “monster” Boo Radley saved their lives and they now could look at him not as some maniac but a hero and regular person who stays inside to protect himself from the stereotypes and cruelty of the world because of something people had said and that had been spread throughout the

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Later in the book we find out this fear that the reader, the town, and even Jem and Scout had about Boo was not what we all have imagined, we thought Boo was going to be some dark cave man guy but he turns out to be a very kind man that just wanted to play and enjoy life, but he was locked up in his own house for so many years. If we were to look at all of this from a different angle let’s say that the Radley house was pink with a lot of lovely, incredible flowers outlining the upright porch. Every day the sun would shine through the oak tree and hit the house at the perfect angle, and what if the book said the house seemed to be cozy and warm. Most of us would picture a peaceful man living life to the fullest.

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Stereotyping is a general idea that someone uses to view someone before they actually get to know them. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout, Jem, and Dill stereotype people until Scout’s father tells her to stop stereotyping. Harper Lee suggests that in order to fully understand someone, you must learn to see the world from their point of view. Mrs. Dubose is an example of Harper Lee’s idea because at first she acts mean towards the Finch family which cause Jem to destroy her camellia flowers. When Mrs. Dubose dies, Atticus tells the kids that the reason she was so mean was because she had a morphine addiction.

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In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County in the late 1930s, where characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will experience prejudice Maycomb brings during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin, and class. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and they all contribute to how events play out in the small town. Many of those in Maycomb face and express sexism, racial discrimination, and classism their whole lives. This disables the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace.

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Stereotypes in Maycomb rule the town. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, people are expected to be in a certain social standing, and to never cross the stereotypical line. Everyone knows their place, and people socialize within their assigned groups. If the line is ever crossed, there are serious consequences.

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“Don’t you know you’re not suppose to even touch the trees? … You’ll get killed if you do.”(Lee 24)Jem says this to Scout out of concern and love, to try and protect her but scare her away from the Radley house. Jem had then started his own rumors about Boo Radley, by imaginatively describing what Boo would look like. “There is a long-jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped and he drooled most of the time.”(Lee

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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that show the life of a southern state od Alabama during the “black racism” time period, where majority of the people had the mentality that (quote) with the exception of a few. To chosen to portray it from the eyes of Scout Finch, from a child’s point of view. Living in Maycomb, in the midst of a conservative society of the 1930’s and 20’s Southern America Scout Finch is an extra ordinary child.

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Boo Radley had been kept in isolation for so long, he didn’t know how to communicate or socialise properly. He has been misunderstood as a malevolent person, when he actually is a benevolent person. He displays this when he put a blanket around Scout, whilst she and Jem watched the fire. As readers, we are shown social prejudice by the assumptions made about the Radley’s. Another example of social prejudice is the

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Boo Radley has always been a mystery to the kids since he has stayed in his house for over 30 years and never came out. Later, Boo Radley’s true colors are shown when he kills Bob Ewell to save Jem and Scout. He shows that he is not scary, contrary to the stories told about him, and that he actually cares about the kids. “‘To my way of thinkin’, Mr. Finch, taking the one man who’s done you and this town a great service an’ draggin’ him with his shy ways into the limelight-to me, that’s a sin.’” (pg. 369-370) The sheriff of Maycomb, Heck Tate, knew Boo had killed Bob Ewell but chose to say that Bob had fell on his knife.

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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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