How Does Lee Present Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960 by Harper Lee, is a classical tale of how racism and prejudice affected the lives of African-Americans in a small Alabama community in the early 1900s. Racism affects multiple events throughout the book. If racism could have been overcome, many people in Maycomb could have had a different life. During the book, racism played an important role in three major events. These events included Helen Robinson not being able to get a job, Tom Robinson’s conviction, and Miss Merriweather explaining her feelings toward black people.

A major theme of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the frequent act of characters viewing others with prejudice. An example of this subject is found in the first part of Lee’s book as Atticus Finch, the father of Scout and Jem, is believed to be an inadequate teacher and father to his children. Miss Caroline Fisher states on page 23, “.tell your father not to teach you any more. Your father does not know how to teach.” (Lee).

What if one of literature’s most celebrated novels wasn’t as good as one originally thought? Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and their friend Dill Harris, three children living in a small town in the deep south during the Great Depression. One summer, Maycomb County is thrown into racial turmoil when Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, is appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell, the white daughter of the town drunkard. Although the themes in To Kill a Mockingbird center around equality and justice, Lee sugarcoats many of the elements of racism and ultimately ends up championing the Caucasian race as opposed to delivering powerful messages about diversity.

the real case of Emmett Till, in which an innocent man was persecuted simply because the color of skin was not favored with the all white jury. A case very similar to this can be seen within To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel used to bring up the topic of racism. Harper Lee uses her book To Kill a Mockingbird to bring awareness to racism by demonstrating how it can bring despair to a community. Although, people who fight against racism can bring hope to those who have been effected.

How does racism affect a story? As a kid in the 1930s, Harper Lee grew up when there was hardly any equality for African Americans. Harper Lee’s only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is heavily based off of prejudice and racism from her childhood. In her book, she writes about racial discrimination through the eyes of a six year-old girl, named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, during the Great Depression. Her and her family are deeply tied into racism and prejudice involved throughout this story. Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is ever apparent as the story is located in a small southern town in Alabama; it is reflected upon three of the main characters: Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, Jem Finch and their father, Atticus Finch.

In addition to Tom and Boo, Mr. Bob Ewell also has a big influence on the lives of young Scout and Jem. Bob Ewell is the father of Mayella who was the supposed victim of the rape case against Tom Robinson. Bob was always known as an angry old man who was an alcoholic. Atticus knows that Mr. Ewell was the one that really abused Mayella but no one else thinks it was him because they would rather find a black

In this book “to kill a mockingbird” the book is place in 1900’s the kind of racism that takes place in the book doesn't happen today But was very common in those Times.Now African American are accepted like any other person.

Another presence of judgment in the novel is present in the character of Bob Ewell, an oblivious, grimy, abusive father, who looks down upon Negroes, believing he can take full advantage of them because he is of the white race. Scout declares that, “all [Bob Ewell] had that made him any better than his [Black] neighbors was, that if he scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was white” (Lee 229). This indicates that the population of Maycomb judges primarily on race instead of morals, ethics, income, personality, or lifestyle, which further proves the segregation occurring within the South. This excerpt means that the community is more accepting of an unmannerly, poor, and often-drunk man rather than an honest, harmless black man, such as Tom Robinson. Skin color is the main eparation of the people for it determines who are neglected and who are treated like royalty. Furthermore, Mr. Ewell verifies his prejudiced nature, when, “[h]e stood up and pointed his finger at Tom Robinson. ‘I seen that black nigger yonder rutttin’ on my Mayella’” (Lee 231). This further reveals Mr. Ewell’s biased behavior because it presents him mistreating Tom Robinson. Lee uses words

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, deals with the important issues of racial prejudices and social injustice. The story takes place in the small southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the years 1933 to 1935 and is told through the eyes of a six year old girl, Scout Finch. Although racism is very common in Maycomb County, Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, tries to instill good moral values in his children. He wants Scout and her brother Jem to know the difference from right and wrong, treat all people equally and accept them for who they are regardless of their race. Lee shows that stereotypes and racial prejudices are typically passed down within a family; that many children tend to adopt their parents views on these issues.

