Don’t be a conformist. Don’t be common. Be an individual. Conformity, although prevalent in society past and present, is never the answer. As individuals, we were made to be unique. Our insight alone is greater than the elementary principles of the crowd. However, if we conform to societal beliefs, as many of the racists did in “To Kill a Mockingbird” (Harper Lee), then what are we? Uneducated, crowd-pleasing citizens who won’t form our own values. The inability to form our own values causes everyone to cast the same vote. No one expresses different opinions, every white man downgrades African Americans, every male is “superior” to every female, and every child is of lesser value to adults. So, by being an individual, although one may be yelled …show more content…
history, America can tackle the negligent ways of our uninformed society.
To begin with, conformity, as it is present in the southern United States due to a poor system of education, has resulted in the makings of a more racist environment. In the south, there was previously and is currently an education deficiency. In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the narrator Jean Louise “Scout” Finch begins to realize the uprising of a more racist society beginning in the late 1930s and early 1940s. As the contagion spreads, Scout reaches the age at which she must attend school to receive an education herself. On the first day of Scout’s academic career, a young boy named Burris Ewell leaves class for the rest of the year. He claims, “Been comin’ to the first day o’ the first grade for three year now” (Lee, 36). However, according to one of Scout’s classmates, “The truant lady gets ‘em ‘cause she threatens ‘em with the sheriff, but she’s give up tryin’ to hold ‘em. She reckons she’s carried out the law just gettin’ their names on the role and runnin’ ‘em here the first day. You’re supposed to mark ‘em absent for the rest of the year” (Lee, 36). The setting of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, although it is a fictional place, is
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In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, sexism is a prevalent issue that has yet to be tackled. In Chapter 4, Scout relates a comment made by her brother, Jem, saying, “I was not so sure, but Jem told me that I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with” (Lee, 54). This instance is one of many in which women are being degraded by fellow males. Due to the constant and never-ending harassment by Jem, Scout is convinced that “acting like a girl” is unfavorable, seldom wearing dresses or practicing ladylike qualities. This issue of sexism is still very much present in today’s society, because, based upon an article published by the National Partnership for Women & Families, “In Kentucky, median annual pay for a woman who holds a full-time, year-round job is $33,704 while median annual pay for a man who holds a full-time, year-round job is $42,203. This means that women in Kentucky are paid 80 cents for every dollar paid to men, amounting to an annual wage gap of $8,499” (“Kentucky Women and the Wage Gap”). With this difference in pay rates between men and women, Kentucky women lose a combined total of around five billion
One main reason why To Kill a Mockingbird should be taught in high school is because of its great depiction of the South during the 1930s. With all the ongoing racism, Atticus states, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash” (Lee 295). The aforementioned quote shows the social views on black versus white men during the early 1900s. Additionally, the quote shows how black men are constantly discriminated against in everyday society. When Walter Cunningham visits to eat with the Finches, Calpurnia, the Finch's family cook says to Scout, “That boy is your company. And if he wants to eat up that tablecloth, you let him, you
Children are not as oblivious as adults may believe they are. Even though they may have a lack of knowledge, and are not as smart as adults they can certainly listen and observe. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the town of Maycomb has hypocrites walking around town everyday. Scout and Jem are among the mixture of them not only at school, but also at home. People they are taught to respect and love are putting the wrong thoughts and ideas in their small developing brains. Hypocrites walk around acting like they are such good people, when in reality they really are nowhere near it.
In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch employs pathos and diction in his closing argument to the jury and people of Maycomb in order to persuade them to see beyond their prejudice and free Tom Robinson.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Atticus makes a very powerful speech to the jury. The reason for this is because he uses powerful examples of the 3 main ways how to convince someone something. Those 3 ways are ethos, pathos, and logos. Atticus makes a great pathos statement when he says, “In the name of God, do your duty.” This is such a good quote because the south in the time people were very religious.
In order to prove a point to the jury, Atticus Finch from Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, uses many rhetorical devices in order to show Tom Robinson’s innocence. Even though his speech was heavy on the ethos, Atticus also uses pathos and logos many times. Sadly, everybody knows that Tom Robinson is innocent and did not commit the crime, but because his skin color is black, Tom is simply used as a scapegoat to hide somebody else’s crime. Mayella Ewell, being both physically and emotionally abused, was forced to lie in her testimony by her drunken father, Bob Ewell. Mayella needed to lie in order to hide her sin: kissing a negro.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around a young girl, Scout Finch, and her experiences when her father, Atticus, is given a job of defending a black man accused of raping a white woman during the 1930’s. Harper Lee uses different techniques to develop a clear argument in Atticus’ closing remarks. Lee utilizes two modes of persuasion, pathos and ethos.
