“It is better one hundred guilty persons should escape than that one innocent person should suffer” (Benjamin Franklin). Sleepy Maycomb, like other Southern towns, suffers considerably during the Great Depression. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows that poverty reaches from the privileged families, like the Finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” Ewells, who live on the outskirts of town. Harper Lee paints a vivid picture of life in this humid Alabama town where tempers and bigotry explode into conflict. The main conflict of the book revolves around a man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of a crime. This novel is revolved around three central themes: racism, poverty, and domestic violence.
In conclusion, throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice is shown as one of the most important things in the lives of the citizens of Maycomb, Alabama. One of the most evident types of prejudice is
Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a realistic story that deeply discusses issues involved with the 1930’s that still resonate today. The struggles of life are evident within the believable characters of Maycomb County which is a microcosm, reflective of universal issues. Along with the authentic characters, setting and style also helps to convey Lee’s controversial notions of racial and gender prejudice, and persecution of the innocent, discussing many other ideas within.
To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a complex literary work exploring several aspects of the human condition. Lee’s story is one based in the 1930’s, shortly before the Civil Rights Movement. Her novel ventures into the societal issues, such as racism and gender stereotyping, in their fictional town, Maycomb. One recurring theme throughout the narrative is the social adjustment of the citizens of Maycomb and the human race as a whole. Lee showcases the progress in social justice matters by using symbolism and motifs.
The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in a small town called Maycomb in the 1930s. In this novel the people of Maycomb discriminate against people that they have no background information about or people that are different in some way. An innocent black man is convicted of a crime he never commits, a man is stereotyped to be dangerous and scary and there are gender stereotypes.
Racism is evidence of prejudice in all aspects of Maycomb’s society. Racism was huge during this time. Racism is still a problem in this world today but it is much better than it used to be. People used to be much worse, for example, Tom pretty much lost the trial because he was a black person. A quote I have is, “Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty... “ (Lee 215). This quote shows that they really had no doubt he was going to be proven guilty because he was black. If he was white he would have won the trial. Also to add on, there were no blacks on jury. Obviously there is racism there. Another example of racism in this book is, that during the trial, the blacks were not allowed to sit downstairs. They all had to sit upstairs and cram up there to watch the trial.
In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice and racism are embedded in the regional psyche of Maycomb, a miniscule town in Alabama. The narrator interpolates injustice and racism in Alabama during the 1930s, largely through the eyes of Scout, who was a child during this time, however, the adult Scout occasionally interjects with some adult observations. Furthermore, the citizens of Maycomb are stereotyped pervasively throughout the book. In Harper Lee’s To Kill Mockingbird, examples of racism, sexism, and social class are used to demonstrate how prejudice can corrupt a community.
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was published in 1960. This novel is included in various curriculums to enable students to take this well-written novel to identify the themes and messages and be educated from their literature. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The different forms of prejudice that will be analysed are racial, class and social, thus, leads to the citizens of Maycomb to marginalises characters and treat them as an insignificant. It is evident that many characters in this novel suffer from different types of prejudice, which creates a sense of marginalisation. Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell and Arthur Radley are the important, main
The Setting is the 1960s, the towns are small and the populations are increasing. But that means that the Prejudice in the eye of the people, is increasing too. In Maycomb County, Alabama, the town is like an egyptian pyramid. You have your hierarchies or “big shots” in town, but you also have your poor and middle class whites. But in Maycomb, they put blacks below the poor. The amount of respect for blacks in Maycomb County is as low as bedrock. The novel revolves around an innocent girl by the name of scout. Although she thinks otherwise, Maycomb is an extremely prejudice town. Which starts off my topic of prejudice in Maycomb compared to the prejudice in the south now.
The characters in, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, often use prejudice against people of controversial issues. Many of the townspeople of Maycomb use prejudice on the families who are on the less wealthy end of the spectrum. Issues are still displayed because of the racial prejudice used against African Americans and those of other races. Lastly, gender is a clear issue in Maycomb because of women’s and girl’s rights and lack of respect towards them because they are female. All of the types of prejudice show that Maycomb has many problems all throughout the town between other families and townspeople.
During the Great Depression, racism was a common practice in the southern states of the US. Negros and those who opposed the intolerance were often discriminated by the rest of the bias and ignorant society, who believed in white supremacy and superiority over the other races. Maycomb, a racist town, exemplify this discrimination, imperiously judging others they view as being dissimilar from themselves. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee, the author, weaves a brilliant story of prejudice, discrimination, and racism shown through the novel’s several characters and events, producing a mirror reflection of America’s racist society in the 1930’s.
Racism is not something that can be remedied overnight how deep-set this attitude can be entrenched within people is easily seen in Maycomb, where most people are raised since birth with the inherent notion of discrimination. Both adults and children are separated by color, in what would later be known as the practice of segregation, which would not be abolished for a good thirty years. Although slavery had been terminated, the lasting effects of white superiority would linger for a long while, permeated deep into the lives of every citizen. Blacks were simply not given
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
Harper lees classic novel to kill a mocking bird is established during the 1930s in the judgmental, racist town of Maycomb County. Through the characters, symbolism and events in the novel, Lee clearly illustrates the impact judgement can have on an individual, as well as a society. Judgment branches off to social and racial prejudiced ideas which are clearly defined through the social structures in the town. Racism blinds the people of Maycomb and causes disharmony and misjudgement.
In the small town of Maycomb, prejudice towards Negroes was a common sentiment of white people. Prejudice is strongly evident between these cultures in To Kill