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, allows us to look back in time to the 1930s and view the everyday lives of both black and white people during the Great Depression. Published in 1960, the novel is written to show us, the reader, what living was like in the 1930s by exploring the lives of a lower income white family and the life of a black man. Being that the book took place in the 1930s, racism is a prominent subject that frequently appears throughout the subject. Atticus Finch, a white man, is a lawyer who has to stand up for a black man when he is immorally accused of raping a white woman. It can arguably be said that Atticus Finch is not a racist because he may of had his own prejudice, but He still fought with an unwavering determination to try and prove that Tom Robinson was innocent, Atticus also always treated Cal, his maid who was black, with that of an equal status to a white person, and also when Tom Robinson died, he personally came to tell his family that he was dead.

In the riveting coming-of-age novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee projects the idea of acceptance of all people, through the eyes of a child. Harper Lee combats the prejudice of social standing when she proves that some of the poorest people have the best of character traits. While racism of African Americans is first and foremost in this novel, the acceptance of white people into the African American community shows racism can be beaten from both point of views. Finally, the disabilities that Arthur Radley portrays, is forgotten, when his actions help him soar above the bigotry of the people of Maycomb County. The most obvious topic is the overt racism based on a person's skin color, however, Harper Lee takes us beneath the skin to show that discrimination occurs in other ways.

The novel “To kill a mockingbird” demonstrates the theme of racism through the various situations that occur within the book. Atticus’s decision to defend Tom Robinson begins to have a deep effect on the Finch family. This is demonstrated by the Finch family receiving many racist comments from various people. The next example of racism is demonstrated when Calpurnia, Scout, and Jem go to a church where only “black” people attend, and the Finch family gets discriminated. Later, when Calpurnia, Scout and Jem got home, Scout asked Atticus if she could go to Calpurnia’s house, but Scout’s aunt said “no”. This is because Calpurnia’s neighborhood has too many “black people” which is a “bad influence” on Scout. Through these situations, it is clear

As the United States “progresses” in economic, educational and technological advancements we still are fighting for racial equality. With more than 50 years since the brown vs. board of education case there is still incidents like Ferguson, Baton Rouge, and Phiando Castile where many questions are still unanswered. However, Harper Lee dealt with these same problems in 1960 when she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee created an emotionally confronting story. Lee writes through the eyes of “Scout” a lawyer’s daughter in a small sleepy town of Maycomb in Alabama during the great depression. Throughout the book “Scout” learns coming of age lessons from Atticus and her own experiences. But when Atticus takes on a case defending a black man (Tom Robinson) convicted for rapping a white woman (Mayella Ewell) and is found guilty. “Scout” her brother Jem begin to understand the effects of the prejudices in society. Therefore, Lee applies the literary concepts of diction and tone to revel the truth that prejudices in society negatively affect the way people treat each other in To Kill a Mocking Bird.

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, she demonstrates that racism is a big problem during the time when this book was written. This story was about a girl named Scout growing up in a small town with lots of racism. A black man get falsely accused with rape, and Scout tries to understand why most people in the town hate black people. When Scout is in class the teacher is talking about how hitler was such a bad guy but Scout remembers that she was at the courtroom acusing all black people are criminals. “She hates hitler a lot … about how bad it was him treatin’ the Jews like that … I heard her say it's time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were getting above themselves, an’ the next thing is they think they can do is marry us. Jem

The little southern town of Maycomb was embedded with such rich racism against the population of poor African Americans. Literary critic, Joseph Crespino recounts “In the twentieth century, To Kill A Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism” (1). Racism is clearly shown in Lee’s novel when angry white mobs aim to execute black male, Tom Robison. When word gets around that Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus Finish, is going to defend Tom Robinson in court, they have to deal with racist taunts from their classmates, as visible in this remark, “Cecil Jacobs made me forget. He had announced in the schoolyard the day before that Scout Finch’s daddy defended niggers. I denied it, but told Jem (Lee 99). However, it is not Cecil’s fault he is so ignorant against racism. He is a young child. Little children tend to learn from their surroundings. Cecil had to have been taught from his parents that defending a black man was unsuitable. Again, Crespino delineates “the enduring career of To Kill a Mockingbird as a story of racial justice, and of Atticus Finch as a racial hero, reveals much about American racial politics in the second half of the twentieth century. From 1960’s liberalism…Atticus Finch has been both admired and scorned by liberals and conservatives alike” (2) Atticus’s