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To Kill A Mockingbird: Social Inequality In American Society Today

1792 Words8 Pages

Lucas Garvey
Mrs. Tavares
H. English 10
21 May 2016

Inequality in American Society Today The book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a novel based around social inequality present in the Southern United States during the 1930’s. The novel takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Southern Alabama during the depression era. Lee 's novel is told from the perspective of a young girl, Jean Louise Finch, nicknamed Scout. Scout grows up in a racist and complicated world. She struggles to understand subjects like rape, racism, and discrimination. To her, racism seems very unfair, and it is difficult to comprehend why people are so mean to each other. Lee introduces a mystery character, Arthur Radley in the novel, named “Boo”, who is rumored …show more content…

To begin, in To Kill a Mockingbird, social inequality is shown immensely in the courts. The first example of social inequality comes from the trial. Atticus Finch who is a lawyer of the defendant Tom Robinson states that “In our courts, when it 's a white man vs. a black man, the white man will always win” (pg. 250). Atticus says this right before the trial, telling his kids that the court will be biased and they will most likely loose. This example clearly shows that in a Alabama court no one is equal when there is a racial bias present. Also, another example of social inequality is shown by a question asked by Scout. Scout asked Miss Maudie “why do people ‘like us’ not serve in the court”, Miss Maudie then says “ women like us don 't serve in court, they consist of white men”. This example shows social inequality because the law was not enforced by everyone, just white men. Black women, black men, and white women had no right back then to be in the jury because they were not seen as equal people to a white man. All in all, Harper Lee gives a great perspective of social inequality in the courts in To Kill a …show more content…

In To Kill a Mockingbird, examples of social inequality really manipulate the way in which the plot travels. This is also true in our world in present time. All of these examples listed, including the wage gap, police brutality and political inequality’s have influenced our society and its decisions. Looking forward, the wage gap should close up in the upcoming years between white men and white women, but people of other races will probably never see a equal pay. Police brutality will continue to happen, but with advances in media, the culprits of the situations should be found and the right charge should be applied. Political gender inequality will also probably never change, but with many women running for the Oval Office; we should someday have a female president. To Kill a Mockingbird theme of social inequality is apparent through many examples in the book and the social inequality between gender and race in the book are still found in

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