To Kill A Mockingbird Racial Stereotypes Essay

“Nigger”, “Colored-folks”, “Dinge”, racial slurs used in the South in the 1900s-1960s. The disgusting souls who discriminated, judged, hated, and segregated blacks. “White men rule”. Women, their voices, barely able to say as much as a sentence. The blacks, their voices, unable to say as much as even a word, and the children, innocent and curious, saw nothing and said nothing. Harper Lee represented the horrendous acts and judgments of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama, 1930s, a small town with a big story. Tom Robinson, discriminated and unequal, was seen as “just another nigger” in Maycomb. “Nigger”, “Chocolate”, “Colored”, racial slurs that began long ago, and are still used to this day. The White

The characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are all different in their own way. Sometimes they can seem like the most infuriating people in the world, but then again they can be helpful, loving, and caring. The citizens of Maycomb County are stereotyped a lot throughout the book. They are labeled as many different things, but some of the stereotypes made aren’t entirely correct. A lot of people in To Kill a Mockingbird stereotype others by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. Two of the main characters in the book are stereotyped; Scout and Atticus Finch.

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.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird the author, Harper Lee, develops the topic of stereotyping and prejudgement as something negative through the characters’ speech and actions. The characters are standardized a great deal throughout the book. They are categorized as different things, but most of them prove the falseness of labelling to emphasise the theme of the novel, as well to teach the reader a moral lesson; to be less judgemental and be willing to accept others. In the novel, stereotyping others is based by the way they look or talk established on what society considers normal.The technique of stereotypes helps create the theme of the coexistence of good and evil. In chapter 20, for example, Scout and Dill find out that Mr.Raymond’s paper bag turns out to be Coke instead of whisky, and his constant drunkenness is fake. He explains, "When I come to town, […] if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond's in the clutches of whiskey-that's why he won't change his ways. He can't help himself, that's why he lives the way he does" (268). The evidence portrays

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

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee depicts racism in the 1930’s and shows the characters had to overcome challenges because of it. The 1930’s was a difficult time to live in because of racism against African Americans and the depression, where thousands of people lost their jobs. The idea “an extraordinary challenge can sometimes make an ordinary person into a hero” shows that anyone in To Kill a Mockingbird could have been a hero, even in a time of hardships. Scout Finch, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and Atticus Finch overcame challenges in the story in order to become great heroes.

Classic works of literature often remain great because of their ability to teach generation after generation the same lifelong lessons. For example, Great Expectations by Charles dickens still teaches freshmen the same lesson it taught their parents and grandparents. To Kill a Mocking bird is certainly no exception, by integrating timeless characters in a coming of age novel that faces harsh challenges, Lee teaches five generations worth of readers that in the faults of justice close-minded people are often to blame. From Tom Robinson to the after math of Ferguson this theme is something we still see today.

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

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.

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.

The presence of stereotypes within literature is no surprise when taking a look at society and it’s reoccurring standards at any given time. Across the world, from the biblical era to present day, gender roles have evolved with the times yet maintained their foundations as a form of categorization and predetermined expectations. With these preset values, women are seen as objects to own and to be shown off while men are portrayed as insensitive proprietors. With a closer look at the beginning of literature, it’s renovations evident in the recent past, and how it has evolved into its relatively current state, it can be seen that as the world has tremendously evolved, society’s values have seemingly remained grounded to superficially inescapable

In the world of films and novels, it has been popularized to depict stories of a teenage life. Many times, the stories are exaggerated for the purpose of entertainment, but because of it, they lose their more realistic qualities. Stereotypes become a regularity and normal human traits become ‘quirks’. Rarely are there accurate films portraying the small, but impactful, time of a person’s life, and Lady Bird written and directed by Greta Gerwig is one of them.

“To Kill a Mocking Bird” is a novel which was written by Harper Lee. In my essay I will discuss how Harper Lee explores the theme of prejudice by looking at the writing techniques and how they affect people.

He is racially prejudice; it is a discrimination based on one’s skin colour. The Ewell’s are considered as the poor white family living in Maycomb. Mayella Ewell, Bob’s daughter, tries to allure Tom Robinson, a Negro, that makes her father very angry. Tom is accused by Bob for raping his daughter, but the truth is, Tom never touched Mayella. Tom is charged with taking advantage of Mayella. Atticus said: “In our courts when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins." (295) some White people believe Bob Ewell is saying the truth because if a black man is charged with doing anything to any woman and especially white woman, it means he is a guilty man and every word he says is not important and truthful as the white man’s word. The truth is, Tom Robinson is guilty to help Bob’s daughter and being a good neighbor to Bob and his family. Nevertheless, his only crime is being a black man. Atticus, Tom’s lawyer, tries to prove to the jury and to everyone that Tom Robinson is an innocent person who have been accused for something he never committed. Bob tries to hurt Atticus, by threatening and spitting at Atticus, because he was trying to free an innocent black man. Another example of racial prejudice is, in the trial of Tom Robinson, the black people were separated from the white people in the courtroom because white people think they are in the higher class and better than the black people. Alexandra Finch is also racially prejudiced. She tries to make Atticus to kick out Calpurnia, a Negro, because she took Jem and Scout to a black

Harper Lee's ‘To kill a Mockingbird’ explores the prejudicial issues which plague over the town Maycomb. Harper Lee uses the trial of Tom Robinson a black man accused of rape on a young white girl, Mayella as a central theme to portray the prominence of racial discrimination in Maycomb. The racial prejudice is also widely shown through the characterisation of Atticus. Having Scout as the narrator allows Harper Lee to highlight the gender inequity through a youthful unbiased perspective. The chauvinistic attitudes and prejudiced views of most of the town’s folk leaves Maycombs social hierarchy in an unfair order, victimising many of the town’s people due to their socially non-conforming habits some ‘socially unaccepted people’ including Boo