Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Discrimination, it has been part of human nature for a long time, especially relevant subject in literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character of Scout Finch was exposed to different types of discrimination as she grows up. Discrimination affected the lives of characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird because of society’s prejudicial views of race, gender, and class.

Harper Lee highlighted America’s discrimination, prejudices, and social hierarchal issues and created To Kill a Mockingbird, a semi-biographical novel. Even though the novel is set in the fictitious town of Maycomb, Alabama, it addresses some very real issues that are, unfortunately, still present in modern society. America has made many positive strides since 1930 to ensure equality and freedom for all, making the Dream more attainable for citizens, but we still have more improvements to make before the Dream is available to

People judge others all the time. Just because someone does not get paid as much means they do not try hard enough, and someone who has a different skin color is automatically a bad person. These thoughts are called prejudice. People have thoughts like these everyday, every hour, every minute, every second, this does not mean it is right. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the people of Maycomb have these thoughts against people like Tom Robinson or Walter Cunningham. But there are some strong characters that go against all the discrimination against these people.Harper lee conveys that a person's income or race does not make them less of a person through the words, thoughts, and actions of Calpurnia, Dill, and Atticus.

Renegades of Discrimination Throughout the Deep South, and for about a century following the Civil War, segregation and discrimination was strong. Examples of this were present in works of literature and film, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, a 1960 novel by Harper Lee, and The Help, a 2011 film by Tate Taylor. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, takes its point of view from Scout, a young girl who lived in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama who observes a segregated society with little understanding of it. In the film The Help, Skeeter, the main character, is fresh out of college, and moved back to her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi, and there she faces sexism, and has to observe the discrimination and racism that was alive and well.

“I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time… it’s because he wants to stay inside.” (Lee 304) Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, covers many points throughout the book. Jem and Scout Finch see first hand everything that goes on in Macomb county. In the beginning they think of Boo Radley as the monster of the town because he stays shut inside the Radley house all day. However, throughout the book they witness many unjust events, like the Tom Robinson trial. Jem and Scout perceive how corrupt discrimination is, and how often it occurs in their town. Then, at the end they realize that Boo is not the monster, but the discrimination is. Boo Radley stays shut inside all day to escape the

"I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks."(lee 304) said Scout, to what Jem replied "that's what I thought too...when I was you age. If there's just one kind of folks, why can't they get along with each other? If they're all alike, why do they go out of their way to devise each other?"(304). Discrimination and prejudice is illustrated in the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the novel discrimination is shown in two different categories, racism and stereotypes.

According to Galatians 3:28, “There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Jesus Christ.” Even God says it, people are to treat others equally with no higher expectations for any race, gender, religion, etc. Discrimination is defined as “the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people.” This topic can be formidable for some people to talk about, for they may have personal experience with it.

Discrimination has various forms that can be used against someone, such as a person's class, race, gender, or age. Discrimination has been used by people who feel they are better than others and who like to put others down. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, racism, sexism, and classism shape how Scout sees Maycomb by the end of the novel. Racism is the belief that a certain race is superior to any other race, and it is the most used form of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is used multiple times throughout the novel and it is the form that Scout sees the most.

Discrimination is usually created by misguided fear and ignorance, which can lead to many problems inside of a society. These misperceptions are shown with numerous examples inside the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, with the most prominent examples being Boo Radley, the neighborhood misunderstood delinquent and the embodiment of unjustified prejudice, and Tom Robinson, an African American accused of a crime he didn’t commit. Through Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, Harper Lee shows how discrimination and prejudice can permeate even the kindest people and places and how common it is even in a society seen as normal by most people inside that same community.

Throughout the book, Maycomb came with deep and strong prejudice towards colored people, which was also an undeniable fact in the rest of southern states. The American southern states in 1930s were one of the areas where discrimination over African Americans was prevalent. Since the Civil War, the legal status of black people had been rising in economic and politic, but mostly in a transformation from slaves to “second-class” citizens. There were bans on interracial marriage between whites and blacks, and other legal restraints that imposed openly discrimination on colored people. There were numerous plots in the story that described verbal and physical assaults to blacks, by the white community and even by the colored people themselves. For example, when Jem, the older brother of Scout, the leading character, talked about a scary story that frightened Scout, she told Dill, Jem and Scout ‘s best friend, “Don’t believe a word of him, Dill”.

Discrimination can be exhibited in many forms. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we see numerous examples of prejudice that have a large impact on society. We come to realize that no form stands alone. In the novel, there are three main forms of discrimination, racism, sexism, and classism.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird racism affects the events in the novel by producing unfair prejudice between the white and black populations. Jem and Scout Finch are the son and daughter of Atticus Finch, a defense attorney. After their father starts defending a black man, Tom Robinson who is accused of rape, they experience alienation and racism. Throughout the novel, the reader comes to realize that Robinson is an innocent man, charged guilty because of his skin color and the racist jury.

During the Great Depression, White Americans often had a mindset of superiority over segregated African Americans. They believed they were the “original” americans and better than other different ethnicities. Due to the overwhelming amount of racism and prejudice from the White population, many African Americans were unjustly treated as seen throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The characters Scout, Dolphus Raymond, and Tom Robinson mature through experiences amongst the ideas of racism and inequality. Growing up without a mother, and instead an African American housekeeper, Scout, even as a young girl, understands the somewhat superiority she is expected to feel towards African Americans.

Discrimination, prejudice, verbal and physical assault. To Kill a Mockingbird is written by Lee,Harper. It will show how the community of Maycomb Alabama will react and behave to racism during a court case. This book is narrated by a young girl nicknamed Scout, real name Jean Louise Finch. This book takes place in Maycomb Alabama around the 1930’s. In To Kill a Mockingbird it will show how racism affects black people in Maycomb Alabama.

“There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the facts of life” (Lee 23.38-40). In To Kill a mockingbird there’s the subject of discrimination. To present, there is Atticus Finch and there is Tom Robinson. Atticus is a white man, a lawyer. And Tom is a black man, who was accused of raping a white woman. Atticus is most often called an n-word lover and teacher his mother-less children there’s ugly things in this world and he can’t hide them from them all the time. Atticus finds himself taking the case of Tom Robinson.