Prejudice Is Responsible For The Destruction Of The Innocent
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In ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ Atticus says that, ‘it is a sin to kill a mockingbird’. How far would you agree that prejudice is responsible for the destruction of the innocent in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper lee and ‘of mice and men’ by John Steinbeck?
I believe that prejudice is a key theme in both lee and Steinbeck’s novels. It is partly responsible for the destruction of the innocent; but there are other key themes that are equally responsible for this destruction such as: loneliness and religion. People are prejudiced because: they have different skin colours; live in an unordinary fashion or they practice their religion in a different way to others. The authors use the characters in the book to show just how bad the discrimination…show more content… Humans were most likely the cause of this fire which links nicely to the great depression and to kill a mocking bird because it was man made destruction.
Racial prejudice is by far the most influential theme running through both novels. In 1930’s America black people where thought of as inferior to the white race and this resulted in riots, killings and destruction. It is clear that both of the authors have experienced these detached communities because in their novels they both reflect on this through the destruction of some of the characters. In of mice and men Steinbeck writes: crooks is bent over in pain’ this could reflect on how racism has affected crooks. He is in pain over the way people have been treating him over his life. But also his physical injuries could be a result of the way people have treated him: he has a crooked back because he was kicked in the back by a mule. He is crippled on his left side and Atticus uses this to his advantage when in the court scene to try and prove Tom innocent; but this doesn’t work because the jury are so blinded by the fact that he is black and it would have been considered outrageous that a black man would win in court over a white man. Both Tom and Crooks live differently from everyone else. There are some differences in the two novels in the way that blacks are treated.