Essay about Judging People in To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee

No matter how open-minded a person may claim to be, everyone makes presumptions on first impressions or rumors. Despite seeing someone for only a split second, people make assumptions about others’ attitude, personality, and character! Usually, people tend to notice things that they feel are grounds to pass judgment upon. The quote “ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view.... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” by Harper Lee is a quote that truly signifies how people should perceive others. Rather than judging someone, people should place themselves in their shoes and try to understand their way of thinking

To Kill a Mockingbird is a witty and well-written account of the realities of a “tired old town” (4) where there was “nothing to buy and nothing to buy it with” (4). Purposefully, it comes across not merely an innocently portrayed, yet eye-opening, story of a young girl start to grasp the inequalities of her society. Rather, it is accompanied by recollection of the unfortunate pillars of hate of the places Harper Lee matured in. We now perceive this account as an ‘archaic” and “ancient” recount of some historically frowned upon mindsets in an enthralling atmosphere upon which we pin historical quantities of prejudice, racism and most of all, bigotry. The unfortunate reality is that we look at history in a vacuum and ignore the occurrences of our own times. So although we, like Scout’s teachers teaching about the horrible acts of the Holocaust while being outspokenly racist, are able to analyze social inequalities in other places in time or the world yet refuse to open our eyes to the same prejudice, racism and bigotry today. To instance, when reading To Kill a Mockingbird , we often frown upon citizens for judging “folks” based on their family name and race, although, everyday, some member of our current society, such as police officers and employers, do the same thing and no one bats an eye. Alternatively, the issue which we definitely desperately desire to avoid, racism, is explicitly tackled in To Kill a Mockingbird to the point of viral awareness of the problem in

“Never laugh at or judge someone because you never know, someday you might find yourself in the same situation”- Anonymous. This quote can be applied to each character also each person in life. The jury should not laugh at the prisoner because it is only a matter of time before roles can be switched. In Harper Lee 's award winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, she sets the plot in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama, during the Depression. During this time period, issues like classism, racism, genderism, and general stereotyping were quite prudent. Harper reveals that it is unjust for one person to make the rash decision of placing judgement and

at all! If a woman wants to be on a jury and meets all the

Prejudice, the chain of hatred and ignorance, has haunted our history at every step. In the twenty-first century prejudice and its destruction can be viewed in many forms of modern literature. Two of the most famous and rejoiced literatures that examine the theme of prejudice are Harper Lee’s realist fiction novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and Martin Luther King’s heart warming speech ‘I Have a Dream’. Both texts explore the theme of prejudice of white Americans on the Blacks in the racially tense times of the early twentieth century. Unlike Harper Lee, Martin Luther King goes a step further to persuade the audience that there is prejudice present and we should be motivated to stop this evil from blossoming in our world.

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is well renowned for giving accurate insight on racism in the southern United States in the early twentieth century, an issue that is still controversial in present day. Racism creates inequalities amongst different ethnic groups that have implications on the mental well being of individuals. The culture of racism needs to be put to an end as it is destructive for all members of society.

Race has been the element that has been historically used by the society to create differences and discriminate people based on their skin colour and beliefs. Racism is a concept created by such views and practises and is the central theme of the story – To Kill a Mockingbird, a book written by Harper Lee. Throughout history, people of colour have been treated with injustice and have been denied of their basic human rights as citizens. In this story, racism is the primary plot and is an important subject narrated by the author. In many incidents, discrimination towards black people is openly expressed and some others are hidden deep in the text.

Harper Lee's ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ explores the prejudicial issues which plague over the town Maycomb. Harper Lee uses the trial of Tom Robinson a black man accused of rape on a young white girl, Mayella as a central theme to portray the prominence of racial discrimination in Maycomb. The racial prejudice is also widely shown through the characterisation of Atticus. Having Scout as the narrator allows Harper Lee to highlight the gender inequity through a youthful unbiased perspective. The chauvinistic attitudes and prejudiced views of most of the town’s folk leaves Maycombs social hierarchy in an unfair order, victimising many of the town’s people due to their socially non-conforming habits some ‘socially unaccepted people’ including Boo

