Theme Of Sexism In To Kill A Mockingbird

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.

The main issue of the section we are acting out of Chapter 11 in “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee is the prejudice that Ms. Dubose holds. She is both sexist and racist, both forms of prejudice that were common back in her generation, but were finally starting to change at that time. Aunt Alexandra and Ms. Dubose, most likely having been raised in the same time period, were both offended by Scout wearing pants. Ms. Dubose specifically asked ‘What are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady!’ (Lee, 101), which is greatly reminiscent of what Alexandra said at Christmas. Obviously, they were both raised with the same morals about having to wear dresses, causing them to be unintentionally sexist and myopic.

In the story “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, the main character Scout realizes the town she lives in is full of bias and prejudice toward negros. Scout, the only daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch, is faced with the activism that follows this prejudice when her father decides to defend a negro, Tom Robinson, in the court of law. She is constantly harassed and tormented by the residence of their small town, Maycom. What Lee is trying to show through these events is that people are always going to have prejudices, and sometimes these prejudices come from the people you least expect it form. In the story, neighbors, friends, and family all show their prejudices about the defendant Tom Robinson to Scout, who finally realize the world isn’t perfect but is, in fact, full of flaws and prejudices.

People are not born prejudiced. “It is something that is learned". It can be learned in the same way other attitudes and values are learned, primarily through association, reinforcement and modeling. For example, children may learn to associate a particular ethnic group with poverty, crime, violence and other negative things” (2006 Anti-Defamation League). Also, prejudice in “children may be reinforced by listening to derogatory ethnic jokes, especially when others laugh along or think they're cool”. Lastly, children may simply imitate the prejudices of their older family members and popular friends. Prejudice is to pre- judge. “Prejudice is a baseless and usually negative attitude toward members of a group. Common features of prejudice

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

Women should be caring, humble, quiet, intelligent. These are some of the generic characteristics of a stereotypical "women". If you opened a newspaper from the 1950s you would be bombarded with advertisements about women being the perfect housewives and men being strong leaders. A survey taken in the mid-1980s by British Social Attitudes showed that close to half (43 percent in 1984 and 48 percent in 1987) of people supported a gendered separation of roles, where the female was a caring mother and the male the masculine handyman. If you were to go to any social media site these days, you would see women that are changing the game with twenty-first-century texts posted everywhere that significantly challenging gender stereotypes for women.

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice and racism are embedded in the regional psyche of Maycomb, a miniscule town in Alabama. The narrator interpolates injustice and racism in Alabama during the 1930s, largely through the eyes of Scout, who was a child during this time, however, the adult Scout occasionally interjects with some adult observations. Furthermore, the citizens of Maycomb are stereotyped pervasively throughout the book. In Harper Lee’s To Kill Mockingbird, examples of racism, sexism, and social class are used to demonstrate how prejudice can corrupt a community.

Throughout the novel Scout was faced with many gender prejudice. Because she was a tomboy, Aunt Alexandra told scout that she can even hope to be a lady if she wore trousers. She expects Scout to play with stoves necklaces and tea pots. Aunt Alexandra wasn't the only person being prejudice against women. Atticus was also prejudice against women, even though he doesn't judge people. On page 221, he told Jem that women are not allowed to serve on juries in Alabama because the court might never get a complete case because the women would interrupt just to ask questions. Scout also showed gender prejudice to Francis. Francis told Scout that his grandmother was going to teach him how to cook and Scout said boys are not suppose to cook.

In the rural town of Maycomb, Alabama, Scout Finch lives with her brother, Jem, and Father, Atticus. Scout teaches many lessons as well as defies stereotypes. Scout gives readers her perspective of things. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the growth and characterization of Scout to reveal to readers how innocence slowly falls away through Scout’s obliviousness about other people, Scout’s protection towards her family, and Scout’s curious ways.

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

According to the United Nations Foundation, 62 million girls around the world are refused education and mentorship programs, such as Step Up, helps to maintain girls in school to get them closer to achieve their dreams. The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, focuses on the lives of Jem and Scout, as Scout retells three years of her childhood in the span of 372 pages. The story is about growing up in Alabama during the 1930s, after the Great Depression. During this era, there happened to be rampant discrimination, as such, there was also the same level of discrimination in the small fictional location of Maycomb County. Through the eyes of Scout, readers see how her father, Atticus, is very passionate and dedicated to his

During the To Kill A Mockingbird we listen to a young girl's point of view, Scout Finch , she’s a strong loving daughter of Atticus finch who is maycomb’s town lawyer.

I decided on the question, ‘how does racism and sexism affect an individual?’. This is because it not only relates personally, but it also relates to current events and books I’ve read in the past year. For instance, in To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, is wrongfully accused of sexually harassing a white woman. Her name is Mayella Ewell. And because Tom is black, it is harder for Atticus, his lawyer, to prove that Tom is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

Scout Finch lives in Maycomb, Alabama, in the 1930’s. She lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus. Scout is telling the stories of her childhood from some point in the future. Scout has many experiences that shape her maturity and her outlook on society. In their early childhood, Scout and her brother Jem, along with mutual friend Dill, spend a lot of time together and understand each other. They all have interest in a mysterious neighbor named Boo Radley. Scout at first believes Boo to be a cruel, evil monster and much time is spent between the three discussing Boo and his reasons for staying inside the house all day. The Finches lives’ are pretty ordinary until Atticus is selected to defend a black man in court. The man is named

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is an ideal display of feminism that takes place during the period of depression in the south. It portrayed the two kinds of women found in the south during this time, the women who were pro the feminist movement, and the average Southern women. Sadly some women mistakenly rebelled against the ideals of society, by just being themselves. Men and women were to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, were men were expected to dress in suit and ties and women were expected to wear dresses and be courteous. Since southern towns were so sheltered from the liberal views of the rest of the world they had no chose but to abide by these gender roles.