Stereotypes and Discrimination in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

Racial stereotypes are things where a person talks about how the other person’s race is. It describes all the “nasty” things in another person’s race. It’s basically gossiping about someone else’s race and ethnicity. Back then, in that time period, there were high amounts of racism and stereotypes, so in that case, a lot of African American people were most likely convicted for doing something they didn’t do. Even though the court is supposed to equally convict or release people who have commited a crime whether it’s Black or White people.

Atticus said, “They’ve done it befor and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it-seems that only children weep”(Lee 285). To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written by Harper Lee. It is about two siblings , Jem and Scout, who live in a small town called Maycomb. Their father Atticus, is a well known lawyer, who is defending an African American that was accused of raping a white women. Throughout the novel, Jem and Scout are introduced to discrimination and learn that it’s an everlasting problem. Prejudice and discrimination are important themes in To Kill a Mockingbird because of racism, sexism, and ageism.

Stereotyping, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, plays a big role in “To kill a Mockingbird”, and it’s also a big role in the thirties when everyone was different. In the story there are three different groups of people, the wealthy, the poor, and the black. Each of these group with some exceptions like the Finch family, looks at each other with offset opinions. The stereotyping in this story makes it come true and really plays a big part in character development.

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in a small town called Maycomb in the 1930s. In this novel the people of Maycomb discriminate against people that they have no background information about or people that are different in some way. An innocent black man is convicted of a crime he never commits, a man is stereotyped to be dangerous and scary and there are gender stereotypes.

Along with the historical events of 1930’s, citizens’ beliefs have also shifted. “ The Great Depression brought a rapid rise in the crime rate as many unemployed workers resorted to petty theft to put food on the table.” People were desperate to survive, therefore committing crimes in order to provide for their families was the only option available. Another way out which Americans have found was alcohol. Those who were vulnerable to hardship resorted to drinking as a way of escaping the brutal reality around them. Suicide rates rose due to the depression taking over the nation; suicide seemed to be the only option left for those who weren’t able to deal with the pressure. Prostitution, as well, became more popular among women desperate to pay their bills, resulting in a shift in the way women were viewed at the time. In Chandler’s novel women were also portrayed as sexual creatures, taking advantage of it to get what they wanted.

there to spread the word of their god, but are being mocked while they do.

The 1920’s was a decade of discovery for America. As mentioned in “who was roaring in the twenties? —Origins of the great depression,” by Robert S. McElvaine America suffered with the great depression due to several factors but it managed to stay prosperous at the end. In “America society and culture in the 1920’s,” by David A. Shannon there was much more to the great depression. It was a time of prosperity an economic change. Women and men were discovering who they were and their value to society in “The Revolution in Morals,” by Gilman M. Ostrander. Even if Racism still existed as mentioned in “ The Tribal Twenties,” by John Higham, the 1920’s still was time of change that affects people today.

The Great Depression devastated the United States, and remains the worst depression ever experienced by the nation. During the “Roaring Twenties” when the economy was thriving in the United States, women took the opportunity to improve their social statuses through enlightenment, but as this period came to an end women’s social roles began to change again. This investigation will cover white women’s roles in the early 1920’s, and during the Great Depression at the height of unemployment. This investigation should reveal the extent of change in women’s roles during the hardest times the nation experienced. To fully investigate this topic, information from the book Flappers and the New American Woman by Catherine Gourley and information from the article Fifty Years of Change: Societal Attitude and Women’s Fashions, 1900-1950 by Ann Beth Presley.

Throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird Lee discusses the effects of ignorance and the toll it takes on people such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout herself, and many more. Through her examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the populist of poverty stricken Southerners, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of ignorance are the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story. A good example of this injustice is the trial of Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white girl and is found guilty. The book is from the point of view Scout, a child, who has an advantage over most kids due to her having a lawyer as a dad, to see the other side of the story. Her father tells her in the story, “you never really know a man until

The prejudice seen in the fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee corresponds with the real narrow-mindedness during this time period. A fair trial would be unlikely during this time period between a white and a black man. Tom Robinson was presumed guilty because of his race.

at all! If a woman wants to be on a jury and meets all the

Prejudice and discrimination is looked down upon, yet people still continue to be judgmental and have preconceived assumptions about others. It is a common thing that still happens in today’s society. To be particular, racial discrimination is one example of prejudice and is based solely on the color of one’s skin. In the story To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson is a caring individual who tries his hardest to treat everyone he meets with appreciation and respect. However, he is African American, which influences him and the other characters' lives in different ways. All he wants to do is help out another character, Mayella, which inevitably costs him his life in the end. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the character of Tom Robinson to illustrate the fact that innocent people are sometimes victimized to a racist society.

Discrimination is prejudicial treatment towards different kinds of people based on any differentiating criteria, such as their race, behavior, or sex. Throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, various forms of discrimination are shown. Racism is an obvious form that is shown in the story with characters such as Tom Robinson and Calpurnia being the targets. However, there are also signs of prejudice and sexism in the story with characters such as Boo Radley and Scout Finch.. The forms of discrimination shown in To Kill a Mockingbird are racism, prejudice, and sexism

Life is like a thrill ride; one never knows what will be in store for them. Many characters in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee feel the same way about life, having experienced many surprising and unexpected turns of events. This story is about a sleepy southern town filled with prejudice, and a lawyer’s quest, along with his children Scout and Jem, to take steps in ridding the town of its prejudiced attitude. Despite being a white man, a lawyer named Atticus, defends an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. However, everything does not go as was hoped, and the mindset of the society overpowered Atticus’s fair-minded argument. From this emerges a theme regarding the bigotry and bias overwhelming Maycomb: A

To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that offers a view of life through a young girl’s eyes. The novel is focused on two main themes which are racism and discrimination.