We live in a world that cannot be fair. Even in America, the land of the free, people live in poverty and oppression by others or the majority. Sometimes, however, it may not even be the majority oppressing people, but it may just be the so-called “top one percent” or those with large amounts of power that oppress people. Sometimes, fiction writers depict a utopia in which everyone live equally and happily, but To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is not one of them. In this book, she weaves the childhood of Scout Finch and her brother Jem, who live in the southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression, and there are a lot of injustices in the book, which pertain to the differences in gender and race among the people living there. These two examples she writes into the book share the common ground of …show more content…
The biggest figure of this movement, though it was led by a few black men, was Martin Luther King Jr. They fought long and hard for equality, and many were arrested and put in prison. They survived many hardships, all part of the injustices against black people. A very famous case during the movement was Brown v. Board of Education, when the Supreme Court ruled that segregation in schools was unconstitutional. This was a very big victory for the movement, but it was met with a lot of resistance from the south. Rosa Parks, the black woman sho sat in the “whites only” part of the bus, was arrested, jailed, and fined because of that. Martin himself was arrested many times, and while he was in the Birmingham Jail, he wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” This is a very strong quote, especially the first sentence, because it holds true no matter where people are and no matter what they
Social inequality based entirely on race affects people who don’t deserve it. To Kill a Mockingbird original publication was in 1960, it is a classic novel written by Harper Lee, the book is set in 1933 to 1935. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town called Maycomb, Alabama and follows two years in the life of 7-year old Scout Finch, her brother Jem, and their father Atticus, an attorney who hopelessly strives to prove the innocence of a black man accused of rape. The book also talks about Boo Radley, a mysterious neighbour who saves Scout and her brother Jem from being killed. The definition of social and legal codes are social codes made up of rules and standards, and a legal system is a code of laws made by a state or nation. Throughout the book, social and legal codes are exploited by people to help maintain their social status. In Maycomb County, social and legal laws harm black people to protect white people, such as Atticus Finch, Bob Ewell, and Tom Robinson.
The act of prejudice is one that everyone experiences. Whether it be, a person who is distributing hate, or a person who is receiving hate, everyone has contact with it. Although it is present all over the globe, it is prominent in the United States. Both in the present and the past, endless acts of discrimination have taken place and left a monumental impact on the country. The effect that it leaves can be seen in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In this story, sexism, racism, and isolation, are demonstrated in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. As the story progresses, Lee compares these concepts to one another and uses them to make a statement about the problematic nature in America.
In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and
“To Kill A Mockingbird” is a book based in the town of Maycomb, Alabama and is narrated by a young girl named Scout. As Scout grows up in the book she is surrounded by mostly men for her mother had died at a young age and her family's maid was usually not being very involved in the games Scout and her brother - Jem - played. Over the summers Jem and Scout have spent in Maycomb, many of the ones described were shared with their friend Dill, who stayed with his Aunt every summer. As the summers go by, Dill and Jem start to exclude Scout because she is a girl. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” Scout faces an endless amount of mistreatment and exclusion all because she is a girl.
Throughout the book, you can often see sexist beliefs. Written in the 1950s, based in the 1930s, Harper Lee wrote To Kill A Mockingbird to challenge and expose many injustices occurring in society in those time periods. One of those injustices is Sexism. Sexism is the discrimination of someone based on their gender. In the 1930s, the sexism was usually towards women. Sexism often promote discrimination in jobs, discrimination from men to women through comments, and discrimination from every one through actions.
The theme in To Kill a Mockingbird is that one shouldn’t be sexist. Towards the end of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the reader learns that the women are sent away from the men in the book due to natural occurrences. When Scout overhears her aunts missionary circle talking she tells us “They put the women out in huts when their time came, ..”(Lee 305)Sending women away from the house when their occurrences came is disrespectful and out of women's control. Men and women should be treated equally, if the women need to leave so should the men. In addition, the reader also discovers that some characters connect the word ”girl” with something bad. Scout says “Jem told me I was being a girl”(Lee 54). Jem said this to Scout as if being
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.
