Theme Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

There are countless people who judge others by their image or the words whispered by friends. This has been true since people have begun interacting with one another. Indeed, people feel the need to categorize everything and everyone leading to stereotyping and bias based upon appearances. In today’s society, there are many incidents involving racial and gender inequality demonstrating that little has changed since the 1960s. In this novel, Scout Finch, a young girl, recounts her life as she observes social concerns including racism and prejudice. When her father Atticus, a criminal attorney, agrees to defend an innocent black man, Scout comes to realize that not everything is as perfect as it seems. Appropriately, Scout and her brother Jem learn not to judge others as a result of interactions with three characters that they encounter throughout their childhood. Boo Radley, known as the town’s ‘evil monster’, Mrs. Dubose, an elderly, ill-tempered woman who lives near the Finches and Tom Robinson, an African-American man being accused of raping a white woman that is being defended by their father, all teach the children that character is not a reflection of one’s outwards appearance. As such, through knowing these people and their circumstances, Scout and Jem’s sense of social justice and fairness matures. It is through their eyes that Harper Lee, in To Kill a Mockingbird, demonstrates the immorality of judging others without consideration of who they are and what

Racism is both an ideology and a system of domination. To be racist is not just a misuse of derogatory slurs and whatnot. Only certain communities have the power and the privilege to be racist. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird racism was one of the most recurring themes. Communities as well as specific characters were impacted by racism. Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, Bob Ewell and Dolphus Raymond were characters that suffered from Racism.

Francis saying this further helps Scout understand the discrimination, because she now knows that even family will turn on her. During the spring, Scout’s brother Jem ruins the yard of their conservative, old, neighbor, Mrs. Dubose. As a punishment, both of the Finch children are forced to take care of her. When they are at her house, she rudely scoffs, “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash that he works for!“ (102) The author uses the word “trash” to show Scout that some people who are very selfish use derogatory words like trash to display their feelings. Additionally, trash is a very insulting word to call someone, especially because Scout knows what it means. Mrs. Dubose yelling at the children causes Scout to get a better picture of what the reality of their world is. All of these examples from the novel, illustrate how Scout is learning about racism in many forms by witnessing the actions and language of others.

The setting of the book To Kill A Mockingbird has a huge role on the conflicts, outcome of the trial, and Jem and Scout’s development. The book takes place in Maycomb county Alabama, in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. Since Alabama is in the south, and was before the Civil Rights Movement, most of the white residents in the town were racist. In the book, the town of Maycomb is almost like a character on its own. It is a small town that had lots of farmers who were struck hard by the Great Depression. Scout, who is the narrator of the book describes it by saying, “Maycomb was a tired old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square”(Lee 6). Scout even goes on to say, “People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything”(Lee 6). In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the conflict of racism is shown through the trial, Atticus, and Jem and Scout’s uprising in a non-racist home but in a prejudice town.

Imagine being persecuted your entire life. Having to constantly respect someone even though they were rude to you. This is what many African-Americans had to go through during the 1930’s. Racism is a major aspect in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. The main character, Scout, has to deal with this problem everyday. Bob Ewell, Mr. Cunningham, and other characters are very racist, and don’t approve of Atticus defending a “Negroe”. This causes Scout to be bullied in school and even attacked by Mr. Ewell. Also, characters such as Tom Robinson are negatively affected by racism in Maycomb. Tom is killed just because of his skin color. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s use of point-of-view, irony, and symbolism help to develop

Decades ago, in the 1930s, people of color were not treated fairly. Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird took place in the 1930s in the fictional place of Macomb County, Alabama. It was narrated through a young girl named Scout Finch. Throughout the novel, Scout, her older brother, Jem, and their good friend Dill discover realities of society. Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, was appointed to be the attorney of a black man. Because of the time period, the case was almost hopeless, but Atticus fought anyway. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird displays universal themes such as racial intolerance and innocence of youth.

There are many themes shown throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird. The author, Harper Lee made the novel take place in the 1930s and in a fictional town called Maycomb County in Alabama. The narrator was a young girl in the novel names Scout Finch. Throughout the book Scout, her older brother Jem, and her best friend Dill discover new things and become more mature. Then towards the end of the book Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout, agrees to defend a black man named Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white girl. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, racial intolerance and courage are two of the many themes demonstrated throughout the novel.

