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To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

Decent Essays

Lindsey Congdon Mrs. Peterson Period 7 December 1, 2009 To Kill a Mockingbird Essay The Dictionary defines prejudice as, “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” There has been prejudice known throughout history, mostly against the blacks during and before the time of Martin Luther King Jr. In The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee there is clear evidence of prejudice against the blacks. In both of these novels, the readers are shown that Rosaleen Daise (The Secret Life of Bees) and Tom Robinson (To Kill a Mockingbird) are two characters affected the most by discrimination and prejudice. In both novels, the authors had one major …show more content…

Ewell of the crime. Also, if the jury was half black the verdict would also be different, but since the whites did not believe that colored people were equal to them, no blacks were allowed on the jury. Similarly, in The Secret Life of Bees, if Rosaleen was white woman she would not have been stopped in the first place and she would not have gotten into that situation. Being black made the difference. Tom Robinson and Rosaleen Daise both had at least one friend, a white friend. Their friend was someone who they could trust to be looking out for them. Rosaleen had Lily, who rescued her from being thrown into jail by getting her out of the hospital and escaping with her. Tom Robinson had Atticus Finch and the entire Finch household. They all believed in him even though he was a black man and it was a black man’s word against a white man’s. Even when everyone turned away, and each of these characters was threatened with being killed, Atticus and Lily protected them from harm. Atticus protected Tom by guarding the jail during the night when, “four dusty cars came in from the Meridian highway, moving slowly in a line.” (Lee151) When these cars came, out of them came drunken men with only one purpose: to kill Tom Robinson and to hurt Atticus if he got in his way. These men probably would have prevailed too, if Scout, Jem, and Dill had not come to see Atticus and help him. In The Secret Life of Bees, Lily Owens,

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