Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

The act of prejudice is one that everyone experiences. Whether it be, a person who is distributing hate, or a person who is receiving hate, everyone has contact with it. Although it is present all over the globe, it is prominent in the United States. Both in the present and the past, endless acts of discrimination have taken place and left a monumental impact on the country. The effect that it leaves can be seen in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In this story, sexism, racism, and isolation, are demonstrated in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. As the story progresses, Lee compares these concepts to one another and uses them to make a statement about the problematic nature in America.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, published in July 11, 1960, shows the discrimination throughout the small town of Maycomb. Scout, the daughter of a white lawyer named Atticus, tells what she saw while she was growing up. Harper Lee uses foreshadowing throughout the entire story. When Atticus defends Tom Robinson in an alleged rape case. The people of Maycomb automatically start calling him, Scout, and Jem “nigger-lovers” for defending a black man.

Discrimination is prevalent in the story “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the most obvious being the excessive amount of racism (Lee). Racism is the easiest to see but there are more forms of discrimination (Lee). Boo Radley is ostracized from the community when truly nobody really knows him (Lee). People discriminate Scout for being a tomboy not a lady (Lee). The last one that no one ever thinks about is how reverse racism is seen when people threaten Atticus for defending Tom Robinson in court (Lee). Discrimination in any form is a controversial topic but everyone knows that it is not right to discriminate against people.

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.

Discrimination: unjust treatment of a different group of people or things. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, discrimination is visible. The one most identify with is racism, with a great deal of the story revolving Tom Robinson’s, a black man, jury case. Left in the shadows, though, is the prejudice of other characters, whom the community of Maycomb may find to be a bit on the outs. Whether it is their way of life or how they act, someone always pick up on it and calls them out. Atticus Finch is old compared to the rest of the parents of students at Scouts school, keeping him from activities like the Methodists vs Baptists football game. Boo Radley, making poor decisions as a teenager, is confined to his house twentyfour-seven and

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.

Discrimination has always affected people to a certain extent in society. Whether it be in the form of class or racial discrimination, people experience it in their everyday lives. In her novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee illustrates the dangers of judging others before getting to know who they are. She demonstrates discrimination through social classism, gossip, and racism and how these things can lead people to judge others before they know their story.

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.

A fact about the 1930s is “The number of lynchings of blacks in the United States during the Great Depression peaks at twenty-eight” (Black 1). Also showing how mistreated different colored people were back then is another fact shown “Approximately 40 percent of black workers in the nation in the 1930s were farm laborers, sharecroppers, and tenant farmers” (Black 1). All of the colored people had the hard jobs that were difficult to do. In To Kill A Mockingbird discrimination is shown throughout the whole book with different characters. This was in the time frame of 1930s. Discrimination was relevant in this time period. The Blacks were not treated fairly as a normal human being only because of their skin color and other people were not looked

The book How to Kill a Mockingbird explains life in the 1930’s for small southern towns. In the book, the small town of Maycomb County, Alabama shows a numerous amount of discrimination among and directed towards the general public. Some of the discrimination was not only occurring in small southern towns, but all over the United States. The social classes, religion, and racism are some of the types of discrimination that was present in this time period in American History. One of the major discrimination was the social standings of the town’s folks.

There are various forms of discrimination talked about in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism is the primary source of discrimination in the book. The story centers around the trial of Tom Robinson, who is a black man accused of rape. Another example of discrimination is sexism. Jem constantly tells Scout that she’s acting like a girl when she gets scared or emotional. Harper Lee also uses social class discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird. In Aunt Alexandra’s eyes the Cunninghams are trash because they are poor.

Imagine…you are at the school cafeteria eating lunch with your friends and a green person comes toward the table and asks if the green person can sit with you. All of a sudden, everyone in the cafeteria turns to look at your table, trying to find out if you and your friends will let the green person, who is rumored to be an alien who eats green crayons, eat lunch at your table. You were about to let the green person join you when your friends start talking about how there is no way they are letting any green people eat with them because of their “reputation.” They strongly reject the green person, who leaves silently and embarrassed, while everyone in the cafeteria resumes eating. Because of the system of high school, you agree with your friends. However, deep down you know your decision is wrong. This event depicts prejudice through discrimination. The green person was discriminated because of their skin color, silly rumors, and no reasonable purpose. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, depicts that the undercurrent of prejudice that reigns through Maycomb influences the crucial events in the story. Lee illustrates that prejudice results in discrimination and how it is inescapable.

One of the pressing issues that To Kill A Mockingbird addresses is discrimination, prejudice, and the racism of people of the opposite color and class. And though the novel was written and published back in 1961, it is because of these themes and issues the novel explores that it still resonates with our world today, because it’s still happening today. Amazing, but it does make sense considering how Harper Lee, the author of said acclaimed novel, was born in 1926 in Alabama. She grew up in a community that was both suffering from the outcomes of the Great Depression (starting in 1929), and the high acts racism in those Southern parts. Using her own life experiences, she wrote the novel as a way of letting out steam, writing about the unfair

Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, aims to portray the inequality and discrimination that ran rampant during the Jim Crow/Civil Rights era. It does so by showing the results of such discrimination through the eyes of a 6 year old child, Scout Finch. At the time, many expressed their displeasure of this viewpoint, but this was not the only reason the book was banned in many states. First of all, the heavily featured rape trial of Tom Robinson touched on a very tender subject in the United States at the time. In the 30’s and 40’s the role of women in society was generally accepted to be that of a homemaker, resulting in minimal discussion and thought on the subjects of rape and female sexuality.

Earlier in the novel, Scout relates that Atticus views the Ewell family as “the disgrace of Maycomb” (33). However, as the Ewells are a white family, they are having a higher social status. During the trial, it is declared that Mayella seduces Tom Robinson, and her father, Bob Ewell, thought that his daughter would shift her warm feelings for a black man. In addition, Bob Ewell’s reaction to his daughter kissing to Tom Robinson displays the fear of miscegenation. Atticus, however, strives for justice. Atticus explains the ugly truth to Jem and Scout: “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (251-252). Atticus shows disgust with white people taking advantage of a black person’s ignorance” (252). Tom Robinson is facing a trial and the death sentence because he is black. Furthermore, Atticus makes it clear to his children that racism exists and tells Scout and Jem: 'In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always