Society impacts an individual through its values and attitudes but the individual always has the power to reject society. This is displayed in both in ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee and ‘The Blind Side’ directed by John Lee Hancock which is the real life story of an impoverished African American boy, Michael that overcame obstacles to become a football legend. These texts both present a strong individual rejecting society’s influence in stereotyping and choosing to be moral and ethical.
Society generally groups individuals wrongly based on assumptions and sterotypes them in this way on one fact. In ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’, Boo Radley is stereotyped to be some sort of a monster because he is different. This is depicted when the children describe their fearfulness of Boo. However we later learn this is untrue when Boo saves Jem and Scout. Scout reforms her opinion of Boo after meeting him, she says, “...when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things… Atticus, he was real nice…”. This shows that Scout admits the whole town was wrong about their stereotyping Boo and in reality after meeting him Scout thinks better of
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When Leigh-Anne, a woman who adopts Michael informs this to her friends, they ridicule her. One of her friends goes as so far to say, “Aren’t you worried? I mean even just a little? He’s a boy, a large black boy, sleeping under the same roof!”in regards to Leigh-Anne’s daughter. A close up shot of the friend highlights her outrage and her stereotyping of Michael as person unfit to live with their society. Leigh Anne responds to this with a close up of her face and says, “Shame on you.” This proves Leigh-Anne disagrees with society’s stereotypes’ of Michael and portrays her to be an individual who rejects society’s attitudes towards Michael and judges Michael based on what he does not what he
Prejudice is one of the world’s greatest struggles. It does not only hold society back, but is harmful to the people who do good .In Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem live through and witness prejudice and racism in the small town of Maycomb. They see someone wrongly accused of a crime because of his race. Scout and Jem also witness and take part in prejudice against a man no one knows anything about. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses characterization to show the negative effects of prejudice and racism.
To kill a mockingbird can mean many things. It’s the title of a book that has been bought 40 million times. But, it also has a definition. To kill a mockingbird means to destroy innocence. The theme of my literary analysis is mockingbirds. Mockingbirds in TKAM are innocent things tainted by the skewed society of Maycomb. Some of these mockingbirds are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children. To Kill a Mockingbird is a book set in a small Alabama town in the 1930’s. The main character and narrator is Jean Louise Finch, but is almost always called by her nickname, Scout. Scout, her brother, and her summer friend Dill get into all kinds of mischief while living in the racist society of a 1930’s Alabama town. Scout’s dad, Atticus, is a prominent lawyer in Maycomb and is appointed to a controversial case, and is defending a black man. Scout and her brother, Jem go through many troubles and learn many lessons from the days leading up to, and during the trial. The trail makes their family some friends and a lot of enemies. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a story of courage and despair. Throughout TKAM, mockingbirds are used as an example of something innocent being tainted by the skewed society of TKAM. Some great examples of these are Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and the children.
Jean Louise “Scout” and Jem Finch experienced life in the 1930’s living in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. Their childhood was a nonstop adventure that brought jocund days and testing trials that teenager’s today experience even with the world around us changing every day. The moral upbringings, educational importance, and the crime rate of small towns all contributed to the childhood memories that were built every day in Maycomb County. These attributes to childhood experiences have changed a lot over the vast time period between the 1930’s and 2000’s. The moral upbringings are different in the way that children living now are experiencing a different surrounding in their everyday life and have lost morals that were taught in the
Everyone in the world has their own identity; have you ever thought about what your identity is? Identity plays a big role in the world especially in America where not all identities are good. People might identify a wealthy person as “snotty rich” or a poor person as “defective” or maybe someone calls a man a woman when they're really a man. Or maybe you call someone a terrorist just because they are middle eastern. The list goes on and on and thats why social forces influence identities and can become dangerous. Gender, race, and social class are all forms of social forces.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a complex literary work exploring several aspects of the human condition. Lee’s story is one based in the 1930’s, shortly before the Civil Rights Movement. Her novel ventures into the societal issues, such as racism and gender stereotyping, in their fictional town, Maycomb. One recurring theme throughout the narrative is the social adjustment of the citizens of Maycomb and the human race as a whole. Lee showcases the progress in social justice matters by using symbolism and motifs.
