Gender Roles In To Kill A Mockingbird

Another quote from the book that proves that racism and prejudice “they said that that he had two good hands and he had made it, and he was moving fast.and they but seventeen bullet holes in him”pg 235 the quote shows that even police will let the emotions guiding their actions and not their

The main issue of the section we are acting out of Chapter 11 in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is the prejudice that Ms. Dubose holds. She is both sexist and racist, both forms of prejudice that were common back in her generation, but were finally starting to change at that time. Aunt Alexandra and Ms. Dubose, most likely having been raised in the same time period, were both offended by Scout wearing pants. Ms. Dubose specifically asked ‘What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ (Lee, 101), which is greatly reminiscent of what Alexandra said at Christmas. Obviously, they were both raised with the same morals about having to wear dresses, causing them to be unintentionally sexist and myopic.

Why do people want to change the way we live our life? I don’t fit in, so what? In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Lee uses characterization and tone in order to convey the idea that in society every gender has to follow their code of conduct, consequently it restricts people from being themselves in order to fit in.

Reading the content in this book made me get a picture of what it was like to be a colored person in this time. My eyes were opened to the meaning of the word “nigga”. Nigga is such a derogatory term, yet now-a-days it is used by people so much. Kids in this generation use it as a term of endearment when they see their friends, or they say it when they are shocked by something. Frankly, I don’t believe they know how serious it really is. The fact that white people could look at a person and see less than a human being when they did nothing wrong distresses me. They (white people) treated them as if they were property and below them. Even though we don’t have racism to this extent

Through Atticus and Tom Robinson, the reader gets a first hand account of the minority’s perspective, the hostility antipathy, that the African American race had to evade everyday of their lives, in work or at school. Hatred for specific minorities, specifically blacks, has been portrayed more through violence instead of civil protests, or even ignorance. Hate crimes became more popular during the protests of the 70’s and 80’s, the hate crime laws were passed in

This was not the only event that had occurred that day. Soon another tragedy struck the colored community. Virgil was on his way to the Birmingham Church when a he got a call calling him there as the novel states, “You need to get to Birmingham right away”(Lewis et al. 11; 5). On his way there Virgil was shot and killed by a young white man who was participating in a Klan Rally nearby. Virgil was 13 years old when he was murdered by two white teenagers that were active members of the Eagle Scouts and participants in a Klan rally. This shows that even white teenagers were taught to have a strong hate towards people of color. Not only is it a strong hate it has gotten to the paint that they are murdering people of color on sight without regard of who they are and what they are doing. Not long after this tragedy with Virgil, another Black teenager by the name of Johnny Robinson was shot and killed by a police officer

Furthermore, the author takes notice of how not the get kill by the police. If you are a black boy,

African American boys are doubly displaced among society. Ann Arnett Ferguson says, “they are not seen as childlike but adultified; as black males they are denied the masculine dispensation constituting white males as being “naturally naughty” and are discerned as willfully bad”(page 80). These African American boys are thought of being two things, either a criminal or an endangered species. They are not allowed to be naughty by nature according to society, but rather there naughtiness is a sign of vicious, inherent, insubordinate behavior. African americans are seen as endangered victims, which makes them criminals. Ferguson states, “It is their own maladaptive and inappropriate behavior that causes African americans to self-destruct”(page 82). There are two versions of childhood that are contradictory to each other. A real child would be seen as a “little plants” ready to grow up accordingly which is what white men were like to educators. On the other hand the African American boys were seen as children who are powerful, self centered, and have an agenda of their own. These black boys are seen as adults from such a young age, they don’t have time to be young and grow up because others make it seem like they are already fully grown. This drives them in the path to do bad things and make bad decisions.

The novel How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon does a good job simulating how race relations are in today’s society. In the novel, a black teen by the name of Tariq Johnson is murdered by a white man. The novel takes the reader through several conflicting accounts of what actually happened and whether it was murder or self defense. The reader gets a unique point of view from all of the characters, outlining their feelings, emotions, and reactions. The following passage holds importance in the novel because it discusses and answers the underlying question in the novel: Was Tariq a bad person?

