Examples Of Hypocrisy In To Kill A Mockingbird

Imagine having your life completely destroyed by a fraudulent charge just because of the color of your skin. There are many examples of hypocrisy in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of the most glaring examples of hypocrisy come from three female characters: Mrs. Dubose, Mrs. Merriweather, and Mrs. Gates. Each character said a hypocritical statement in this novel. A quote and detailed context will be used to explain to the full extent what was hypocritical with their statement.

To hide our guilt and put the blame on others has always been in human nature, To Kill A Mockingbird, demonstrates this throughout the book giving life to the famous quote, “to kill a mockingbird is a sin”. In the book, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, has character Tom Robinson, a black man in a racist town, Maycomb, Alabama a victim of racism and being taken advantaged upon for his skin colour. Boo Radley, an antisocial, kind-hearted man being a symbol of good-hearted nature is also victim to mockery for the way he lives his life. Finally there is Dolphus Raymond, a man who has chosen to act as a drunk for a reason why he should love his black wife. All these characters have one thing in common, they all have have stayed out of the town's business and have done nothing but gone about there in peace. Though they live in peace by themselves, they are mocked, oppressed, and deemed unlivable with because of what they look like or how they live.

Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply based on their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. This has been a problem in our world forever. In to Kill a Mockingbird there are so many racist events and it reflects on the society as a whole till this day. The book setting was the 1930’s in a small county of Maycomb, where most people were racist and discriminatory. People think racism has died off, but it is still a huge problem. People choose to raise their children and teach them that racism is okay and that is how there is still racism today. There are so many statistics out there based on skin color that right there is even racist if everyone is equal why are there polls being taken separating people by the color of their skin?

Miss Gates demonstrates hypocrisy in the novel. It is shown when she is speaking to Scout’s class. She is teaching about Hitler, speaking about how he does not treat everybody equally. She expresses her “beliefs” against prejudice and the persecution of those who aren’t like her. This is hypocritical because she does not treat everybody equally in her own town, and yet she is teaching the opposite of her actions. Miss Gates says, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice.”(Lee 281) This shows what Miss Gates is teaching to her students and it makes Scout confused because she knows that Miss Gates is

You see your best friend laughing with your other friend, sharing cherished moments and having a blast. She then comes up to you and starts off the conversation with how ugly your other friend looked today. You get that feeling of nausea wondering if that's how she spoke about you behind your back. When someone is being two-faced you can´t even think to trust them anymore. The town of Maycomb suffered not only the sickness of prejudice but also the disheartening of hypocrisy. Maycomb was left with a lack of sympathy along with the absence of tolerance and considering one´s feelings. In Harper Lee´s To Kill A Mockingbird, hypocrisy is a major factor in why people have problems in the town, especially concerning the prosecution of Tom Robinson, Scout´s third-grade teacher, and the harsh conversation in Aunt Alexandra's missionary society meeting.

Have you ever wondered how people prove superiority? Superiority is when people try to prove to others that they are superior. This is something that people think is a lot less common than it actually is. It happens everyday and can have lifelong effects. Even though our society says that it does not approve of those who judge someone by their skin color, religion, culture, age, or gender, people often act out these prejudices with violent behavior because they want to prove their own superiority.

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Jem and Scout grow up learning how people in Maycomb treat one another. In a large portion of the novel, characters of the rich and the poor are involved in Tom Robinson’s case. Some characters are mockingbirds (someone or something that only does good), but nobody was able to see how they could be. Maycomb is infected with racism and prejudice affecting how people view one another including the mockingbirds and the innocent: Mr. Dolphus Raymond, Mayella Ewell, and Walter Cunningham.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that justice can be corrupted when people are prejudiced. In the novel the author describes several justice issues that affects people in the book. The main justice issue in the book is racism against black people. Readers can see that the main victim of this injustice is Tom Robinson. Tom and the black community are victims of injustice simply because they are black. There are also black people that discriminates white people which is also not good because people should not judge others because of their race.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was on the ALA’s banned books list almost as soon as it was published and continues to be challenged all over the world today. But why is it still being questioned? Ironically, the biggest reason for that is this simple novel paints the best people in the American South as hypocrites. Of course, people were not okay with that and continue to be adamant about it. However, that’s not the reason people utilize when they complain, usually it’s something to do with racial slurs, which is an even bigger hypocrisy in itself. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses a mockingbird to personify innocence, which combined with details that describe hypocrisy allow readers to experience the prejudice in Maycomb and consider what people had to face during that time.

Do you see people for their differences? Do you believe it’s right to think of them differently because the color of their skin is different or even how they think? In the book To Kill a Mockingbird it shows a man being wrongfully tried in a court of law and is not judged on the crime or the evidence that is given but only by the color of his skin. This is seen with Tom Robinson with his skin color, Atticus because he’s trying to treat every human being equally, and Boo Radley is judged because he never comes out of his house.

“The boy worked for me for 8 years and he hasn’t done any trouble.” This is what Link Deas shouted out in court in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This trial took place in the 1930s in Maycomb county Alabama. This trial was about a girl that claimed she was rapped Mayella Ewell by a black man named Tom Robinson. Atticus was his lawyer that fought hard to win this trial. He has two kids Jem and Scout and their friend Dill came and watched the trial with them up on the balcony with the black people. Although most citizens of Maycomb lived with racists beliefs, there were people in town, other than the Finches, who supported equality for all people, white or black.

Racism is bad now but imagine it in the 1930’s. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, shows what can happen when racism is involved in the world. A southern town called Maycomb, Alabama is suffering through the Great Depression. A six year old girl, Scout Finch, tells the story about her family and growing up in Maycomb. Her father, Atticus is an attorney trying to prove a black man innocent of raping a white woman, but the trial runs on.

Racism now and then We got rid of our segregation laws and made it unconstitutional but does it still exist today? To answer this question and take a look at this idea, Harper Lee wrote a wonderful book about racism. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel in the time era of the 1930s and takes place in Maycomb county. This novel is written in the time of the Great Depression and segregation.

Lower court rooms, scattered across the country, are always dealing with cases that involve moral justice being contested with law. Of course, the higher you go into the judicial system, the better law will be recognized and contested. The same concept goes for lower courts; except, the lower you go, the higher number of morals will be contested. The simple reason for this is who is included in the jury. The morals of a little town will be consistent throughout all of its people, and those who get chosen to be in the jury will most likely have the same viewpoints  of a certain case.

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird a common theme that is seen throughout the novel is hypocrisy. Indeed, hypocrisy plays an important role when developing the plot of the story. The book trails both siblings, Jem and Scout, who are being exposed to the harsh realities of life. In this novel, Lee uses specific characters to focus on the issue of hypocrisy.