ipl-logo

Theme Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

642 Words3 Pages

The Berlin Wall in Germany separeates west Berlin from the rest of Germany. Similarily, Harper Lee in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird emphasizes that prejudice is the wall that divides a human race. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama, during the times of The Great Depression, 1930’s. The main character witnesses the spread of racism before and after the Tom Robinson trial. Tom Robinson is an innocent black man who is accused of raping a white woman, and sentenced to death by a racist white jury. Through the use of characterization of the racist townfolks and the narrow-minded ladies from the missionary circle, Lee proves that Prejudice is a learned behavior, and is passed on by others. Prejudice is a learned behavior, and children are …show more content…

Later on in the chapter, Scout was at the Finch’s Landing, and the influence of racism was …show more content…

During the missionary circle meeting, one of the ladies, Mrs. Farrow expresses her opinion on colored people: “It’s just like I was telling brother Hutson the other day…..no lady safe in her bed these nights(311).” The phrase “no lady safe in her bed these nights” characterizes Mrs. Farrow as a narrow-minded lady who believes in the sterotype that all colored men want to intercourse with a white lady. Mrs. Farrow spreads her opinions to everyone in the circle, and to other people in the town which then gets circulated around Maycomb, which already has a racist history in its roots. Soon, another ignorant lady part of the circle tals about her dissatisfication of the blacks’ expressions after the trial: “ Gertrude, I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky….Just ruins your day to have one of ’em in the kitchen(310).” Mrs. Merriweather shows her prejudice when she refers to the blacks as sulky darkys, calling them by their color of their skin, and degrades the blacks like they are still slaves. She is advocating the spread of prejudice by speaking her view, with the expectation of a similar bias from the other ladies. Based on the actions of the missionary circle, readers can conclude that prejudice is passed on by other

Show More
Related
1250 Words | 5 Pages

Another way Scout has changed since the beginning of the book is she understands people have both good and bad qualities that coexist within them, as she becomes closer to an adult and encounters evil in the world. 20. Miss Gates’ lesson to the class about Hitler’s prosecution of Jew’s is ironic, because she herself came out of the courthouse after the trial ended and responded by telling Miss Stephanie Crawford that “it was about time that someone taught them a lesson” when referring to the blacks in the town. It reveals that most people during that time where racist and prejudice to some extent in Maycomb. An example that is similar in our current society portrayed in this chapter is how white males get paid the highest salary, but people of other races and women get paid lower salaries for

Read More
912 Words | 4 Pages

The ladies seem to believe that Tom is the one that needs to know that he is forgiven. “If we just let them know that we forgive ‘em, that we’ve forgotten it, then this whole thing’ll blow over,” said Mrs. Merriwether (310). In this quote it becomes obvious that Mrs. Merriweather and the ladies of Maycomb believe that even though the black community contains perfectly respectable people, because the black community is black then the ladies believe that they are automatically higher in social ranking and generally better than the black community. Not only is the social hierarchy viable in relations between black and white people it is also obvious that there is a lack of respect within whites that associate with african-americans. When Scout meets Mr. Dolphus Raymond he explains to her that the people of Maycomb need a reason for a perfectly respectable white man to have children with a black woman.

Read More
861 Words | 4 Pages

After the occurrence in the restroom Laurels troop was distraught that they needed to go to a camp with young ladies that were simple-minded, and that they were just sufficient to be with young ladies like that. At long last when Laurel was talking about her father, and the account of the Mennonites came up; “only time he’d have a white man on his knees doing something for a black man for free” (1095). Here the storyteller talks about a period she recollects when a white lady, a Mennonite, did some work for her dad. With wonder, she understands that Arnetta-the young lady that was egging the others into harming the white young ladies was entirely unjustifiable the entire time and in addition she has. Awful, harsh individuals can come in all hues and

Read More
561 Words | 3 Pages

During the times of the novel, racism is a dominant problem, especially when the Great Depression is a major problem. In Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird the main character Scout appears as intelligent,

Read More
525 Words | 3 Pages

The passage focuses on Scout’s class and them learning about the Nazis persecuting the Jews and how their teacher, Miss Gates feels that prejudice (especially in this case) is horrible, but she is one of the main people in this chapter to be prejudiced against something.