How far do you think Harper Lee has effectively shown social class and family groups to be important at that time? The rigid class structure and social stratification of Maycomb County had a profound effect on the events in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The impact of this class structure was especially evident in the trial of Tom Robins on, a Maycomb Negro. The extreme prejudice of the town eventually led to the unjust conviction of Robinson for a crime he did not commit.
In “To Kill a MockingBird,” by Harper Lee, there is a novel and film both having similarities and differences. We aren’t given a full understanding of the prejudice in Maycomb by watching the film; for instance, the omission of Dolphus Raymond, Aunt Alexandra, and Scout and Jem going to a black church is a reason to this because these events contribute to our understand of the discrimination in Maycomb, all in my opinion salient parts of the story. Important details tie into these differences. Something in the novel excluded in the film is the presence of Dolphus Raymond. “…if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey—that’s why he won’t change his ways.
People judge other people based on the things they do, but how can you really judge someone if you haven’t put yourself in their situation? In the beginning of the book, Scout and Jem were told to leave Boo Radley alone, but because they were curious children, anything they were told not to do, they suddenly had a huge urge to do it. They got the impression Boo was a horrible, monster-like person. When Scout and Jem were attacked by Bob Ewell and they were saved by Boo Radley, they realized Boo wasn’t such a horrible person, he was just different. When surrounded by disrespect and hatred , it’s always better to be the bigger person.
In the beginning of the novel the kids have an impression that boo is an evil phantom , ‘‘Inside the house lives a malevolent phantom. People said he existed but Jem and I had never seen him.’’ Scout is assuming that Boo is a “phantom” but she says that she and Jem have never seen him. Nobody can really judge Boo because nobody has seen him. Later on, Scout is able to see Boo, but surprisingly sees that “He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of her. By the time I reached the corner the man was crossing our front yard. Light from our front door framed Atticus for an instant; he ran down the steps, and together, he and the man took Jem inside." Boo saved Jem from Bob Ewell. Although many people looked at Boo Radley as an evil dangerous man Scout was able to see that he was just a misunderstood man who was kind and shy. Therefore through the eyes of a child, she was able to understand that people may judge others on appearance, but once you are able to see the true personality of that human being, perspectives can
In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and
The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee talks about the childhood of the protagonist Jean Louis Finch (Scout) as she grows up in the fictional county of Maycomb in Alabama. Soon after, Scout’s father, Atticus, gets a case of a black man falsely accused of rape, as Scout and her brother, Jem, bear witness to the case as they finally come to realize the prejudice and stereotyping in their own county. Stereotypes are destructive and prevent or discourage individual growth because it can cause violence and harm, it can create barriers within a society and it can change one’s views about something.
After making fun of her teacher and being racist towards African Americans, Scout learns a tough lesson from her father. He takes her to the porch and sits her down, and shares his firm lesson with his daughter. "You never really understand a person until you really consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his shoes" (Lee 39). Atticus, quite plainly, stresses how important it is to not judge one on their appearance or on their position within the social classes. This makes Scout think more before she acts, and it puts their actions into perspective. A small town’s gossip and the power of assumption can change someone’s life in an awful way in some scenarios. One character in example, is Boo Radley. Everyone assumes he
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town hit by the Great Depression. The families in the town are stereotyped by their past generations. People in the town believe that heritage is an important part of your character if your family has a history of violence, addiction, laziness, etc. people will see you as such. One person stereotyped is Boo Radley. Throughout the book, he’s seen as a dangerous and threatening person, but we soon learn this is not the truth.
Through marriages, relationships, and friendships the author questions rather love itself is unstable or is it the way the characters experience love and desire problematic? I choose to write on this because the way that Frederick Douglass portrays them is a phenomenal complex that will make you reconsider true love. The relationship at the very heart of The Great Gatsby is, of course, Gatsby and Daisy, or more specifically, Gatsby’s tragic love of (or obsession with) Daisy, which is a love that drives the novel’s plot.
“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks”(Lee 304). This concept that Scout brings up goes against what others Maycomb believe in as Maycomb County from To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has lots of prejudice. Two reasons why the setting is very significant are, Maycomb County is a small town the significance of that is that everyone knows each other and often have the same views as each other this in turn causes prejudice. Also, Maycomb community finds their history to be very important this changes how people act which shows how the setting could have major effects. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, setting is very significant.