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Themes In Harper Lee's 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

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Recommended: Social inequality to kill a mockingbird

Hayden Lambeth
Mrs. Vickers
Period # 2
15 December 2015
To Kill a Mockingbird Themes
“You can 't delete racism. It 's like a cigarette. You can 't stop smoking if you don 't want to, and you can 't stop racism if people don 't want to. But I 'll do everything I can to help” ( Mario Balotelli). This quote is a good example because characters in the book do everything they can to help stop racism because they feel the need to help; however, other people do not feel like it, so they are aggressive towards blacks. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, takes place during the 1930’s. She uses many themes throughout the book; Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird portrays many life lessons, but the most important are discrimination, courage, and racism. …show more content…

Discrimination is one of many themes Harper Lee used in To Kill a Mockingbird. Race, social status, and gender are ways discrimination is shown. In other words, Finch’s would be on the top because their family is white and Atticus is a lawyer. Cunningham’s would be next because they are farmers and very poor, which means that they can’t take anything that they can’t pay back. A good example would be when Walter’s teacher offers to loan him a quarter, which he did not accept because Walter is not able to repay her. Overall, blacks were treated the worst because of their different skin color. In other words, if blacks didn’t listen to whites or do anything they were told they would get beaten, or possibly lynched by a mob of whites. Gender is another way Harper Lee shows discrimination in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Scout is a tomboy in the novel, her family does not not like that very much, especially Aunt Alexandra. Discrimination is used against Scout because they try and make her wear a dress and act more ladylike around people. Aunt Alexandra was racist in the beginning of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by wanting to fire Calpurnia just because she was black, which is a good example of

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Stereotyping in To Kill a Mockingbird Which characters in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird experience the most discrimination throughout the story? Many people would say that Tom Robinson is the obvious choice when considering the characters that are most victim to prejudice and stereotyping; however, Scout Finch is repeatedly exposed to preconceptions and biases about her gender. Tom is faced with brutal racism that eventually resulted in his death. While the consequences he suffered due to his race were far more severe than what Scout dealt with, she was still largely susceptible to inequality. Both Scout and Tom were challenged with unreasonable and unfair standards in Harper Lee’s

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To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee and it brings attention to societal tensions caused by continuous prejudice against isolated minorities. Due to the time period of the story, the racism and discrimination is alive and well in the story.*book examples* The plotline highlights different types of prejudice and discrimination and promptly shows the effect of a society with ideals based on social prejudice. *book example* Throughout the course of To Kill a Mockingbird, the instances of societal tensions and biases cause for the growth of major conflict and shine a light on several issues, such as social biases that have plagued the whole city.

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To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee contains various examples of racism and prejudice throughout the novel. The story takes place in the 1930's, a period when racism was a part of everyday life. Prejudice and racism in this book are represented by acts of hate towards others because of the color of their skin. In this novel, prejudice and racism was dominantly pointed towards blacks. Acts of racism can be discreet to the point that you can easily miss them.

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Multiple characters in To Kill a Mockingbird are discriminated against, one that stuck out was Atticus. He was discriminated against multiple times, for example, on the way he raises his children, for defending a black man in court, and for just being a poor white person white person. Those are just a few ways that Atticus is discriminated against in the novel. Atticus is discriminated against on the way that he chooses to raise his children. In the novel several times people tell Atticus that he doesn’t raise his kids right, for example Miss Maudie says “”...erected an absolute morphodite in that yard!

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