Calpurnia responds that “folks don’t like to have somebody around knowin’ more than they do. It aggravates’em. You’re not gonna change any of them by talking right, they’ve got to learn themselves, and when they don’t want to learn, there’s nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language.”(Lee 167) Calpurnia ‘s insight offers us a look at the language divide between whites and blacks. White people dislike a person who speaks like a black and black people dislike a person who speaks like a white. The fact that the black community despises the way whites act and vice versa shows the fear of difference. Scout’s neighbor, Mrs. Dubose also dislikes people who act differently, including Atticus, which is shown when, she shouts at Scout. “‘Yes indeed, what has the world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you.’ She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, It trailed a long silver thread of saliva. ‘Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash that he works for!’”(Lee 135) Mrs. Dubose dislikes people who act differently than expected. Atticus acted differently than other people earning him the hatred of Mrs. Dubose. Mrs. Dubose also compares Negroes to trash, showing that she also hates Negroes, probably because they have different skin color from her. The town of Maycomb demonstrates again and

In Harper Lee’s classic, To Kill A Mockingbird, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee, 245). As To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s, for a white woman to accuse a man of color of committing a crime would mean that the man has been declared guilty before they are given a chance to defend themselves, leading to false convictions. Even if they were to be given the chance to try to save themselves from an unjust verdict, the juries normally consisted of white men, consequently leading to an inevitable conviction. With Tom Robinson being a black man and Mayella Ewell being a white woman, this was the reality for Tom when he was accused of raping Mayella. With this accusation, it became very clear who exactly had been infected with “Maycomb’s usual disease”(Lee, 91) especially Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father. Racism and injustice are both heavy influences in To Kill A Mockingbird as the story takes place in 1930 where many white people had racist views towards people of color, giving white people a higher status in Maycomb County, Alabama, thus giving them more power than people of color. This played a large role in one of the bigger conflicts in the story with Bob Ewell and Tom Robinson as the two men hold to different social statuses showing everyone their true colors. Throughout the novel we are presented with numerous quotes showing how Tom Robinson and Mr. Bob Ewell acted before the trial and how the trial has showed us what their true intentions are.

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, many minor themes are present such as gender and age. However, the largest and therefore major theme of the book is racism. All of the events and themes in the book had only one purpose, to support the theme of racism.

In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee shows that people can easily discriminate others based on information that they have obtained from others. This story takes place during the Great Depression in a small town named Maycomb where Scout and Jem, two youngsters, grow up and learn how the world around them contrasts with what they previously believed. As life goes on they start to notice the way people are treated and how in some cases, some are unfair, as shown when their father takes up a case that is centered more towards the race of the people involved than the actual case. As in this world, discrimination takes place every day, preventing people from becoming equal to each other and creating a rift between people getting along

As the world around Scout begins to tear itself apart, we get a chance to see the full effects that prejudice has on injustice in the deep south. A large and important chunk of To Kill a Mockingbird is Tom Robinson’s case where

Powerfully, emotionally, inspiringly, and very intriguingly, Harper clutches many people’s attention with her knowledge of society from the 1930’s. If someone was rich, they were never fallacious about anything they have done. If someone was impecunious, they were treated just as the dirt that they carried beneath their nails. If someone was white, they were not to treat blacks equally. If someone was a negro, they were seen as penniless people, no matter what the circumstances. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses stereotypes such as gender, racism, and riches to enlighten readers about how differently people were treated because of who they were, or how much they owned.

Ideally, the Constitution of the United States of America, the founding document of the nation, ensures life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for all. Ironically, the South of the 1930s was the exact antithesis of the statement. Those truths that were held to be self-evident to all men were only used for the pleasure of those with the “correct” complexion and sex, that being the white male. The minorities in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee were denied of those truths, due to the common element of the corrupt Southern white male that was favored to be in a position of power in the time period. To that end, it is the Southern white men in positions of power that create the conflict and ruin the “mockingbirds” throughout this bildungsroman that Harper Lee presents the reader, which is one of oppression, hatred, and denial.

The simplicity of ignorance can cause a chain reaction of events that spirals downward as it continues. It starts with the “blissful” state, the ignorance that leads to injustice, which in turn brings forth furious controversy. Racism and sexism are found all over the world, and are addressed throughout powerful literature. “To Kill a Mockingbird”, a novel by Harper Lee, exhibits a powerful theme of how ignorance regarding gender and race leads to injustice, shown by the biased court case of Tom Robinson, the treatment of Calpurnia in both black and white groups, and Scout always being told to “be a lady” whenever she wants to be herself.