Separation Of Public Spaces In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The act of prejudice is one that everyone experiences. Whether it be, a person who is distributing hate, or a person who is receiving hate, everyone has contact with it. Although it is present all over the globe, it is prominent in the United States. Both in the present and the past, endless acts of discrimination have taken place and left a monumental impact on the country. The effect that it leaves can be seen in the novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee. In this story, sexism, racism, and isolation, are demonstrated in the small Southern town of Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930’s. As the story progresses, Lee compares these concepts to one another and uses them to make a statement about the problematic nature in America.

During the 1930’s depression, there was a great divide between black and white America. There were many communities and groups who had been exposed to the same treatment and persecution as the Negroes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has used a small town setting, such as that in To Kill a Mockingbird, to illustrate America’s views on white supremacy and the inferiority of the black race. The author has illustrated view that are expressed world-wide through her characters in Maycomb county.

In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and

In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee segregation plays a huge role throughout the story. The Jim Crow Law also lay along these lines too. The Jim Crow Laws were laws that legalized segregation between blacks and whites. In Harper Lee’s book black and white people are often separated.

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.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the sleepy, southern Maycomb, Alabama. A small town in the grips of 1930’s depression, To Kill a Mockingbird spans a period of three years following young Scout Finch and her family through their experiences with racism and prejudice. Jim Crow laws were a series of ordinances the prevented equal treatment of African-Americans. Beginning with the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and remaining in effect until the Civil rights movement of the 1950s, Jim Crow laws governed where colored people could live, work, eat, enter and exit a building, and use public services. “Jim Crow laws grew from theories of white supremacy and were a reaction to Reconstruction,” explained Andrew Costly of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, “In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to blacks.” Ensuring that freed slaves remained weak and inferior, Jim Crow laws revoked black freedom’s and crippled their rights. And while not explicitly stated, evidence of Jim Crow Laws appears methodically throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Strongly influenced by elements of racism, the story paints a vivid picture of life in the era of Jim Crow, for both colored and white.

The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws perpetuated segregation. The Jim Crow laws were appalling. It was a racial system that had many terrible anti-Black laws (“Jim Crow laws”). These laws were huge in the south and border states. People treated and acted horrible towards the Blacks. Some examples of these laws were how Blacks and Whites could not eat together and how African Americans had to sit in the back of a White person's car(“Jim Crow laws”). These laws were basically cutting off almost all communication and action with any Black. Jim Crow had separate bathrooms, schools, churches, cemeteries and public accommodations for each race(Pilgrim). There were many reasons for the laws. For example, a black male could not offer or shake hands with a white woman because he would be accused of rape(“Jim Crow laws”) A Black could also never offer to light a white females' cigarette or show public affection toward another in public because it showed intimacy and offended Whites(“Jim Crow laws”). Boating implied social equality(“Jim Crow laws”). These examples just showed how disrespected African Americans were treated. Pilgrim points out that the Jim Crow laws were trying to keep Blacks and Whites separated. With these laws and reasons came punishments. Punishments were done if a Black broke a law and used as intimidation(“Jim Crow laws”). When a group of black males tried sitting in the White section of a bus they were arrested(“Jim Crow laws”). Blacks could get physically beat by a White if they drank out of the Whites water fountain or tried to vote(“Jim Crow laws”). The most extreme punishments were lynchings and occurred for demanding civil rights riots and violating laws(“Jim Crow laws”). Lynchings were public and most

Racism, Segregation and ill-treatment of coloured is major theme explored in the text by Harper Lee. This problem in the little town of Maycomb is just a tiny reflection in the corner of the mirror, of America at the time. And even the world, with references to Nazi Russia in the novel also bringing to light segregation in other parts of the world. She comes right out to say that the world is a racist world, with this novel and she writes to show others what is happening and that it is actually not right. And she does so in a great way by highlighting one great injustice rather than the many and bringing to a realization how irrational and unfair the entire American Justice system was. But we also see a development in the white characters which a representative of the entire America in a sense (and the world) as thoughts and ideas change and people’s views about coloured people change, not abruptly but slow of course. The black characters in To Kill A Mockingbird contribute to the development of the white characters rather than appearing as individuals in their own right. Racism is learnt, and with this we can see that Racism can

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

“But now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruining’ the family, that’s what he’s doing’.” (Lee 110). The power of hatred is one so strong, that it imprisons the Finches and African Americans of Maycomb County. In Alabama of 1920 to 1930, segregation is an established action of the Southerners, it’s a lifestyle. The slurs passed from the mouths of white Southerners and ending with the shooting of a black man, the ways of Maycomb County are ones seen as either shocking or common in today’s eyes. To Kill A Mockingbird is an eminent novel by Harper Lee that illustrates the aspects of discrimination and prejudice, tolerance and courage during a time in America where racial inequality

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee's only novel, is a fictional story of racial oppression, set in Maycomb, A.L. in 1925 to 1935, loosely based on the events of the Scottsboro trials. Unlike the story however, the racial discrimination and oppression in the novel very accurately portrays what it was like in the 1920's and 1930's in the south. Tom Robinson, the black man accused of raping a poor low class white girl of 19, never stood a chance of getting a fair trial. This can be supported by giving examples of racially discriminatory and

In the riveting coming-of-age novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee projects the idea of acceptance of all people, through the eyes of a child. Harper Lee combats the prejudice of social standing when she proves that some of the poorest people have the best of character traits. While racism of African Americans is first and foremost in this novel, the acceptance of white people into the African American community shows racism can be beaten from both point of views. Finally, the disabilities that Arthur Radley portrays, is forgotten, when his actions help him soar above the bigotry of the people of Maycomb County. The most obvious topic is the overt racism based on a person's skin color, however, Harper Lee takes us beneath the skin to show that discrimination occurs in other ways.

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.

“To Kill A Mockingbird” is marvelous and unforgettable novel. Not only show how dramatic, sad in and old town – Maycomb be like, but through her unique writings, some big conflicts about politics and critical is going on through this tired old Southern town. Not just in general like education, friendship, neighbors but also pacific in individuals like family and the people’s characteristics themselves. In one book yet can covered with such many problems, Harper Lee must have been experienced a lot and deeply understanding that time. That is why the book lives, becoming literature and get the love from the audiences a lot. One of the problem and mostly run along with the story and interest me is racism between white people and black people

In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” one of the multiple dilemmas brought to light in the novel and the film is the social inequality. Rather it be at the suffering of a person of color to a woman or child; todays society still suffers from from the social inequality pointed out in the novel based on the 1930s, 1933 specifically and can be compared to some cases from the novel. Social inequality can be forced on anybody but more specifically pushes onto people of a colored ethnic background (color), the gender a person is born with or chooses to identify as (sexuality), or the religion they choose to practice and so on, however this essay is going to focus mainly on the three social inequalities listed above.