To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel, composed by Harper Lee in the early 1960’s, during the Great Depression. The novel presents White superiority to Black people, gender inequality and social classes as three dominant cultural assumptions that governed America, especially the Deep South, in the 20th century. These assumptions have been presented through the use of language, structure, characterisation and themes. The presence of the cultural assumptions and how they have been presented by the author has made the novel one of the most controversial stories of all time.

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.

Prejudice, The Real Boo Radley: An academic essay analyzing the consequences of prejudice in Harper Lee’s To Kill of a Mockingbird

Racism is still a problem with the world today. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, racism is brought out throughout the story. People are mostly racist towards the character Tom Robinson. A lot of people in the town Maycomb wouldn’t trust him due to his skin color is different from everybody else’s. With the character Atticus, he believes that need to get to know a person first before you judge them. But not everybody shows racial inequality. Throughout the book, you learn why people should not be racist or have preconception through some of the characters.

The saying “Life isn’t fair” is always right. No matter fair something seems, there is always something just about, no matter how small it is. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a young man named Tom Robinson is sentenced to death because of his race. Even though all of the evidence backs him up, he is still found guilty because he is African American. This happens because of all the prejudice that the people of Maycomb possess. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, author Harper Lee depicts her views on prejudice and how it affects society. Harper Lee asserts that the amount of prejudice someone receives is dependent on one’s race and gender, and that to overcome prejudice one must become acquainted with many different groups of people.

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee, is a story of the racism, prejudice and inequality that

The novel contains many themes about racism, sexism, social inequality, and moral education in which Harper Lee portrays in various forms in the novel. In the novel today, it is obvious that racism in present. The most apparent victim of racism is Tom Robinson, an African American male who is accused of raping and beating

Our nation now accepts “tomboys” and “tomgirls” without much hesitation. Harper Lee provides perfect examples of gender roles throughout her book “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Right off the bat Harper Lee introduces to us Scout, who clearly has no intention on following the gender roles. Lee portrays Scout as

Scout is still naive to the prejudice of her town. This innocence helps to contrast all of the other

Social bias appears throughout this book, such as when Scout is not lady-like or boy-like enough, when Scout and Jem prejudge Mrs. Dubose, and in Tom Robinson’s false indictment. Scout, an adventurous tomboy, is the protagonist in this story. She likes to play with her older brother Jem and their friend Dill, but Jem and Dill do not want her around all the time because she is a girl. Scout gets confused when Jem accuses her of acting like a girl and then says “It’s time you started bein‘ a girl and acting right” (116)! Aunt Alexandra reprimands Scout for not act like a lady and says she should wear a dress and petticoat.

In today’s society the controversial subject of what positions in the church a woman can hold; has become incredibly debatable among the nation. Some people believe that women have equal rights with men and can uphold any position that a man can. Today’s society also believes that because a woman can be in political and business power, then a woman can also be in authority in the church. However, that could not be farther from the truth a women’s positions in the church are defined by God.

Scout resents what women are seen as. In sum, society wants women to act the way society sees them. To be specific, society sees women as housewives who should be pretty clean and cook.

Women held an important role in the early church. The roles held by many women are intriguing and can give insight on how women of today can be involved in church

Lummis and Nesbitt discuss how women achieve powerful positions but remain pastors or assistants in rural communities and don’t move up in pastoral system to larger congregations (Lummis 446). They do contribute a consistent and steady leadership role for these congregations over time, however they are not exposing other congregations to having women clergy (Lummis 446). By discussing this lack of progression Lummis and Nesbitt introduce their audience to a basic struggle for women in the clergy. Their evidence affects the audience’s emotions by creating imagery for women stuck in rural areas because they are unable to find employment elsewhere.

The real problem, it seemed, was going against the teachings of St Paul, and allowing women power in the church. Our branch of the church never thought about it, we’d always had strong women, and the women organized everything. Some of us could preach, and quite plainly, in my case, the church was full because of it. There was an uproar, then a curious thing happened. My