How Is African American Portrayed In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, injustice is a main theme that is reflected towards many characters. To Kill a Mockingbird, is a novel written by Harper Lee and published in the nineteen-sixties. Many characters in the story are treated unfairly in society due to racial or prejudicial attitudes. Overall these characters are innocent victims of injustice. Atticus, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson are considered to be mockingbirds in the novel. A mockingbird was defined as a bird that did nothing wrong, but sang beautiful music for us to hear. These characters did nothing wrong and were treated unfairly in their town. In this different society, there are many factors that have had an influence on people’s perceptions towards others.

The theme of prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird broadens to a further extent than just the situation of racial discrepancy between the blacks and the whites. Although, the racial discrimination mainly towards the blacks is the most prominent occurrence of injustice at Harper Lee’s time- the early Twentieth century, the whole novel includes several, other forms of prejudice that portray the unfavourable effects that was endured by innocent people. These blameless individuals were referred to mockingbirds, since it was a sin to kill one as said by Atticus, “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” So, therefore mockingbirds are a representation of the main events that occurred

To Kill a Mockingbird is an acclaimed novel written by Harper Lee. Within the novel, Lee portrays the thematic idea of prejudice and injustice against African Americans in the South during the 1930s. A character in the novel, Tom Robinson, a black man, is accused of committing a treacherous and horrendous crime . However, Robinson is innocent but due to the town’s prejudice against African Americans, he is convicted of the crime anyway. The town’s bigotry towards people of another skin color allows them to accept the injustice dealt to Robinson. Through Bob Ewell’s dialogue during the trial, Lee illustrate the prejudice through and the injustice toward African Americans, that runs rampant in the fictional town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Racism, classism, and ageism have been around since humans realized there are people of different skin color; Since wealth had begun to carve your importance; Since age held back your physical capabilities. To Kill a Mockingbird was based on the Scottsboro Boys Case and even the childhood of the author Harper Lee. The unfairness and racism of the trial influenced Lee to write a book based upon the Scottsboro Boys. To Kill a Mockingbird was considered “a simple love story” by the author Harper Lee herself, but contains real world problems such as racism, classism, ageism, stereotyping and many others.

Scout’s narration leads the reader to see her point of view on Tom Robinson’s court case and how he is treated unfairly because he is an African-American. Through this narrative perspective, Lee shows that society is heavily affected in its decisions due to racial prejudices. Tom has all the evidence to prove that he is innocent in his court case, but “In [1930’s] courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (pg.243). Tom was judged as guilty based on his race, this leads to injustice as, because of the jury’s verdict the prison guards “shot him”, left “seventeen bullet holes in him” (pg.259-260). Racial prejudice and inequality are shown through Scout’s narration, and used to show how Tom Robinson is given an unfair trial because the jury bias

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the concept of racial discrimination is a major theme. Several characters are affected by Racial Discrimination including Bob Ewell, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson. Harper Lee aim to educate her audience about the negative effects of Racial Discrimination this includes Poverty, lack of education and injustice in the law system

Since the birth of the United States racism and sexism are leading issues in American values. The unfairness or injustice that happened during this time period affected one’s life from child to senior. The real meaning of injustice; the violation of the rights of others, unjust or unfair action or treatment. This is exactly how the U.S was in the 1930’s, and what Harper Lee focuses on during the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The characters they focus on the most are Tom Robinson an African American accused of rape. Mayella Ewell a white woman beaten by her father because of relations with a black man. Lastly a boy, Jem Finch the son of a lawyer. He is petrified of the thought of his father being in danger defending black men. The worst is fearing her little sister be treated unfairly in society because she’s female. All these

Social inequality with race mostly affects people who don’t deserve it. To Kill A Mockingbird is a book written by Harper Lee based on the depression era. The story is told from the perspective of a girl named Scout. This story describes the ugliness of race, murder, injustice, prejudice, and gender. One of the themes of To Kill A Mockingbird is racism. Racism was a very large part of society in the south during the Depression era. Whites were considered better than African Americans were, and most white people accepted the fact that their society was that way. Many of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird were affected by racial discrimination, including Calpurnia, Scout, Jem, Atticus and Tom Robinson and his family. Throughout the book, racism is illustrated through, communities, households and the legal system.

