Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Society has progressed throughout the 21st century with prejudice still being a major issue. Despite all measures taken to avoid it, people constantly find reasons to hate. Prejudice comes in different forms, prejudice against gender, race, skin colour or class. Prejudice impacts society greatly because of the emotion it invokes as seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a Maycomb family that grows up during racist times and must overcome difficulties together in their prejudiced world. In To Kill a Mockingbird, three types of prejudice are displayed that affect the character’s actions and emotions, sexism, racism and social inequality.

Prejudice, judgement formed without knowledge or fact, affects all people to a degree. All people, coming from different walks of life come to the issue with a their own perspective. This perspective guides them through the issue and makes them react differently to similar concepts. Tom Robinson tried to follow the set system of court, trying his best to use a faulty system. Jeremy Finch threw a violent hissy fit at the unfair judgement and yielded no results. Dolphus Raymond gave people an excuse to outlet their prejudice against alcoholism and not himself. All people subject to different levels and types of prejudice, all people reacting in different ways. Prejudice is a major part of the book Kill a Mockingbird with it’s own set of ethical restrictions that each character reacts to differently. The major ethical dilemma of To Kill a Mockingbird is prejudice caused by ignorance with Tom Robinson, Dolphus Raymond, and Jeremy “Jem” Finch each addressing it in their own ways.

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

Prejudice is seen throughout the world in many forms even after the Civil Rights Movement. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the extreme prejudice that African Americans were faced with at that time period. This book shows prejudice through character interactions.

If you have ever seen anything on the news, it was written with a bias. People have opinions and prejudices, and they tend to communicate this in their writings/scriptures. Harper Lee portrays the 1930’s from her perspective as Scout and she also demonstrates to us her opinions, which are highly influenced by her brother, Jem, and father, Atticus in the book To Kill A Mockingbird (TKAM). Scout and her family teach us through their thoughts that prejudice is wrong, that the ‘real’ world is not what a child expects it to be, and that we do not get the justice we deserve.

We see this in the separation of the classes, the expectations of the lower classes and the expectations of the higher classes. Firstly, Scout is not allowed to play with Walter after the trial because aunt Alexandra believes he is below the finch family standing. When Scout asks to play with him she said “I’ll tell you why she said. Because-he-is-trash, that’s why you can’t play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what”(Lee,301). Who is family is and where they stand on the social chain causes Alexandra doesn’t see the as equals. They are viewed as a step below the townspeople. They are thought to be dirty and uncivilized. The prejudice tied to wealth has always been a large issue in society and even today will sometimes put barriers between two people. We seem to associate wealth with power and this creates negative prejudice to those who don’t have a lot. The lower class citizens of Maycomb such as the Ewells and Cunninghams don’t have the same expectations as the rest of the town's residents. For example the Ewells never showing up after the first day of school. Scout explains this to Miss Caroline when she

The famous novel by Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, demonstrates how prejudice exists in society, whether it be the 1930’s, or the 2010’s. Blacks are constantly being racially profiled in court, white men receive a higher pay than any other group in the United States, and people get stopped at airport security for looking Muslim. This is the prejudice that exists

In this generation people have very strong opinions and judge people on many things that they can’t help. Even though slavery ended over 150 years ago, and after Hitler started the Holocaust people would think that everyone would be accepted as their own and not for their race or religion but they didn’t. To this day people still have very harsh and strong opinions on something they have no knowledge of. This is called prejudice. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Lee demonstrates prejudice in a way like no other.

Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, a heart-warming novel, set in Maycomb, Alabama. This novel is about a lawyer named Atticus, raising two children, Jem and Scout, by himself. This novel was set during the Great Depression; therefore this was a time of extreme prejudice. Atticus goes with his heart and defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of raping a white women. Jem, Scout, and a neighborhood friend Dill, watch the world they live in impact them in a way that changes their perception of life forever.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, The townspeople are very prejudice towards the African-American’s living in Maycomb. Ignorant white people putting labels on all the black people. Through some people’s eyes, African Americans are just filthy being, so this gives them the right to treat them like trash and assume most of them and rapists and bad people. We should not judge someone by the color of their skin but about how they act. Since 1960 till now, America has not come to a point where there was true racial and social equality.

Harper Lee in To Kill A Mockingbird shows that people fabricate stories about other people, cultures, or lifestyles that they do not understand because of their fear of the unknown. At the end of the book, Atticus reads The Gray Ghost, by Seckatary Hawkins, to Scout. To prove that she was listening, she recaps the main plot of the book. Scout talks about “Stoner’s Boy” who is rumored to have done all these horrible things. “When they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things . . . Atticus, he was real nice . . .”. Atticus replies calmly, “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them” (281). Atticus constantly tells Scout and Jem throughout the book that people are usually good people once you get to know them, and that assuming

Harper Lee vividly explores the contrast in the society of Maycomb, exploring how prejudice can overcome through the development of empathy in the novel. In the town of Maycomb, there is a sheer influence on Scout and her brother Jem to adopt the racist characteristics of other members of the community. Atticus is thoroughly aware of the danger, he makes sure that he teaches Scout and Jem how to treat others in the community with respect. Atticus teaches them a valuable analogy that becomes the title for the novel. The valuable analogy takes place when Scout and Jem each receive an air rifle for Christmas from Atticus. Atticus explains to them, "I'd rather you shot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the

For many years, Boo Radley has been a source of fascination for the children of the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. Scout and Jem Finch are siblings who live with their father, Atticus. Along with Dill, who visits his aunt in Maycomb every summer, Scout and Jem spend much of their time trying to catch a glimpse of Boo. Even though they often find evidence that Boo is around, they never catch sight of him. Along with their hunt for Boo, Scout and Jem are faced with harassment from their classmates at school. Their father is an attorney in their small town. He has taken on the case of a black man accused of raping a white woman. The prejudice attitudes of the townspeople make life uncomfortable for the Finch family in Harper Lee's classic

In both the past and present, prejudice produces a plethora of problems (alliteration). In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows that people must think outside the box of prejudice for the resolution of societal conflicts. Lee writes about the lives of Scout and her brother, Jem, children growing up in Maycomb, Alabama amidst the Great Depression. Arthur Radley, their secluded and mysterious neighbor, captivates the minds of the children, including their summer friend, Dill. Meanwhile, their attorney father, Atticus, decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Although Atticus presents clear evidence that proves Tom’s innocence, Bob Ewell, the father of Mayella, lies about the

Many people struggle with overcoming prejudice and other themes that have been in society since early times. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee there are many themes that correspond to events still happening today. One of these is discrimination, which still affects many people now almost as much as back then. It has gotten better, but has not completely disappeared from society today. Some of the losing battles you will find in To Kill a Mockingbird are discrimination within Maycomb, the trial, and changing people’s views.