Essay On Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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.

There are many racism problems in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Atticus is a lawyer in the racist state of Alabama and he is trying to defend a man by the name of Tom Robinson after he got accused for raping a white woman. Atticus knows that nobody is going to believe Tom’s side of the story because he is black in the racist state of Alabama. Through Atticus’s morals the reader learns that he feels obligated to help this

In Harper Lee’s novel, the author shares many prejudices and different stereotyping that used to happen in that time period. These different prejudices include racial stereotyping, segregation, and slavery that used to be a reality years ago. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee shows how people were treated, and also explains that Atticus, the lawyer for Tom Robinson, despite being verbally attacked by other members of the community stood up for him even though he knew people would think poorly of him.

Today, many people are faced with different forms of discrimination and prejudice. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells the story of Scout Finch as her family, friends, and herself as they endure and encounter different types of prejudice such as getting ridiculed for being a tomboy, racism, and reverse racism.

They treat them terrible, because of their skin color. In this novel, Lee expresses one's ethnicity and appearance change other's opinions about a certain character, without knowing the character's personality and beliefs. The character Tom Robinson, an African American, is accused of something that he did not do because of his skin tone. He was eventually given an attorney, Atticus but they happen to lose the case, once again because of who they are. For example many people come across that they have been treated poorly because of where they are coming from. It relates to the novel because Tom, is accused of something he had no mind set to do. Yet he is being blamed because of the person he is, and the mindset everyone has on African

Sexism was and is everywhere. The lack of a feminine figure, other than Calpurnia, made Aunt Alexandra feel compelled to move into her brother, Atticus Finch’s, house. While there, the presence of Aunt Alexandra Scout feel believed ladies had to be proper and formal and “lady like”. She loved the diversity of the male and female roles. She almost considered it her duty to make sure they were performed and executed properly.

Racism was one of the largest lessons in the novel. In the story, Atticus defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white women. The entire Finch family is affected by this in different ways. Jem and Scout for example, are both ridiculed by their cousin, and by other adults because both them and their father are considered “n-lovers.” Atticus shows in many ways that he is

Thirty-seven percent of the United States population is minorities, and the white majority will be gone by 2043 according to NBC News. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, shows how destructive racism/prejudice can be to a society. A black man named Tom Robinson is accused of rapeing a white girl named Mayella during a period of time where there was a lot of prejudice towards blacks. Tom is being defended by anti-racism lawyer Atticus Finch. The case is looking like it’s impossible for Tom to lose, but then the racism in the town of Maycomb says otherwise.

Martin Luther King Jr was a person that had been discriminated against because of his race. At the time, there was segregation between blacks and whites. They had to use a separate sink, water fountain, and even movie theaters. If the blacks got in trouble the consequence was 10 times worse than whites consequence. They were beaten for the simplest mistakes. Martin Luther King Jr. was the one that made a difference. He found a way to lead majority African Americans across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to go to Montgomery as a protest. On March 7, 1965, they went with all blacks which was a fail. On the next march, they went with blacks and a few others that weren't black and police let them through but MLK thought it was a trick. On March 25,

“We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys–” (p.170). This was the first example of Aunt Alexandra telling Scout that she needs to be more like a girl. Scout gets really upset by this. She has always had her own style and never been a very girly girl. Scout has always hung out with the boys because of her brother. So when Aunt Alexandra says how she here to be Scout’s feminine influence, Scout gets annoyed. Atticus has always let Scout act the way she wants as long as she is a respectful person. “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.” (p.296). Atticus says this to Scout because

Discrimination is an enduring issue that society has yet to solve. According to a poll conducted by CBS news, 42% of people have felt discriminated against because of their race. The root causes of discrimination can be attributed to pride, ignorance, and fear. Pride creates a feeling of superiority whereas ignorance leads people to judge without adequate knowledge.

One of the main themes in this book is courage. It is repeatedly mentioned and emphasized throughout the book. In this book Atticus, a white man, defends a

Everyone has the power to alter people’s worlds. The change could be for better, or for worse. Overarching equality is something most societies strive to achieve. But, humans’ bias makes that very difficult, especially if the person decides to succumb to their opinions, accept them, and act on them. No matter what race or background someone is from, they deserve to be treated just like everyone else. Society usually affects natural biases. Influenced by society, prejudice is the theme which prevails, drastically affecting people’s lives in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and “Caged Bird” by Maya Angelou.

A more prevalent issue in the novel would be sexism, typically faced by Scout. Some of the major points of Scout’s personality are her rejection of traditional roles and her much more masculine, tomboy-like behavior, both of which are frequently criticized by her Aunt Alexandra and by certain neighbors, such as Mrs. Dubose, claiming that she, “runs wild.” The defining moment of the opinion of Aunt Alexandra occurs in Chapter 9, in which Scout recalls a time in which she was complaining about the limitations of a dress, to which Aunt Alexandra responded that she shouldn’t “be doing anything that required pants.” Their neighbor, Mrs. Dubose can be heard in Chapter 11 stating a similar

Prejudice is a behaviour in humans that has segregated individuals for centuries. As children grow up, they lose their innocence and begin to develop these morally unacceptable ideals. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, demonstrates the sources of discriminative beliefs in youth. Several instances in the novel depict young children developing bias’ when they are told what to believe by authoritative figures, and witness others being shunned in their community. These social influences inevitably lead to a substandard amount of sympathy towards discrimination in older generations. Undoubtedly, a prevalent theme in this novel is that people are not born with discriminatory values; they are conditioned by society to be prejudiced.