How Does Lee Use Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Racism has the power to change anybody’s life. Jem Finch is a young teen character from To Kill a Mockingbird who longed for the warm summer days when he could just play on the lawn and not care about the future. However, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that he cannot just play around when he knows what is going on around him and what is happening to the black community of Maycomb, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a success in the world of literature. Set in the 1930’s down south where racism was rampant, Harper Lee shows us the challenges of growing up in a community of inequality through the characters Jem and Scout Finch. Jem is older than Scout by 3 years so he understands how serious the nature of racism is and

One of the first characters we are introduced to in the book is Calpurnia, the Finches' Negro “cook”, as Scout says (Lee 3). However, she is clearly more than that; she fills the role of a mother for Jem and Scout. She is strict when needs to be and caring when she doesn't. Particularly, she teaches the children not to be prejudice to any person, regardless of race. This is in direct contrast of the beliefs of Lula, a fellow Negro female that attends the African-American First Purchase Church, along with Calpurnia. In Lula's opinion, “white chillun...got their church, we got our’n”; she doesn't want the white and black races to be treated equally (Lee 63). Since they're often treated as second-class in a group of white people, she believes

As Jem and Scout approach the church with Calpurnia, they are at first greeted respectfully. But then a black woman named Lulu confronts Cal, telling her, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here—they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?” At this point, Jem wants to leave, but then other members of the church greet them warmly, and they stay for the service. But it also proves that blacks can be just as prejudice to white people as white people are to them. Scout and Jem learn about racial prejudice from Atticus. They see from example, Atticus strongly believed that racial prejudice is wrong. Atticus treats everyone with respect, black or white, and he does his best for Tom Robinson even knowing that he had little chance of winning the case and that his active defense was going to bring trouble for him and his

Social Inequality is defined as the existence of unequal opportunities and rewards for different social positions or statuses within a group or society. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, we see social inequality play a big role in Scout Finch and her brother Jem’s everyday lives . To Kill a Mockingbird demonstrates how fear and social inequality are more powerful than intelligence and logic.

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee tells of a story of Jean Louise Finch, who goes by the name of Scout, living in the southern town of Maycomb county in Alabama. She describes her life chasing after Arthur “Boo” Radley and her summers accompanied with Dill and her brother, Jem. The town peacefulness changes by a crisis because a trial of a black man, Tom Robinson, against the word of white people but are known as “trash”, Mr. Ewell and Mayella Ewell. By including Ms. Dubose’s addiction, the Ewells’ crimes and Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s eccentricity, Lee suggests the complexities of life, demonstrating the idea that bigotry often overshadows empathy, but goodness usually prevails. By incorporating Ms. Dubose’s narrow-mindedness and her personal

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.

Within To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee analyses the culture of the time period and looks into how preconceived judgment creates racial bigotry, leading into a lack of equality. Through the narrative perspective of Scout, the reader is shown how Tom Robinson is lead to experiences of inequality after being found guilty based on his race. Descriptive language is used to show the reader how, because of racial prejudice, African-American’s are disadvantaged and do not receive enough support from the town to keep things in good condition. The technique of symbolism is used to show inequality, through Calpurnia having

"The ultimate ignorance is the rejection of something you know nothing about yet refuse to investigate" -Dr. Wayne Dyer. During the 1930s, the period of the Great Depression displays various forms of discrimination in TKaM, a historical novel written by Harper Lee. Coming out of the Civil War, the 19th Amendment, and the Roaring Twenties people living in this poor Alabama county can not fix their racist and intransigent mindset. Racism towers over all prejudice in the tiny Maycomb County. Interaction with a black person to them is an interaction with a devil on earth. Besides the profound racism, the novel shows bigotry which affects the majority of citizens in the large society of straight-minded people. Having divorced parents, being exceptionally poor, and being a woman are just three examples of kinds of differentiation characters endure shame for. The most obvious form of discrimination in the novel is racism; however, there are other types of prejudice and

Lee grew up in the south in the early nineteen-hundreds. The people around her felt blacks were beneath whites and gave them many difficulties to put up with. This injustice was especially prominent in court cases, like the one Lee depicts in her novel. Though Harper Lee accepts that there is racism in the community, she reminds us all her own thoughts by giving advice to Scout that all the readers can take something away from: “‘As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it— whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash’”(Lee 224). Clearly, dealing with the injustices of trials at home inspired Lee to write her book and point out the problems we are turning a blind eye to in our own country. Using her personal background in the oppression of the south, Harper Lee shed light on the issue by depicting the issue in her remarkably well-written

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it," said Atticus Finch (Lee, 22). Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, details a life of people in the South who grew up in a period of racial injustice. Racism is defined as “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.” Many of the characters were impacted by the racial discrimination that occurred. They had to overcome the many challenges they had to face because of the color of their skin. In To Kill A Mockingbird, racism was depicted through Tom Robinson’s trial, Mrs. Dubose’s comments, and how Mr. Raymond is treated.

In Today’s Society, we continue to face racism even when our country has passed many anti-discrimination acts. It raises the question do we continue to have racism because we are not willing to admit that one race feels superior to another? In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses Atticus as an example of expressing how no matter the intelligence, economics status, or social status of a black person, the white person feels superior to those of color.

“Racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome” Was one of Rosa Parks famous quotes. This can be seen well in To Kill A Mockingbird, as Jem and Scout venture through their lives while learning about the importance of discrimination and racism. There will always be some form of discrimination. There is no specific time known that it will stop.

In an attempt to help Jem and Scout interact with children and people of a different race in their intolerant community, Calpurnia, the Finch family maid, takes them to her African Church when Atticus leaves her to watch the children. Moments after entering the church, they are startled to hear Lula, a tall black negro woman, ask Cal “‘why you bringin’ white chillun to nigger church,’” (Lee 119). Aware that only African Americans attend the church, Lula is amazed and angered to see people of a different race there. She was accustomed to whites attending white churches and blacks worshipping in their own African American churches, and the two never intermixed. This exemplifies how racial prejudice exists with everyone in Maycomb and goes both ways with black and white people treating one another with prejudice. Similarly to many others in town, Lula does not think that white people should be treated fairly since they do not conduct themselves fairly towards blacks. If this type of ideology and baseless classification does not change, the problem of racial prejudice in Maycomb and in other parts of the world will not change. Likewise, this bias toward other races does not only happen in churches, but rather exists around the whole community. Although whites are

When Scout and Jem visit the First Purchase Church, they experience racial discrimination themselves for the first time when an African American lady named Lulu rudely says “ You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillum here- they got their church, we got our’n.” (Lee, 119) Although Jem and Scout have always been aware of racism, however, they have never felt it towards them. They felt unwanted and inferior.

In Harper Lee’s Bildungsroman novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the growing protagonist Jean Louise “Scout” Finch struggles to grow up in a society where citizens segregate themselves because of their color, traits, and family. In the fictional town of Maycomb County, Alabama, an ongoing social caste system lives: people do not keep an open mind and gossip tends to spread quickly. Scout is faced with conflicts between white and colored people, racism, and social injustices. Lee demonstrates how social classes do not determine the traits and/or extent to what abilities one has, but shapes one’s character through characterization, rising actions and symbolism.