The most significant parts of the book were the first and third chapters. Within these chapters, they spoke about the everyday racism experienced by African-Americans. Reading the blatant disrespect and stereotyping displayed within these stories was shocking. I can not fathom the strength and patience it takes to constantly cope with passive aggressive comments about race. Yet, not all the real world experiences in the story had passive aggressive comments and an example of this is the story on page 15. In this story, there are two instances of mistreatment. The first injustice happens when the neighbor calls the police on the young African-American man who is using the phone in front of the house. This is a more obvious racist action because neighbor assumed the African American man was dangerous. The second instance is when the friend tells the man to take his phone calls in the back of the house rather than the front. This is more subtle racism because the young man should be able to make phone calls wherever he pleases. This account is one of the many stories that illustrates the prejudices African Americans face everyday. I have been well aware that race is still a major problem in this country and this book is evidence.

On the first day that Melba Patillo Beals went to school, she thought it was a nightmare. There was a huge mob outside Central High School, along with the Arkansas National Guard soldiers keeping them out. The image of Elizabeth Eckford really shows how it was. White people were surrounding them, cursing at them, of course saying the word “nigger”, and occasionally striking them (1994). It was so bad that Melba had to take the keys to their car from her mother and run away to escape. Imagine the sight of Melbas mother screaming at her “Melba, take the keys. Get to the car.

Women are breaking more barriers every day that will take us one step closer to complete equality, both politically and socially. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is a story centered around a young girl and her life with a lawyer father facing a seemingly impossible case and a mysterious neighbor she knows nearly nothing about. The book tells the story of the trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman, the struggles of a misunderstood nobody in the town, and most importantly, the story of a young girl struggling to navigate an unaccepting town. Many gender barriers were pushed in To Kill A Mockingbird, including Scout dressing more masculine and Miss Maudie speaking out, which is something women were most definitely not allowed

In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, gender plays a large role in the events and character’s portrayal. Scout, the main character, is mainly labelled for her distaste for dresses and other stereotypically feminine activities, habits, and items. When she joins the missionary circle of women, Lee makes a clear statement about Scout’s preference of men over women in general. This stems from her observance of the women’s distaste for men, which reflects on Atticus’s successful raising of Jem and Scout to accept all people. Later, however, Lee shows that even Atticus has learned to harbor judgement from society after the rape trial when Jem asks why women can’t serve in court. One facet of prejudice that Harper Lee explores in To Kill A Mockingbird

Not only does this novel educate about adventure and exploration, but it also demands the students reading it to think about why they do not want to uses racial slurs and derogatory comments towards African American individuals. In Source F, Judge Stephen Reinhardt states that it is a necessary component for students to “[t]hink critically about offensive ideas” (Reinhardt p.1). Teaching anti-racism is something that students should take away from the passage. Students who read this novel may become more aware of the racial problems and negativity in the world today, teaching them that derogatory comments are not okay, and asserting that no one can treat an individual this way. Teaching students how to understand the way that racial slurs were

For African -American adolescents during the early 20 th centu ry, this crisis of identity took on an even more visceral reality through the physical, social, political and personal unrest imposed by a white -dominant society. The struggle of the African-American adolescent was not only one for self -awareness but for survival as wel, from oppression, ridicule and the hopelessness of a future devoid of achievement and possibility. Richard, the narrator of Richard Wright’s fictionalized autobiographical exploration of African -American life, Black Boy , exemplifies this cultural struggle in a society constantly hounding blacks for the color of their skin. Because the adolescent narrator’s growth process is somewhat stunted by the imprisonment of American society in the South, he turns to violence as a means of breaking o ut of his stasis. Throughout the first half of the novel, Wright’s narrator encounters/inflicts numerous instances of violence that serve to further his adolescent journey by promoting a “second birth” involving the active struggle for self -defense and su rvival amongst a downtrodden culture that finds peaceful resistance an al too easy and comforting method of survival.