Read More
527 Words | 3 Pages

At the same time, the southern rape complex includes a “passive, white, heteronormative woman” (Halpern 11). Mayella Ewell might have been considered white trash, nevertheless, in this case “she necessarily symbolizes the pure and sacred white Southern womanhood” (Vestil). The irrational fear of the black rapist stereotype made the southern society keen to protect their white superiority. A white female, regardless of class and at any cost, would have been believed, in contrast, a black male would never be trusted but he would be convicted of a capital crime. The jury into Kill a Mockingbird does not believe Mayella, but because of race Tom Robinson will be sentenced to death.

Read More
650 Words | 3 Pages

In this situation young Scout is a social outcast from her peers solely for the reason of her father defending a black man. It is evident that both parties experience prejudice commonly in the societies that they live in. While both cases are different, they both receive distaste that isolates them from the people around them because of their beliefs and appearance. Scout and Saul also end up handling these problems rather differently. Saul’s racist co-workers are deterred from bothering him one night when Saul gets pushed past has limit.

Read More
299 Words | 2 Pages

Aunt Alexandra hosts a tea party for the ladies in the missionary circle to discuss various topics. The main topic that the ladies discuss is J. Grimes Everet and the work he is doing with an African tribe called the Mrunas. The women, especially Mrs. Merriweather, all praise J. Grimes Everet for all he does claiming that, “Not a white person’ll go near ’em but that saintly J. Grimes Everet” (309). These women are all very supportive of him helping a tribe that is halfway across the world in Africa that they decide they want to help. Although, these women praise what he does and want to help people over in Africa,they are repelled by the idea of even being associated with the African Americans there in Maycomb.

Read More
930 Words | 4 Pages

The main characters Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson, and Bob Ewell face moments that deal with racism all told from the perspective of a six year old girl, Scout. The intended purpose of expressing racial relations in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,”

Read More
784 Words | 4 Pages

The setting of the book lends itself to providing many racially-driven biases and stereotypes. The first implicit bias a reader notices is the automatic trust many of the white characters place within Mayella’s version of events. Most of them do not realize that they play into supporting the systematic oppression of one

Read More
1146 Words | 5 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells a story of racial prejudice during the Depression and how it is combated. The main development in the novel is that a Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella. Many people in the town of Maycomb, particularly people involved with the case of Tom, have a negative attitude towards African Americans. Prejudice was a terrible issue in the South during the Depression, but Atticus Finch shows that racial injustice can be combated in two main ways, each having different levels of effectiveness.

Read More
878 Words | 4 Pages

Harper Lee is trying to explain that a lot of whites didn't realize how bad the colored people had it in the South. Therefore, Mrs. Merriweather is a hypocrite because of her opinion about the blacks in the South and blacks in

Read More
1932 Words | 8 Pages

Clinical microbiologists is a career that I have a major interest in. I choose this career because I want to do lots of research that involves with diseases and also deals with the health industry. I am not too sure if I want to become a physician without doing many research. I want to be able to do both, be a physician and researcher. Clinical Microbiologists are medical scientists who study bacteria, viruses, fungi and dangerous parasites.

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

First, she had to make up a story about Tom Robinson because she had kissed a black man, which was frowned upon for a white woman to do. “She was white and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society in unspeakable: she kissed a black man”(272). Mayella is also used as an example when she convinces the jury to convict an innocent black man because of Southern Womanhood. “That n***** took advantage of me, an’ if you fine fancy gentlemen don’t wanna do nothin’ about it then you’re all yellow stinkin’ cowards, stinkin’ cowards, the lot of you”(251).

Read More
1395 Words | 6 Pages

This aggravates Scout as she comes to learn the hard way on class conflict. In To Kill a Mockingbird it is a conflict of races, black versus white. There is a part in the story where Calpurnia, the family's housekeeper, takes them to her African American church. A black woman named Lula states to Calpurnia as she is bringing Jem and Scout to church, “ You ain't got no business bringing’ white children- they have their church

Read More

More about Theme Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Related Topics

Open Document