Anthony Storr says that, “Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms “ Social norms imply that everyone is the same or does something the same way, to break that you need to go out of your comfort zone and be bold enough to break those norms. Although it is very common for there to be social norms in society, when someone breaks one it can be the very first step to making the world a better place.
Throughout the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee challenges the societal norms of gender roles, within the character “Jean Louise,” also referred to as her tomboy name “Scout.” Scout battles the society-defined roles in many ways throughout the text. Many factors lead to Scout redefining femininity, including Jem and Dill’s coming-of-age dilemma. An exploration of gender roles and inequality throughout the text and this time period will allow one to understand how Scout was able to overcome gender stereotyping.
Throughout the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the main characters, Scout, is impacted by sexism from her family, peers, and community. The book is set in the 1930’s when women were definitely not thought of as equal. There were certain social rules that girls should follow and the ways that society told them to act. The scout is a character that is impacted by sexism throughout the story. She is a young girl that changes because of the oppression that is placed on her by her family and peers. The character Scout is affected by sexism, which Harper Lee uses to develop the reader’s perception of Scout from indecisive and confined to determined, criticized, and conflicted and finally to confident, conflicted, and decisive.
Stereotyping is a widely used opinion that holds people to false claims that are not fair nor true. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird many people, are stereotyped due to color, looks, or wealth. The novel is used to show how a person can become someone they are not due to what others think of them. Stereotyping is shown in many different types of literature such as the poem We Wear the Masks, the song Walk a mile in my shoes, and in the movie A Time to Kill.
Social norms are apart of every society in some way, shape, or form. Issues occur off these social norms when there are outcasters who don’t exactly fit in with society's expectations. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout was pressured by many relatives and neighbors to “act like a girl”. Accept, Scout wants to be her own person. She wants to play in the dirt and have fun. Although, one particular person keeps putting her down, and that is Auntie Alexandra. Alexandra tries to play a female role for Scout and tells Scout how she is suppose to act. Scout however is very similar to Juliet capulet in this way. In Romeo and Juliet, Juliet was pressured by her mother to be more like other girls and to get married. Scout and Juliet,
John F. Kennedy once said, “conformity is jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth.” I happen to think this quote is very true, because if no one ever had a different opinion, then would anything ever change? Or would it all stay the same? Forever? The idea of conformity can be seen as a good, or a bad thing. In many cases it is a bad thing, as one idea that is wrong is the only one that people think is right. This can specifically be seen in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Atticus, one of the main characters, needs to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. In his town of Maycomb most of the people think of black people as nothing. Although the whole town would be against him if he did it, Atticus knows that it is the right
Children sit in school for eight hours a day for at least twelve years in their lives, learning how to read and multiply. However, children learn the most important lessons in life outside of the classroom walls. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem discover powerful lessons about life through their father, Atticus, community and experiences. They view an unjust trial of a black man against a white woman, and find that the world is cruel and that they must treat all people with respect. They judged and bothered their neighbor Boo Radley, but he later saves the two of them. Through this, Scout understands not to make assumptions about people until she gets to know them. Also, through Scout’s experiences in school, she finds that
In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice and racism are embedded in the regional psyche of Maycomb, a miniscule town in Alabama. The narrator interpolates injustice and racism in Alabama during the 1930s, largely through the eyes of Scout, who was a child during this time, however, the adult Scout occasionally interjects with some adult observations. Furthermore, the citizens of Maycomb are stereotyped pervasively throughout the book. In Harper Lee’s To Kill Mockingbird, examples of racism, sexism, and social class are used to demonstrate how prejudice can corrupt a community.
Atticus Finch was involved in a very controversial case that arrived in Maycomb county. During this case, Atticus, a white man, was chosen to defend a black man named Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson was accused of raping and abusing a white female, Mayella Ewell. In the 1960s, southern life was divided between colored and non colored people. Those who had white skin, received more privileges than those with dark skin. Atticus’ challenge was to convince the jury and a white judge that Tom Robinson was not pleaded guilty. Citizens of Maycomb all ended up choosing that Tom Robinson was guilty. However, Atticus put up a good fight with different types of appeals that were able to persuade the jury in a variety of ways. Atticus used the appeals of ethos,