There are countless people who judge others by their image or the words whispered by friends. This has been true since people have begun interacting with one another. Indeed, people feel the need to categorize everything and everyone leading to stereotyping and bias based upon appearances. In today’s society, there are many incidents involving racial and gender inequality demonstrating that little has changed since the 1960s. In this novel, Scout Finch, a young girl, recounts her life as she observes social concerns including racism and prejudice. When her father Atticus, a criminal attorney, agrees to defend an innocent black man, Scout comes to realize that not everything is as perfect as it seems. Appropriately, Scout and her brother Jem learn not to judge others as a result of interactions with three characters that they encounter throughout their childhood. Boo Radley, known as the town’s ‘evil monster’, Mrs. Dubose, an elderly, ill-tempered woman who lives near the Finches and Tom Robinson, an African-American man being accused of raping a white woman that is being defended by their father, all teach the children that character is not a reflection of one’s outwards appearance. As such, through knowing these people and their circumstances, Scout and Jem’s sense of social justice and fairness matures. It is through their eyes that Harper Lee, in To Kill a Mockingbird, demonstrates the immorality of judging others without consideration of who they are and what
We live in a world of inequality. In my essay, I want to show some of the differences between the two sexes of our species. The author, Harper Lee, of our recent class read, To Kill a Mockingbird, uses a plethora of themes; I believe the roles of the two aforementioned sexes is a topic well touched upon by Lee. Harper continually presents the idea that women are expected to conform to prevailing idiosyncrasies, responsibilities, and safeguards than their counterparts. Although this theme steps aside for the racial tones of the book, it most certainly must be acknowledged.
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.
Social inequality is an uncivilized ranking scale which was created by simple minded people who held the fear being surpassed. The argument made by Harper Lee in her work To Kill a Mockingbird is that social inequality is a hierarchy that is complex and affects everyone. More specifically, the author argues that the racial boundaries put between the black and white during the 1930’s caused great stress. This is proven in the novel multiple times. The people of Maycomb judge one another based on the background and wealth of their families. Not only do they judge each other within the community, they discriminate against anyone different than them. Social inequality does not only exist in the form of racism, there are many forms; some of the major ones appear in this book. Social inequality based purely on family background, social inequality based on the wealth of the individual and family, and racism. These are three of the major forms of social inequality that appear numerous times in the book.
Society will never be perfect like one wants it to be. There comes a time when the power of evil takes over and society is blinded not by darkness but something greater. Not only is this shown in society today but in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. As the author Harper Lee grew up in a time period of great discrimination and hardships she gained a unique perspective of the world. Through her writing in the novel she brings to life the character of Jean Louise Finch (Scout) who embodies a mischievous, outspoken tomboy. The novel dramatizes Scout and Jem’s transition from a perspective of childhood innocence to an adult perspective. In the meager town of Maycomb, Alabama one man Atticus Finch, at a time of great social conservatism does the
In the segregated American south of the 1930s, America did not value equality as it does today. This is the case in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which depicts such injustice in Scout Finch’s fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. Though Scout narrates the story as an adult, the difficult events she shares are from her childhood. As Scout lives through the events of the unfair trial of an African American man falsely accused of raping a white woman, Scout comes more aware of the evils of her society such as racism, sexism, and classism.
Racial and Social equality is when people of all races are given an equal opportunity, however in The Book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, we don't see that Racial Equality, but we do see the Injustice and racial problems people had back in the 1930’s. The author shows us and helps us learn about these problems by using different characters that had a different effect on the story. This story is told by a little girl named Scout Finch whose father is a Lawyer who represents Tom Robinson who is accused of Raping and Beating Mayella Ewell, Atticus Finch knowing that he is going to lose the Court Case still tries and doesn't give up because he is trying to change the way people think about Skin Colored People. And he teaches this to his Children who still don't understand what is happening. “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win”.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is an ideal display of feminism that takes place during the period of depression in the south. It portrayed the two kinds of women found in the south during this time, the women who were pro the feminist movement, and the average Southern women. Sadly some women mistakenly rebelled against the ideals of society, by just being themselves. Men and women were to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, were men were expected to dress in suit and ties and women were expected to wear dresses and be courteous. Since southern towns were so sheltered from the liberal views of the rest of the world they had no chose but to abide by these gender roles.