To Kill a Mockingto Kill a Mockingbird Prejudicebird Prejudice

During the 1930’s depression, there was a great divide between black and white America. There were many communities and groups who had been exposed to the same treatment and persecution as the Negroes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has used a small town setting, such as that in To Kill a Mockingbird, to illustrate America’s views on white supremacy and the inferiority of the black race. The author has illustrated view that are expressed world-wide through her characters in Maycomb county.

“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born with it; you’re taught it,” said Charles R Swindoll (Author). Prejudice is incorporated into How to Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Miss Maudie are some of the ways prejudice is shown.

What really is prejudice? Prejudice is an opinion based only upon personal bias, and not any actual facts or evidence. Within the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are a variety of situations where prejudice is taken into effect over facts and evidence. When Lee does this, he is not only just giving the characters some detail, but he is also showing what prejudice really means and how it can affect people. A few examples could be when scout is basing her opinion on no facts, Lila at the church getting her opinion from just the kids being white, Boo Radley being judged without facts by everyone, and Tom Robinson being black meaning is already guilty.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird has many accounts of racism and prejudice. One subtle example of discrimination the reader sees is the treatment of Calpurnia, a black

The prejudice seen in the fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee corresponds with the real narrow-mindedness during this time period. A fair trial would be unlikely during this time period between a white and a black man. Tom Robinson was presumed guilty because of his race.

Prejudice means an opinion that is not based on reasoning or actual experience. In To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, prejudice is portrayed in many ways. For example, when the townspeople of Maycomb hear that Scout Finch’s dad, Atticus, is defending a black man in a court case, the kids in school began to hector Scout for his Dad’s actions. “This order, given by me to Cecil Jacobs was the beginning of a rather thin time for Jem and me.” (Lee, pg 99) says Scout after the long school day. “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an’ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!” (Lee, pg 102) said, Cecil, after Scout confronted him about it the next day. This is an example of prejudice because even though the trial hasn’t begun yet, people are already against Tom Robinson. By looking at his dark skin color, the townspeople already believe that he is guilty. Even after Atticus Finch brought in evidence and strong arguments that Bob Ewell was really the one who had done harm to Mayella Ewell. But the all-white jury still believed that Tom was responsible for Mayella’s abuse. “Jem, see if you can stand in Bob Ewell’s shoes a minute. I destroyed his last shred of credibility at that trial, if he had any to begin with…” (Lee, pg 292).

“To better understand a person you have to climb up inside their skin and walk around in it.” The quote previously stated by Atticus in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an unveiling of the upcoming forms of prejudice. The setting for the novel is a fictitious town called Maycomb. This town is situated in Alabama. The racial prejudice shown in the novel has a lot to do with the town being situated in the southern United States. The backwardness and narrow-mindedness of the community fueled racism in Maycomb. These negative qualities account for the social and religious prejudices in the novel. Maycomb people have very inward looking views and so these views are passed on

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.

and Scout to church with her on page 125, her voice changes to fit in

Many people were prejudice in the South in the Early 1950s. African Americans were treated poorly due to their race. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, people were too prejudice to believe the truth about a trial with a black man. The two children learned numerous lessons from Atticus, their father, and from the trial of Tom Robinson.

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay 3 November 2014 Question 1: Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced, says Mrs Gates in Chapter 26. In a well-reasoned essay, discuss how prejudice is considered to be one of the main themes of the novel. ____________________________________________________________________________ In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are a number of themes that role out throughout the novel but prejudice is one that continuously seems to appear in most of the chapters.

In Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, The townspeople are very prejudice towards the African-American’s living in Maycomb. Ignorant white people putting labels on all the black people. Through some people’s eyes, African Americans are just filthy being, so this gives them the right to treat them like trash and assume most of them and rapists and bad people. We should not judge someone by the color of their skin but about how they act. Since 1960 till now, America has not come to a point where there was true racial and social equality.

“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.

The story takes place in the Southern town of Maycomb Alabama during the great depression.

I have read “To Kill a Mockingbird” in this “your choice” novel unit. One theme I discovered was prejudice. I’m not sure if that would be considered one but in my head it is. Plus, I know that it’s a big problem throughout the entire book. You have a white women (Miss. Mayella Ewell) accusing a African-American male (Tom Robison) of raping her, in which she lied, in case we figure out that she’s lying ourselves as we read through Scout’s point of view, though the court rules in Mayella’s favor because that would always happen back then. Where being prejudice comes into play is, everyone seemed to be against Tom, expect a few who support him, who includes Atticus, but he couldn’t do anything about it because Tom was African American.