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Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill a Mockingbird Essay No matter how old or how young a person may be, there always exists a small opinion on someone before even meeting them. This is based on the other person’s different aspects. For example, their gender, looks, or race. This is called prejudice. In the novel, "To Kill a Mockingbird," Harper Lee demonstrates the different uses of prejudice when a black man loses a court case mainly because of his skin colour. Although people are slowly stopping to prejudge others, Lee demonstrates how prejudice can lead to making people have less respect for another person through the use of racism, mental and/or physical illness, or social class. First of all, Lee shows Prejudice through the many uses of racism. For example, during …show more content…

First, Jem, Scout, and Dill have just met. Summer is passing by and all they are doing is enacting many different plays/stories. One day, Dill has an idea to call Boo Radley out. “Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. […] Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.” –says Scout. (9). This relates to the thesis because all three children believe that Boo has a mental problem and this is why he is “evil”. However, they prejudge him based on the neighbourhood’s stories but they have never really met him to know how he really is. This way, the children give him less respect because they always think of him in a negative way. On the other hand, Jem and Scout misjudge Mrs. Dubose because she actually has a mental illness, yet they failed to understand this. One day Jem and Scout are walking by Mrs. Dubose’s house. When Scout kindly says hello, Mrs. Dubose responds to her rudely. Jem and Scout say she is just a mean, old woman. By prejudging her falsely, they fail to realize that she actually does have a mental illness. Since they cannot realize this, they fail to give her the respect she needs because they would always talk back to her. In conclusion, Lee demonstrates that prejudice also exists when thinking that someone else has a mental illness or

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