Within the last century or so, many impressive novels and books have been published and released. However, To Kill a Mockingbird is amazingly so unique compared to many other pieces of literature. This novel focuses on so much more than just a fictional story about a specific story. Harper Lee’s book expresses so much reality of life that took place within the early 1900’s. It touches on how African Americans were treated by the Anglo’s being that this was during the Civil Rights movement reflecting the true state of its society during that time. The Civil Rights movement was a fight for freedom in all humanity, granting full citizenship to anyone regardless of their sex or race. Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was written about a situation

To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel about injustice in the 1940s in the South. However, it is more than just a story of racial discrimination, it is a story about discrimination of those in society who are misunderstood. In this novel the author vividly describes the meaning of fear and discrimination. In doing this Harper Lee uses several characters in the novel that are feared and misunderstood, like Atticus and Scout, Boo Radley, the African American society, and Tom Robinson. Through the actions surrounding these characters, Harper Lee suggests that fear and discrimination come in many forms.

Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird addresses the most obvious form of discrimination, racism, however, today there are other types of prejudice and discrimination that are emblematic to a larger problem. Society’s prejudice and violence illustrates the prevalence and hardships of Civil Rights issues of the 1960s in the American South. Lee highlights the misconception toward African Americans throughout the novel impacting the perception of racism being culture. The events and characters contribute to the development in understanding the difficulty of the Civil Rights movements in America.

To Kill a Mockingbird is a book written by Harper Lee that is focused around the same time as the 1930’s Great Depression and also the same time when racism was very evident. The book is about a rape case of a black man’s word over a white woman’s word. The setting of both of the book comes from a small town that is away from any major transportation. Since the town is so small, people see each other often and tend to start drama, this drama results in a major split of social class and race. This separation causes problems and ends up grouping people together because of biased opinions and expectations. Racism is a strong topic that is shown to have a big impact on people and that is clearly shown in this book. Tom, the defendant, is killed by the hate and disgust that is caused by racism.

Racism is bad now, but imagine it in the 1930’s. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, showed what could happen when racism is involved in the world. A southern town in Maycomb, Alabama was suffering through the Great Depression. A six year old girl, Scout Finch, told the story about her family and growing up in Maycomb. Her father, Atticus was an attorney trying to prove a black man innocent of raping a white woman, but the trial ran on. There were many examples of racism in the book, including when Calpurnia, the family housekeeper, took Scout and Jem to an African-American church. Next was when Scout realized how ignorant their neighbor Mrs. Dubose was. Along with them, Bob Ewell was very racist in the book, creating lots of tension between the characters.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird explores ideas of racism and prejudice which overwhelmed a small town in the 1930’s. Tom Robinson, an African American local of Maycomb County, is wrongly accused of raping and brutally beating Mayella Ewell. A respected resident and attorney by the name of Atticus Finch, is publicly mocked and threatened because he was willing to look past the skin color of a man and search for truth and justice. Albeit the Ewells’ being a cruel folk who are looked down upon and thought of as the town scum, the jury still favored them in a court of law against an innocent black man. Meanwhile, Arthur “Boo” Radley and the entirety of his household are subject to gossip and nasty rumors from the whole town, simply because they’ve removed themselves from an interactive life with the townspeople. The inhabitants of Maycomb County take every opportunity to shoot down anyone who is different or has contradictory ideas or beliefs from what is considered “the social norm.”

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee displayed an extreme maturity and telling themes for an author’s first novel. The novel displays the life of a small southern family struggling through the depression in the deep south of the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama. The town was a metaphor for the prejudice climate in society. African American’s were referred to as “negroes” or worse and lived in fear of upsetting the white members of town daily. By examining the extreme prejudices shown throughout the novel from all social classes and ages, it is clear that Harper Lee uses Maycomb to depict racism in the 1930s.