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Essay On Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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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. Isolation, or feeling isolated is an effect of prejudice. In Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Arthur Radley is a character who has never …show more content…

Each African-American human being in Maycomb is the “caged bird [who] stands on the grave of dreams” (Angelou 27). All dreams the African-Americans in Maycomb have die because they are restricted in so many aspects of their life. The limitations against African-Americans makes their lives relatively harder than white citizens’ lives. In Maycomb, African-Americans cannot live their lives to fullest and unleash their potential. For example, in To Kill A Mockingbird, an African-American man named Tom Robinson is persecuted. He is accused of a crime he clearly did not commit. Miss Maudie, a white citizen of Maycomb, did not want to attend Robinson’s trials because “‘t’s morbid, watching a poor devil on trial for his life. Look at all those folks, it’s like a Roman carnival” (Lee 213). In his life, Robinson is forced to be subservient towards white people. In the courtroom, Tom Robinson is a thrall. (a person under the moral or psychological domination of something or someone) He is an innocent man being put on trial, the outcome could be death, and people are watching it like it is an entertaining television show. Maycomb citizens’ prejudice against African-Americans is allowing them to look at Robinson’s life as if it is worthless, resulting in Robinson most likely being said guilty by the court. Society impacts people’s prejudice. It influences people to conform their ideas to what

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