Prejudice, Prejudice And Prejudice

The perception an individual has on justice, and the truth that they personally seek, are the deciding factors in determining what the true meaning of righteousness is for an individual. The perspective of justice a person has however is not the only factor that comes into play, when establishing whether the defendant is guilty or innocent. The play, ‘12 angry men’, written by Reginald Rose, is a drama involved around a jury and a homicide case. In comparison, the movie, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, directed by Robert Mulligan, follows the tale of Atticus Finch, a lawyer, who defends a black man against fabricated rape charges, and the evils of racism and stereotyping. Both texts have strongly opposing beliefs on the meaning of the justice;

In today’s society, we face prejudice every day in many forms. Most people in today’s society have either been victims of prejudice or are guilty of exhibiting prejudice towards others.

Lee develops the theme of prejudice throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Some forms of prejudice are not recognized by the young narrator, but the people of Maycomb are the source of racist and classist prejudice. The most obvious form of prejudice is racism. This close-minded view of certain ethnic groups is displayed when the jury declares Tom Robinson guilty when clear evidence had been presented proving his innocence. The stark outcome of injustice shows the readers that

Furthermore, defending Tom Robinson shows how being prejudice can hurt someone. The jury is all Caucasian men who do not agree with Atticus’s decision in defending an African American. Even though the actual truth about the case came out, the jury found Tom Robinson guilty and sent him to prison based on prejudice.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice is seen repeatedly. Tom Robinson did not have a chance at winning the trial solely because he was black. Despite the lack of prejudice on Judge Taylor’s behalf, the overwhelming prejudice in the jury convicted Tom, sentencing him to the death penalty – the penalty for rape in Alabama. Judge Taylor shows that he lacks prejudice by selecting Atticus Finch to be Tom Robinson’s lawyer. Judge Taylor knows that Atticus is Robinson’s best bet at winning the trial.

Preference, segregation, or enmity coordinated against somebody of an alternate race in light of the conviction that one 's own particular race is superior is prevalent. Prejudice is as old as human culture itself. For whatever length of time that individuals have been around, the contention has remained alive; people have constantly despised or dreaded individuals of an alternate country or skin color. It is said that racism or prejudice is simply some portion of human instinct, but we are not born with racism. We learn to discriminate from our societal norms.

Prejudice is a very prominent motif throughout To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee conveys the message that prejudice deprives us of understanding reality and the world around us. One of the most noticeable cases is the prejudice against Tom Robinson due to his skin color. In the trial, the jury had agreed Tom was guilty because of his race, even though there was no substantial evidence to prove so. Atticus knows the men on the jury are blinded by prejudice and racism, so he says to them, “The witnesses for the state...have presented themselves to you gentlemen...in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted...on the assumption that all Negroes lie” (273). Although the men of the jury understood that the Ewell’s testimonies

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Andy Harper The justice system has a powerful bias against Tom Robinson which was proven when ample evidence was provided proving his innocence still landed him in prison whilst boo had all evidence proving his guilt gets ruled innocent, this demonstrating the racial bias treatment of blacks in the 1930’s.

“Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal.” However, for a strange reason, some people do not treat all men equally. Instead, they are prejudiced against certain groups or races. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, racism is very prevalent in the lives of people in the South. Racism has affected the supposedly unbiased jury, as evidenced by the book. Though the jury found Tom Robinson guilty, there are many reasons why the jury should have ruled in favor of Robinson.

The most common prejudice people encounter is that of race. During Tom Robinson’s trial this type of prejudice is shown. Tom was a black man accused of raping a white woman, a crime that is punishable by the death penalty. Even though all of the evidence should prove him innocent, the jury still found him guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. The justice system didn’t allow this man to have a fair trial because of racial prejudice. The character Jem was heartbroken by consequence of racism “His face was streaked with angry tears, ‘it ain’t right’ he muttered.” (212). The jurors had disregarded Tom’s credibility or that of the other witnesses. All they could focus on was his race because they could not see though the frost in that window.

On July 11, 1960 , Harper Lee made history by publishing To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel depicts a society filled with racial prejudice and inequality in the 1960s. More specifically, the novel revolves around a court case involving a black man who is wrongly accused of raping a 19 year old white girl. The defense attorney for the black man states that the case has an “inevitable verdict” (253). How could a verdict be inevitable? In fictional Maycomb County, Alabama, cases involving a white victim and a black defendant are solely based on prejudice against blacks; a prejudice founded in fear and sustained by segregation. While some might believe these racial divisions to be a thing of the past, recent events in Ferguson, Missouri suggest otherwise. Both Maycomb County and Ferguson, Missouri suffer not only from deep racial divides, but also from a police force that drives the wedge deeper.

Prejudice is a negative opinion or bias formed about a certain group of people that is not based on experience. Many prejudices exist including, but not limited to, racism, ableism, sexism, and homophobia. These biases have existed for as long as humans have and throughout history, have affected many marginalized groups of people. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, many forms of prejudices are discussed. The novel takes place in à town in Alabama in the 1930s and follows two children as they grow up in this town. Over the course of the novel, the children, Jem and Scout, attempt to make their neighbour, Boo Radley, come out of his house. The novel also traces a trial in which a black man, Tom Robinson, is accused of raping a white

Stereotyping leads to prejudice. If I am walking in a park and I see a group of people walking towards me (lets say all are white males) and they are dressed up and look very nice. I do not panic, now another group is walking towards me and now this group is all men (African Americans) and they are dressed and conduct themselves just the same as the first group, but I panicked with this group. Why because I stereotyped the second group and if I was prejudice no matter how they dressed or acted I would be afraid of them because they are black. I judge them based on skin color and not on individuality.

Courts are the “one human institution that makes a pauper the equal of a Rockefeller, the stupid man the equal of an Einstein, and an ignorant man the equal of any college president. That institution, gentlemen, is a court.”(205) it is expected that the judge or jury evaluate both sides without bias. Unfortunately this is not always the case; there has always been bias against one side which affects the ruling, whether it be racism, class divisions, or of religion. This problem is illustrated in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird during the court hearing of Tom Robinson, a black man, in Maycomb Alabama. Atticus Finch, the lawyer of Mr. Robinson attempts to shed light on the ridiculous separation between those who are different. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates conformity and the consequences it has on society.

For instance, take Tom Robinson. He was an average hard working southern black man, except he was crippled. Mayella Ewell accused him of raping her and was sentenced to court for trial. Tom was wrongly convicted of a crime even though there was “not...one iota of medical evidence”(203). This displays how people on the jury at the time convicted Tom of a crime they knew he didn’t commit and the only reason he wasn’t a free man was because he was black. Some people might think that the jury was not racist when convicting Tom and did so of their own collective opinion on the case. But when you consider that there was not one black man on the jury and that Mayella Ewell’s story didn’t match up with the Sheriff’s and Tom’s, you can infer that she was lying about it the whole time to cover up her guilt of “tempt[ing] a Negro”(203). Similarly, after Tom was convicted and sentenced to prison, he was shot soon afterward. We see how the Maycomb community thinks that “Tom’s death was typical. Typical of a nigger to cut and run. Typical of a nigger’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future”(240). This is a clear example of discrimination on blacks in the book, they even use a racial slur to describe Tom running away which further proves the point. As a result of the examples above, we see multiple times how people in Mockingbird discriminate based on whether the color of your skin is darker than