Although, the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is well known, it is the work of fiction that has really stood out to me and has helped me understand the complexity of the world. This is the most important book I have read when it comes to helping me understand why the world is very complicated when it comes to treating people equally. One of the reasons this book stood out to me to because it is based on racism. Racism is a major problem in today’s society and it really concerns me. As I have gotten older, I have begun to realize how important it is to try and help out others and be nice because when I think about it I would want someone to do the same for me. In this novel, it not only shows how hatred comes about when a white lawyer tries to

Atticus is appointed by Judge Taylor to represent Tom Robinson in a local trial. Robinson is accused of sexually harassing Mayella Ewell. Although the odds are not in his favor, he does his best to make sure that the trial is fair. During the trial, Atticus soon points out that Mayella and her father, Bob, are lying. It was actually Bob Ewell who beat Mayella, but due to the jury’s decision, Tom Robinson was sentenced to prison. Tom is shot and killed while escaping prison which causes Jem to question the unfairness of it all. Bob Ewell feels insulted by the happenings of the trial and vows to get revenge on Atticus. He eventually attacks Scout and Jem on their way home on Halloween from their school pageant. Boo Radley saves the children and carries them home. Afterwards, it is decided that Bob Ewell simply fell on his own knife and Scout offers to walk Boo home.

You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you.’ [Atticus] My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up when Jem held out the blanket and crept toward me. ‘He sneaked out of the house—turn ‘round—sneaked up, an’ went like this!’ [Jem] “ (Lee, 96). This was the second instance that Boo Radley had shown a caring characteristic that immensely differs from the impressions of Boo Radley in Jem and Scout’s head. They again start to ponder whether the rumors they have heard are actually true. Lastly, when Jem and Scout were attacked by Bob Ewell in the dark, Boo Radley came out of his house, killed Bob Ewell, and carried Jem home since he was unconscious and injured from the attack. Again the children did not recognize it was Boo Radley who saved them at first, but did realize when Scout found Boo Radley in the corner; “ ‘Who was it?’ [Mr. Tate] ‘Why there he is, Mr. Tate, he can tell you his name.’ [Scout], ‘Hey, Boo,’ [Scout] said. ” (Lee, 362). This was the last and final instance of Boo Radley’s kindness that made Scout realize that Boo Radley is not such a bad person after all and all the rumors about him being a bad menacing person were fake. She expresses her understanding at the end of the book, when Atticus was putting Scout off to bed and she rambled on about a book Atticus was reading to her beforehand, “ ‘An‘ they chased him ’n‘ never could catch him

Even though To Kill a Mockingbird was published fifty years ago, the lessons hidden in the book are still relevant to today’s world. Racism and discrimination are always obstacles towards justice and equality. In a personal point of view, racism and discrimination blocked me from having certain types of friends and relationships. Even in my family there is racism. People usually say they do not judge people by their “cover,” but deep inside people’s hearts, they do judge people by their looks, appearance, social status, and race. Humanity has “reinvented the wheel” multiple times; we keep struggling with the problems in the past, now it is our present

A classic novel is a book that stays relevant to generations many years after the publishing. In a way the novel makes the reader wiser. This book was unique and this fresh voice had never been used to write about racism so clearly before. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is an important cornerstone in modern literature because in 1960 there was still widespread segregation in America and, alongside the work of Martin Luther King Jr., this book was instrumental in advocating the cause of African

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the most popular fictions about racial inequality in America. Her portrayal of the Black community is amazingly positive and has therefore triggered discussion. In the fiction, while most of the white people treat the Black poorly and are evil-like, the blacks are generally genial and miserable. Atticus remarks that some Negroes do lie and act immorally. In this case, the rather one-sided Black community in the book seems to be idealized while the White community may be presented as too negative. Lee’s choice of an idealized Black community over a realistic one and a prejudicious White community can be elucidated by her intention to highlight how the black people are oppressed in the

The 1960’s American classic novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, takes place in the south during a time of racism, stereotypes, and prejudices, although this took place around the time of the civil war, this still exists today. Maycomb, Alabama was an old fashioned town, “In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square (Harper 5).” With the old town comes the old fashioned thoughts such as, the idea the whites are superior and African Americans don’t get the same rights as them. This idea might seem profound because, it is, this is still the same thought that exists today only, with other groups of people. History repeats itself when we aren’t careful and if we don’t watch out, we’ll never get rid of the stereotypes and racism.