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To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Quotes

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Prejudice: a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. In To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee takes the reader through a journey of a innocent black man, named Tom Robinson, who is falsely convicted of rape. Lee looks at the life of Scout, a young girl whose father, Atticus, is a lawyer defending Tom. We see Scout grow up and learn about the prejudices in her society, including how she is under constant pressure to behave like a women and how people are categorized by their social status. Lee uses the heart wrenching, unfair trial of Tom: to convey racism, how social status affects the poor families in the town, and Scouts battle with sexism. This conveys to the reader how strong prejudice can be. Through Tom Robinson …show more content…

One night when Scout was asking Atticus about the trail and inquired why Miss Maudie wasn’t on the jury, Atticus replied with, "For one thing, Miss Maudie can't serve on a jury because she's a woman-" "You mean women in Alabama can't-?" I was indignant. "I do. I guess it's to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom's. Besides," Atticus grinned, "I doubt if we'd ever get a complete case tried—the ladies'd be interrupting to ask questions" (Lee 252). In the South it was believed that women were delicate and needed protection. As Atticus shows here, they weren’t considered as intelligent or level headed for such public thing such as a jury. They were kept at a lower status and just home keepers. Scout, in her free spirit, can’t hardly understand why this would be. Scout was a major tom boy and was usually wearing overalls. This displeased many Maycomb women, especially Aunt Alexandra. Scout commented once that, "Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 92). In this time in society women were viewed as needing to stay in their place. If you weren’t dressing like a lady it was disgraceful. Scout never fit this mold and was scowled upon because of it by more people than just Aunt

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fortunate”(292). Although he is white, Atticus demonstrates how one can understand someone, regardless of color. Instead of just being Tom Robinson’s lawyer, Atticus chooses to defend this man;however, since it is made known that Atticus is doing so, the town of Maycomb reacts with negativity. For example, he is insulted numerous times by the people of Maycomb.” Your father’s no better than the n****** and trash he works for”(Lee 135).

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How Did Tom Robinson Get A Fair Trial

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Harper Lee adds this to help the audience visualize the moral obligation and strong will Atticus has to guard Tom, who is at risk of facing an unfair trial due to his skin color. Moreover, he does not care about how defending Tom will affect his reputation, and this teaches Scout about the difference between the right and the easy decision. Later, Mr. Underwood explains to Scout, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts, Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323).

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Social Norms In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

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In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the readers are introduced to Maycomb, a small town in Alabama. Throughout the book the main characters observe society, whilst realizing that the seemingly perfect social norms in the town are acts of prejudice. After viewing the effects these actions have on one another, the children begin to reevaluate their morals by becoming more open minded. When blindly following societal norms, the citizens are unable to realize society’s strong need to visualize themselves from the perspective of others. This renders them unable to understand if their morals are socially acceptable and come to terms with how they affect others.

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Anne Frank, a Jewish girl who was in hiding during World War II stated, “No one has ever become poor by giving.” The quote means that you are never too poor to do something nice for someone. This quote relates to the book,To Kill a Mockingbird, as we learn about the Ewell family who didn’t understand that they could be nice. Atticus notes, “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them.” (Lee 30)

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How Does Atticus Finch Use Social Norms In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Atticus FInch was a lawyer that tooks the case of an African American man accused of rape in the time of the Great Depression. He explains his main reasons for taking the case, ‘For a number of reasons,’ said Atticus. ‘The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again… Scout, simply by the

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Aunt Alexandra is introduced into the story to turn Scout into society's view of a perfect lady and in the majority of the story that's all she cares about and would hate every little non-lady thing Scout did like wearing her overalls instead of a dress. “ ‘Aunty, is Jem dead?’ ‘No—no, darling, he’s unconscious. We won’t know how badly he’s hurt until Dr. Reynolds gets here. Jean Louise, what happened?’

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To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help both demonstrate the hard times during the civil rights movement by showing the theme growing as a person, even though the novels have their differences throughout different perspectives. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is talking to Atticus about why Jem is acting differently than what he used to. In the novel, it states,” Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to pestering him, I consulted Atticus: “Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?””

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To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

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Quote 1: “I felt like I was a king, like I was better than them.” –3rd-grader The quote is similar to something that happens in the novel: Both Jane Elliott and Harper Lee make a point. When two groups are separated in someway one always acts better than the other. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people.

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How Does Miss Maudie Use Moral Dilemmas In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Here is an example of Miss Maudie choice to defend Scout in a group full of women: “That Stephanie’s a card,” somebody said. Miss Stephanie was encouraged to pursue the subject: “Don’t you want to grow up to be a lawyer?” Miss Maudie’s hand touched mine and I answered mildly enough, “Nome, just a lady. ”Miss Maudie (Lee,122) Like Atticus Scout father she gives advice and listens to.

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To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes

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Quote and page # Paragraph "'Your father does not know how to teach. You can have a seat now.' I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating upon my crime." (Question) page: 2 In this quote it seems like it is very interesting.

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Examples Of Coming Of Age In To Kill A Mockingbird

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While Scout is reading Mr. Underwood's editorial she finally understands that, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (275-276). Prejudice is very difficult to overcome, and what Scout realizes is that there is nothing that her father, a very talented lawyer, can do to help a black man who is suspected of a crime. The mere fact that society was prejudiced against black men to begin with, is the verdict. Tom was guilty not because he committed a crime; Tom’s crime was that he was black.

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1013 Words | 5 Pages

Racism springs from ignorance - Mario Balotelli. I think that this quote by Mario Balotelli, a soccer player from italy is right, because to be racist you have to be ignorant. Racism is a big issue in To Kill a Mockingbird and in real life. Harper Lee, through her characters of Bob Ewell, Atticus, and Scout illustrates that in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, racist views are a choice one makes. In her descriptions of Bob Ewell’s actions and reactions to African Americans, Harper Lee shows that Bob Ewell chooses to be racist because she described him as a mean spirited person.

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To Kill A Mockingbird Society Quotes

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“I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man.” (Lee 208 par. 11). This quote shows that all jury’s pick whites as innocence before blacks even when whites have no evidence to prove innocence which then makes the trial an unfair trial since colored people were considered lower class than whites no black person has ever won a trial against a white person. Society influences everyone including the way blacks are being treated. It depends on the time period of which you could be affected by.

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