Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, published in July 11, 1960, shows the discrimination throughout the small town of Maycomb. Scout, the daughter of a white lawyer named Atticus, tells what she saw while she was growing up. Harper Lee uses foreshadowing throughout the entire story. When Atticus defends Tom Robinson in an alleged rape case. The people of Maycomb automatically start calling him, Scout, and Jem “nigger-lovers” for defending a black man.

In Maycomb, a black man named Tom Robinson is on trial for raping beating up Mayella Ewell. From the beginning Mr. Robinson never really received a fair trial. The law states that someone should get a fair trial from a jury of their peers. However, in Maycomb this doesn’t happen. The Courthouse in Maycomb is filled with local white people. Two men say “You know the court appointed him to defend this nigger...Yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. That’s what I don’t like about it”(163). This quote is important because it shows the overall attitude of Maycomb’s white citizens. One critical moment may have shown why the trial wasn’t a fair trial. Atticus proved that Tom Robinson was not involved in the attack. “His left arm was fully 12 inches shorter than his right and hung dead at his side” (186). This represented the physical

Furthermore, Atticus displayed integrity while defending Tom Robinson. Atticus made decisions based on his own conscience and not that of others. Lee writes, “Before I can live with other folks I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience. (105) Atticus is a man with morals, and therefore defends Tom Robinson in front of a racist jury to give him his right to a fair trial. Even though he knows he has a slim chance of winning the case, Atticus continues to do his best. Atticus asks the white jurors to consider the case on its merits and not take into consideration the race of the defendant, Tom Robinson. Atticus’s neighbor Miss Maudie, further describes his integrity by stating, “Atticus Finch is the same in his house as he is on the public streets.” (46) Miss Maudie is saying that Atticus does not have anything to hide and does not try

Race is the dominant cause of inequality in To Kill A Mockingbird, thus Maycomb’s views on race heavily influence every aspect of life. Although racial inequality is clearly illustrated in the in the injustice, prejudice, discrimination and antagonism surrounding the Tom Robinson trial, it is also shown more subtly throughout the novel. In chapter 25 Atticus Finch is quoted disclosing that the corrupt justice system is a direct cause of a racist society. “In our courts, when it's a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Pg 295). To emphasize, on the same occasion Atticus attempts to explain to his children how widely spread racism is, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men everyday of your life”

Imagine being a white lawyer in the 1930s and being asked to defend a black man who has been accused of raping a white woman. This is exactly what occurs in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus Finch, a white lawyer, chooses to defend a black man, Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, in 1935. Many people may believe Atticus Finch was wrong to have defended Tom Robinson because it put him and his family in harm’s way. However, Atticus was right to have defended Tom Robinson because Atticus knows very well that all people must be treated equally. and Atticus has to set a good example for his children.

Prejudice in the 1930’s destroyed many African-Americans chances at a normal life, how does Harper Lee show that in “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird” is a story depicting a family (Atticus, Scout, and Jem) living in the fictional town of Maycomb county, and a world of racism. Harper Lee shows in To Kill A Mockingbird how biases of skin color won over jurys and policemen, the hard living conditions that the African-Americans had to go through, and the outcomes of whites who were against the prejudice. First of all, the living conditions after African-Americans were freed weren’t the best, houses were often shacks with walls made out of scrap.

Society has evolved since the time of Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, causing racial bias to diminish and fair assessment under the law. Harper Lee uses the unnecessary judgement of Tom Robinson by the court to show racial bias in the government. Evidence of this includes a quote from Atticus Finch, "To begin with, this case should have never come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white." (Lee 219). This quote shows that the accused was falsely criticized due to racial bias in the governmental system, and Atticus is recognizing that the only reason this trial took place was because of Maycomb's racist tendencies. Though it does not appear as often, racial bias still occurs in the government presently. A quote from the article

“All men are created equal”, one of the most ignored statements that our founding fathers wrote in the Constitution. People exercise prejudice everywhere in the U.S. Prejudice is a topic that is constantly revisited in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Her novel focuses on Scout, the daughter of Atticus Finch, living her life in the 1930s of rural Maycomb, Alabama. Scout witnesses the injustice and prejudice against many people, not only Negroes. The heat of prejudice rises when Atticus decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black who is going under trial for allegedly raping a white girl. Despite the clear evidence that Robinson is innocent,

“Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil and racial prejudice is still her favourite child” says Don King. There exists today, as many people have experienced or witnessed, the discrimination of African Americans in today’s society. However, throughout the history of racism mankind has overcome time old prejudices to improve people’s view of their fellow Americans. Individual combatting acts toward racism have become beacons of light in the darkness that is discrimination in society.

The first part of the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee is discretely filled with the ingrained racism of Maycomb county. Black and White people were clearly separated in the county and how they were separated physically. While in the second part, Tom Robinson’s trial exposes how deep Maycomb’s racism went. While good men, who seemed to be respectful and good, showed how they felt about Tom, Scout and Jem started to understand what had been hidden deep in Maycomb’s heart. Even though they had lived there all their life, they had only then realized and saw in person what a black man was to the county. Even the Ewells, who were ‘trash’ for many, were defended against one of the most respectable black men in the county. The trial was

In Maycomb, during the trial, the jury is racist towards Tom Robinson. This is shown in the book when Atticus is saying his final statement to the jurors. At this point, he has almost given up on making the jury believe Tom is innocent so he just goes straight to pointing out that they are racist. He states, “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire."(202). He points out the unfairness of how the jury is obviously choosing Tom to be guilty because he is different. Also, in another

There are multiple forms of prejudice in this book, but racism is the primary form. To explain, in the book, Atticus Finch is going to lose a court case even when the man is non guilty. Just because the man is black he doesn’t stand a chance. Another key point is how almost everyone in Maycomb besides the Finch family, discriminates others because of their color. The Finch family is treated with hostility. This part plays

Zainab Salbi once said, This quote relates to To Kill a Mockingbird and The Help, because there are characters that realize their problems can only be solved if they themselves are involved in fixing them. In 1960, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was published. The story takes place in a small town known as Maycomb, Alabama. Scout Finch, the main character tells the story of how she and her family and friends were discriminated. The Help was filmed in 2011.

Over the course of several cross and direct examinations, Atticus Finch does something nobody in Maycomb could have ever expected, he blatantly ignores the clear divide of race, ignoring Maycomb’s deepest traditions. One wonders where he gets such radical ideas, the idea of black people being treated with the same dignity and respect as whites, that’s almost unheard of. Never would I have ever imagined someone as extremist as Atticus in our modest town, and yet for some reason there is a hint of truth during Atticus’ closing statement, as much as it is difficult to believe that Tom Robinson is not guilty, the statement of facts seems to favour Tom Robinson. At the beginning of the trial much of what was said by Atticus was forgotten but his closing statement resonates with the room. Despite disagreeing with all the words he is saying I feel the courtroom become more attentive, listening and understanding, is it possible that Atticus has a point? I have never thought of black and white as such, an african american being right and a european american being….

A quote by George Aiken states: “If we were to wake up some morning and find that everyone was the same race, creed, and color, we would find some other causes for prejudice by noon.” As long as there are humans walking this earth, there will be prejudice and discrimination. Some believe certain forms of discrimination are worse than others but it’s all the same, it’s all hurtful. Tom Robinson, a black man, is put on trial for a crime against a white woman.