Examples Of Prejudice In The Book Thief

Society has progressed throughout the 21st century with prejudice still being a major issue. Despite all measures taken to avoid it, people constantly find reasons to hate. Prejudice comes in different forms, prejudice against gender, race, skin colour or class. Prejudice impacts society greatly because of the emotion it invokes as seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a Maycomb family that grows up during racist times and must overcome difficulties together in their prejudiced world. In To Kill a Mockingbird, three types of prejudice are displayed that affect the character’s actions and emotions, sexism, racism and social inequality.

Oppression. Discrimination. Inequality. There are countless names and types of Social Injustice, yet the effect of it is undefinable. Humans tend to put others down in order to make themselves feel higher or more important although all people have, or should have, equal rights. Victims of this inequity will lose hope in what they once believed in, and the severity of this will depend on the circumstances in which the victim is facing. Alexander Kimel, a Holocaust survivor, shows this in his autobiographical poem, “The Action in the Ghetto of Rohatyn, March 1942”. This idea about the Holocaust is also demonstrated in the novel, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

Discrimination: a noun that is defined as, “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex”. There are many types of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that is taken place during the Great Depression . Scout is the main character and her father Atticus is defending a man named Tom Robinson, who is a Negro. There are three main topics that are discriminated in To Kill a Mockingbird. The three main topics that are discriminated are socioeconomics, gender, and most importantly, racism.

The setting of the book is in World War II where many people were forced to abandoned their homes because of the holocaust. Like Max, many Jews had to hide or be forced to concentration camps and leave their families. Liesel has to grow up in period of fear, hate, and guilt. An example of this is when Hans gives bread to a dying Jewish man and is beaten and called a Jew lover. This example illustrates why Jewish people had so much to fear.

The controversy surrounding race and racism has continued prosperous for years and will continue for years to come. However, racism has deeper implications than what appears on the surface. As shown in the literary works below, misrepresentation of minority populations and unfair judgment due to popular stereotypes instigate racism that can lead to conflicts in identity.

Prejudice: noun. “Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience” (Dictionary). Prejudice is one of the most relevant things in the lives of two children, Jem and Scout, in a small town, Maycomb, Alabama. It’s the 1930s, the Great Depression has already hit, and racism has already impacted this small, innocent town. Jem and Scout learn what their town is hiding by finding out who their neighbors really are. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, prejudice is like a second language to the people of Maycomb. It is shown by gender, race, and social status.

Prejudice has presented itself in the world since the beginning of time. During the years leading up to the Second World War, the US and Germany

At one point in the novel, the reader is introduced to Max. He is a Jew. Jewish people were the Nazis main target and the scapegoat for the loss of World War I. Max would have been sent to a labor camp to die if he was caught in public, so he hid in a dark room for two years. According to The Book Thief, “A GUIDED TOUR OF SUFFERING To your left, perhaps you're right, perhaps even straight ahead, you find a small black room. In it sits a Jew. He is scum. He is starving. He is afraid. Please—try not to look away.” Max may have survived Dachau and World War II altogether, but so many other Jews -and people of different religions, sexualities, races, etc- died because of the Nazis. Only

Prejudice should not exist in this world. But unfortunately, it does and it always will somehow. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is an inspiring book and brings out hard truths about how the world used to be, about the great depression, and in some aspects how it still is today. It follows a girl named Scout and her family through three years of her childhood. Her father, Atticus Finch, took on a very big challenge to defend a negro for raping a girl. The book sort of revolves around this event. Prejudice is in many different forms of discrimination. Throughout the book it is demonstrated by race, class, and gender.

Imagine living in barracks, starved, then gassed because of your religion. Getting accused of raping someone because of your skin tone, then getting put in prison. Or getting spat upon because you’re a Jew. All of these things occurred at some point in history, and we are shown what this is like through novels, plays and book such as; “To Kill a Mockingbird”, “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, “The Merchant of Venice”, and real world occurrences such as the Holocaust. Today I will be talking to you about the ways that prejudice is portrayed in all four of the novels, plays and historic time marks.

The definition of prejudice is the unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc. An example of prejudice is when the black people suffered under slavery during the 1700. White people were afraid and hated blacks simply because they had a different skin colour. Slavery ended with a lot of violence, when they signed the emancipation proclamation. In Shattered by Eric Walters, there are many examples how the modern world has prejudice. In the book, there is this boy named Ian and he goes around learning about different forms of prejudices. One of the prejudices that Ian learned that people are prejudiced against homelessness. Shattered, there is a prejudices theme all trough out the book. The prejudices theme has to do with worthless, hatred, and murder.

Guilt, according to the Oxford dictionary, can be described as a feeling of responsibility and remorse for a crime committed or failure in an obligation. In Markus Zusak's novel, The book thief, there is an overwhelming amount of guilt experienced by the characters. Guilt is a powerful emotion which can cause one to become unhappy and despondent. Guilt can also be channelled positively to help others, although not all characters are capable of doing so. Analyzing the different characters in the book, Michael Holtzapfel, Hans Hubermann and Liesel Meminger, we will be able to ascertain how they were able to deal with the various forms of guilt that they felt.

What happened to Jem’s arm, was it an accident, or was it by a more sinister way it happened. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we are in the eyes of Scout, and Jem Finch. We are in town of Maycomb Alabama, and we are in the 1930’s there is prejudice in the town. The book follows the case of Tom Robinson, he was accused of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. He was innocent because the evidence was circumstantial, but he was found guilty because of his skin color. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, prejudice is shown is through black people and white people with different lives. The characters experience race, class, and reading and writing.

Prejudice and discrimination are present in the world today. In western countries, women are often paid less than men although they work the same job, and the same hours. This is an example of sexism in the real world. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, prejudice and discrimination affects all main characters usually in a negative way in Maycomb County. The trial of Tom Robinson would not have happened if it were not for the topic of racism. Ageism, sexism, and racism are continuously occurring in TKAM. Ageism generally happens to Scout, the narrator. Many people treat Scout differently than adults because they think she does not understand anything they are saying but she understands a lot more than they think. Sexism affects

Guilt is one of the predominant themes in the novel The Book Thief. Many characters in the novel undergo the feeling of guilt. One particular character who experienced guilt was Hans Hubermann. Throughout much of his life, Hans has felt responsible for the death of Erik Vandenburg. Erik and Hans were serving in the same German battalion in World War I when the incident occurred. A deadly conflict had erupted near the two friends’ locations. The sergeant of the battalion asked for a single soldier to stay behind to write letters. Each soldier knew this volunteer would be the sole survivor. Out of pride, no soldier volunteered, but out of nowhere Erik volunteered Hans. Hans as predicted was the only soldier to survive. This is where Hans’ guilt began. He often thought about how he could have volunteered Erik instead. Hans felt like the lesser friend. His guilt, however, is what leads him to accepting Max, Erik’s son and a Jew, into his home. This act of sacrifice relieved Hans from a portion of his guilt.