Social Issues In To Kill A Mockingbird

How does racism affect a story? As a kid in the 1930s, Harper Lee grew up when there was hardly any equality for African Americans. Harper Lee’s only novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is heavily based off of prejudice and racism from her childhood. In her book, she writes about racial discrimination through the eyes of a six year-old girl, named Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, during the Great Depression. Her and her family are deeply tied into racism and prejudice involved throughout this story. Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is ever apparent as the story is located in a small southern town in Alabama; it is reflected upon three of the main characters: Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch, Jem Finch and their father, Atticus Finch.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and was published in 1960. This novel is included in various curriculums to enable students to take this well-written novel to identify the themes and messages and be educated from their literature. Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience. The different forms of prejudice that will be analysed are racial, class and social, thus, leads to the citizens of Maycomb to marginalises characters and treat them as an insignificant. It is evident that many characters in this novel suffer from different types of prejudice, which creates a sense of marginalisation. Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell and Arthur Radley are the important, main

The “other” is someone(s) who are different than me and my group. Some of the “others” in Maycomb include: Boo Radley, Miss Caroline Fisher and Walter Cunningham. Race, class, and gender play a role in establishing the “other”. Gossip and superstition play a role in figuring out who society believes are the “other”. Stereotypes also play a role in determining who is an “other” because stereotypes are undefinable attitudes that people have about other people. Fear plays a role in “otherness” because fear causes people to say and do things that they normally wouldn’t do. A quote to support this is from chapter two: “The class murmured apprehensively, should she prove to harbor her share of peculiarities indigenous to that region.”

thing during and following slavery. In the novel, a man named Bob Ewell despises black people and calls out Atticus by saying, “too proud to fight, you nigger lovin bastard?” (Lee, 291). What that quote is saying is how Bob is getting upset with atticus just because he is Tom Robinson's lawyer and Bob Ewell doesn’t like black people. Another example of racism occurs in chapter 11. This happens when the kids are walking by Mrs.Dubose’s home, and she starts yelling out racist comments about Atticus. She yells out to Jem and says, “your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” (Lee, 105) She attacks their father for doing his job, but even more so attacks Jem and Scout by Yelling furiously about their father. These two ways are clearly shown in To Kill A Mockingbird and there are many other ways throughout the novel.

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, we see different topics such as coming of age, gender roles, segregation, as well as the two major topics which are racism and social inequality in Maycomb. Throughout the book Lee shows us that social inequalities and racism towards people of color and poor folks was very frequent in Maycomb. Lee uses the Tom Robinson’s trial, the Ewells and the Cunninghams to show how people of color were highly treated less than compared to white people, but even among White people there was prejudice. This went from schools all the way to the justice system set in Maycomb.

Anthony Storr says that, “Originality implies being bold enough to go beyond accepted norms “ Social norms imply that everyone is the same or does something the same way, to break that you need to go out of your comfort zone and be bold enough to break those norms. Although it is very common for there to be social norms in society, when someone breaks one it can be the very first step to making the world a better place.

The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a simplistic view of life in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. An innocent but humorous stance in the story is through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch. Scout is a young adolescent who is growing up with the controversy that surrounds her fathers lawsuit. Her father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, with the charge of raping a white girl. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that develops during the course of the narrative.

Everyone in the world has their own identity; have you ever thought about what your identity is? Identity plays a big role in the world especially in America where not all identities are good. People might identify a wealthy person as “snotty rich” or a poor person as “defective” or maybe someone calls a man a woman when they're really a man. Or maybe you call someone a terrorist just because they are middle eastern. The list goes on and on and thats why social forces influence identities and can become dangerous. Gender, race, and social class are all forms of social forces.

Social injustice has flooded the world and will continue to flood the world until someone stops all this evil. In Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, there is poverty and racism ruling over the South. Scout Finch has yet to realize all the evil surrounding her and her family. The evil that takes over Maycomb is the racism that lives in the hearts of its citizens. In To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, readers see a view of social injustices caused by racism through the Maycomb citizens who see the world through a veil of hypocrisy, which is shown by their actions in the way they talk down to Tom, and the truths of Maycomb’s society.

During the civil war, the states had a very vast difference between their views on slavery. The south refused to give up their views of slavery, before and even after the war was fought. This shows that even with forced sudden change in society, it will still take time for years of habit to change. In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, it shows a black man on trial for his life. Some will claim this is a reason why change should occur quickly, but the human mind is not keen to accept such drastic change. So this is why social change should occur slowly, because of the jury, the opinions of the town, and the actions of people like Miss Maudie.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, the portrayl of friendship and racial inequality is expressed throughout this tale. They are based on observations that Harper Lee experienced firsthand. The main themes of this novel is innocence and the racial injustices of the south. The mockingbird represents an innocent being and to kill a mockingbird shows injustice cruelty. Scout and Jem’s childhood is innocent and they have never seen evil in the world until they start seeing the injustices for themselves since their father is reprsenting a black man (To) and they see how the townspeople treat them for doing so. Atticus Finch embodies the ethical voice of To Kill a Mockingbird. He has experienced and understands the evil that the world beholds

The year this film was finished and viewed publically, was during the sixties. 1960’s in America greatly divide our nation between the public lynching’s, protests, and other horrific tragedies, this a great of trouble times in our nation. Scout, played by the amazing Mary Badham, grows up in the Great Depression, segregated south area in the United States of America. After her father, Atticus played by Gregory Peck, tries so durable to prove a black man’s innocence for a crime he did not commit, is later convicted of rape and is sent off to jail. The father of the daughter that propositioned the black man to have intercourse with her viciously attacks Scout and Jem on their way home from a Halloween party. But, all are saved by Boo Radley,

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the few classics that efficiently addresses many issues while keeping the book interesting for its readers. The many themes that are taught in the book can be applied to real life and the many issues discussed accurately criticizes events that are going on in the real world. Due to the abundance of themes and issues that are explored in the book, some might be confused on what the novel is really trying to teach us. In my opinion, the book’s main theme is ‘social classes and their consequences’. My reasons for this is because the book has many examples of this theme, one of the main plot points in the book focuses on this theme, and because the theme is one of the most applicable to real

a white man,’ I muttered. ‘Says it’s the worst thing you can do” (Lee 269). You can see how Atticus has grown in favor of the black community, but also keep in mind that this is a heavily racially time, and with the prior knowledge we have, it would be difficult to help defend the lesser especially in this heavily opinionated time. I think it was important that we could be so upfront about some of the issues at the time, and that it wasn't swept under the rug by most guilty white folk in the 60’s

In this essay, I will be writing a formal and cultural analysis on Harper Lee’s drama/mystery, To Kill a Mockingbird. The major story themes were presented by the two main characters and who I also viewed as protagonists, Scout, and her father Atticus. Through Atticus’ abnormal teaching styles, it became apparent in multiple scenes throughout the film that Scout was developing ethical and cultural opinions that differed from that of her peers. I will be discussing numerous camera techniques, such as black and white color and camera point of view to demonstrate how these themes came into play. In my formal analysis of this film, I will be discussing how cinematography, editing, and are used to convey how Atticus’ moral and principles are starting