Examples Of Ageism In To Kill A Mockingbird

How does racism affect a story? As a kid in the 1930s, Harper Lee grew up when there was hardly any equality for African Americans. Harper Lee’s only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is heavily based off of prejudice and racism from her childhood. In her book, she writes about racial discrimination through the eyes of a six year-old girl, named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, during the Great Depression. Her and her family are deeply tied into racism and prejudice involved throughout this story. Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is ever apparent as the story is located in a small southern town in Alabama; it is reflected upon three of the main characters: Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, Jem Finch and their father, Atticus Finch.

Today, if one was asked about racism, ageism or stereotypes,  most likely their reaction would be to think about the news reports and stories appearing daily. The issues themselves, however, are not new as shown in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In the book, the main character Scout retells experiences she had as a child with these same prejudices. Racism, ageism and stereotypes are all significant components in both the novel and modern life.

To Kill a MockingBird, created by Harper Lee, uses characters to explore the civil rights and racism in the segregated Southern United States of the 1930s. It is said that Harper Lee was inspired to create her story based on the American Tragedy, Scottsboro. The Scottsboro Boys was a group of 9 boys who were accused of raping 2 girls. 3 of them was named innocent because one of them was blind, one was 13, and another one had aids. Lee tried to compare the female victims, the male rapist and the white attorneys.

“Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them” (Lee 376). Harper Lee uses literary elements to strongly convey the coming of age themes throughout her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. A theme is demonstrated with the incorrect views on Boo Radley using three literary elements. In chapter 31 of To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses metaphors, imagery, and character to convey the coming of age theme that judging someone based on the unknown will always lead to incorrect views until you see the world from their perspective.

Coming of age stories, are usually about a child growing up and maturing. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee has the protagonist, Scout Finch grows up and matures. As she goes through this stage of life, she discovers adulthood. The novel is a coming of age story, as it is witness through Scout’s interactions with the community in Maycomb, she realizes that some situations are not always as they seem, recognizes that evil exists in the world, and develops compassion for others less fortunate.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author establishes an argument against the immoral idea of prejudice. Due to the setting, people are especially discriminatory towards each other depending on uncontrollable or unreasonable factors. Throughout the novel, various characters and scenes reflect the argument Lee is addressing.

Every person experiences a diverse moment in their life in which their maturity reaches its peak, but it happens at distinct times for different people. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about the life of the a young girl, Scout Finch. As the story goes along, Scout becomes more and more mature from the beginning to the end. She witnesses and sees things that force her mind to develop and adjust to everything, which continues to increase her maturity. The theme of maturity in To Kill a Mockingbird is shown through Scout throughout the whole story. She shows how mature she is when she’s a young kid and experiences meeting Dill, going to school and having Walter over for dinner, when she encounters and meets Boo Radley, and when

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is a timeless, touching novel that examines stereotyping and its consequences. The novel shadows Atticus Finch, a small town lawyer, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson who is accused of raping a white woman in racist Maycomb, Alabama. In this small town, hypocrisy is brought out tremendously. Prejudice and stereotyping flows throughout this book. The idea of people as "trash" is discussed throughout the story.

In the book to kill a mockingbird there were many times that coming of age was demonstrated . The scene that I will be writing about is when the kids were walking home from the school auditorium and Bob Ewell went after them, while Boo Radley protected them. This scene showed coming of age because it showed that Bob was not a man of honor. He went to hurt innocent children just to prove that he did not approve of their father that was representing a black man in a trial against his daughter. It also showed that boo what more than just what the rumors make him out to be.

When children grow up, they face difficult problems, and they learn to take responsibility. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem shows major growth as a 11 year old boy. In the beginning of the book Jem is always with his 8 year old sister Scout, but as Jem grows older, he starts to grow apart from his sister and starts to become more independent as a person. Also, Jem and Scout's father Atticus Finch is a lawyer and he is offered a job to defend a black man in the 1930’s in Alabama which was a very racist time period in American history. Atticus gladly accepts the job and it changes the whole perspective of his son Jem and he starts to become more and more different from the society surrounding him.

The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, various forms of discrimination is shown, one of them is racism. The novel is written by a six year old girl by the name of Jean Louise 'Scout' Finch. The setting is in Maycomb, Alabama and it takes place during the Great Depression, (early 1930s). During this time, poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States, and was was racism(one race believing they are superior) . In this novel, Scout and her family are harassed by friends and members in the community just because their white father, Atticus Finch is defending a black man in court, Tom Robinson.

In the end, my opinion on this book is that it shows the different phases of life someone goes through, which can be maturity, bullying, and change. The characters in To Kill a Mockingbird slowly mature throughout the events they are faced with. For example, Scout and Jem must mature because of the circumstances the trial has thrown at them. Atticus told them knowingly that there are going to be people who view them differently because of what they heard and told others about. However, the two kids understood and respected their father not to fight back about what others were saying about them, even though sometimes they had the urge to do so. Next, towards the Robinson family, Tom’s wife Helen has been under a lot of stress and misery after

“Racism is man’s greatest threat to man- the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”- Abraham Joshua Heschel. This quote by Mr. Heschel perfectly summarizes the amount of pure racism that was present in the southern United States, all because millions of people believed in one false statement, that separate was equal. The intriguing novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is written by the prestigious author Harper Lee. In this novel, she has utilized the lifestyle and attitudes toward “African Americans” in the 1930’s to create a novel which presents the reader with Lee’s attitudes and personal values, as the novel appears to be autobiographical to her days as a child. The racism that is apparent and a focal point in the novel is, although fiction, closely matched to that of a racist era in America, during the 1930’s, also known as the Great Depression. The effects of the Great Depression hit virtually every group of Americans. Sadly, African Americans were hit the hardest. Already by 1932, half of the black Americans were forced out of their job, and racial violence soon became more common. Lynchings in the South went up 75% from 1932 to 1933. These hardships experienced during the Great Depression were also represented in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. Jem and Scout Finch, in a town corrupt with people believing false assumptions, try to show their understanding towards the negroes, with the help of their father, Atticus. During that time, the case of a young black man being

Racial Injustice and bias caused by racism, is commonly evident in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism can isolate and separate communities both by race and sheer difference in opinion, and can cost people everything. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee tries to bring light upon, and combat racial injustice, and struggles faced by those who try to bring an end

In the American classic 1962 movie, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” which is based on the Harper Lee novel by the same title, the movie explores and condemns the controversial political theme, especially controversial at the time of the movie, racism. Racism is defined as Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior, according to the Oxford Dictionary. Even though racism is the political focus of the movie, it also touches on class inequality, which is the division of groups based on wealth and power, and justice or injustice within America’s system.