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To Kill a Mockingbird and Harry Potter Comparasin

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Racism and Social Inequality: Text to Text Comparison To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written in 1960 by Harper Lee. The novel addresses the issue of racism and inequalities in the social structure in the American south during the Great Depression. The novel’s main protagonist is Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout. Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, is a lawyer and in the novel, he defends a black man accused of raping a white woman. The novel focuses on the racial issues that form around this case. Another, much different, literary work that also deals with similar issues of inequality is the Harry Potter series. The Harry Potter series, written by J.K Rowling, focuses on the inequalities in a fictional world of wizards. Similar …show more content…

However, we learn during the hearing that this is highly unlikely. “his left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side” (Lee, 186). As we can see from this quote, Tom Robinson is crippled and he has no use of his left arm, and as Mayella Ewell was beaten mainly on the right side, it is unlikely that the culprit was Tom Robinson. However, despite the lack of substantial evidence, Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell. It is later assumed in the book that Mayella Ewell herself attempted to molest Tom Robinson, “She tempted a Negro” (Lee, 203). Just as Tom Robinson pays for Mayella lustful feelings, a character in the Harry Potter series is targeted for being loved by Merope Gaunt. Merope Gaunt comes from a family very similar to the Ewells; the Gaunts are dirt poor and uneducated. However, like the Ewells they hold themselves in high esteem. The Ewells are proud to be white and the Gaunts are proud to be purebloods and related to Salazar Slytherin, an important historical figure of the wizarding world. Like Mayella, Merope is terrorized by her father and forced to keep house for him. Also like Mayella, who attempts to remain presentable, Merope appears to be cleaner than her brother or father. Merope also attempts to gain the attention of a man her father and brother consider scum. Merope loves a muggle man from the nearby village named Tom Riddle.

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