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Theme Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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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

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