What Is Warmly Embrace A Racist Novel?

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been challenged/banned countless times since it’s original publication in 1960. The reasoning people could have behind banning it is that they feel that the racism, language and subject matter in the book is offensive, inappropriate, immoral and that it encourages and condones such things. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in Alabama, during the depression from 1935-1937, and is told from the perspective of a little girl named Scout. In the book Scout’s father Atticus teaches her and her brother Jem many valuable lessons. The things Atticus teaches Scout and Jem are things we all need to know. To Kill a Mockingbird is an inspirational book that teaches valuable moral values,

The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee should be read and taught in school considering the facts that it teaches the important message of learning to stand in other’s shoes, and that the reader can see the wide range of diversity such as socioeconomic status and race. In the real world, we will come across many different people with different backgrounds and views. It is easy to look at those people and think, “they are strange,” or “they don’t understand anything.” I admit, before reading this book I was insensitive to this and didn’t even realize when I looked at people and made those assumptions. This book has helped me be not so judgmental and be able to see from other people’s point of view. While some may say this book shouldn’t be taught because it is “racist” or

Growing up is a maze with many twists and turns. In Harper Lee's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise "Scout" Finch experiences many difficult situations as part of her coming of age. As Scout grows up in the rural Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression, she faces problems with self-identity, racism, and her community. Harper Lee writes in a subtle yet impactful way about how Scout goes through this confusing stage, making her book a classic that every student should read. Recently To Kill a Mockingbird has been a controversial topic because a “school district in Mississippi announced that it was pulling the Pulitzer Prize-winning classic from its 8th-grade reading list” (Oprea 1). The school district worried that the book was uncomfortable for kids because of its use of explicit language. The school board stated that other books can convey the same lessons in more age-appropriate ways. The question is can these books convey the same lessons without using the language so vital in communicating the historical context of the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird is an important book that should not be banned in schools because it

To Kill a Mockingbird is a witty and well-written account of the realities of a “tired old town” (4) where there was “nothing to buy and nothing to buy it with” (4). Purposefully, it comes across not merely an innocently portrayed, yet eye-opening, story of a young girl start to grasp the inequalities of her society. Rather, it is accompanied by recollection of the unfortunate pillars of hate of the places Harper Lee matured in. We now perceive this account as an ‘archaic” and “ancient” recount of some historically frowned upon mindsets in an enthralling atmosphere upon which we pin historical quantities of prejudice, racism and most of all, bigotry. The unfortunate reality is that we look at history in a vacuum and ignore the occurrences of our own times. So although we, like Scout’s teachers teaching about the horrible acts of the Holocaust while being outspokenly racist, are able to analyze social inequalities in other places in time or the world yet refuse to open our eyes to the same prejudice, racism and bigotry today. To instance, when reading To Kill a Mockingbird , we often frown upon citizens for judging “folks” based on their family name and race, although, everyday, some member of our current society, such as police officers and employers, do the same thing and no one bats an eye. Alternatively, the issue which we definitely desperately desire to avoid, racism, is explicitly tackled in To Kill a Mockingbird to the point of viral awareness of the problem in

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee has been banned and/or challenged over thirty times since its publication in 1960. Effectively preventing many students from enjoying the novel and benefitting from its message. To ignore racism is no different than denying it ever existed. To Kill a Mockingbird is appropriate for mature adolescence/students and should not be banned from schools. Despite its sexual related content, or profanity, a valuable lesson remains that should be taught to students.

To Kill A Mockingbird took place in the 1930’s, a time that was enormously charged with racial tension. One example of this is the existence of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Even though the KKK was in a time of decline in the 1930’s, it had been very prominent in the 1920’s and had still not completely died out. The KKK had rallies and

To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, based in 1930’s Alabama, follows Scout, a six year old girl, as she navigates through the moral jungle of the racist south while her father defends an alleged black rapist. Although it is often glorified for pioneering new racial awareness but in this new reality of racism, that is 2017, it fails to provide students with a proper education of the issue at hand. Scout, being one of the many white main characters, explores racism but lacks the ability to properly educate today’s ninth graders. Therefore, TKAM should not be a core 9th-grade book at BHS because it negatively portrays people of color and mismatches today’s classroom.

To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel written by Harper Lee, tells the story of a little girl named Scout. Set in Alabama in the 1930s, Maycomb county, Scout’s home, is a sleepy place, that hides a dark streak of racism. Maycomb gets pulled into a whirlwind court case of sexual assault consisting of an African American man getting accused of beating and raping a white girl. Scout, whose father defended the African American, learns of the deep problems in society. Still in the mindset of constant racism, the jury ruled against the black man, even though the evidence clearly proved that the girl’s father beat her. Unfortunately, this racism survives today, and one only has to take a peek at the news, or a glance outside to notice it. Racism still exists today, as seen through brutality against

In To Kill A Mockingbird it shows me the side really nobody wants to see, racism. Some characters are not racist at all like Atticus, Scout and Jem. Atticus teaches his children to treat others with respect and with treat others how they want to be treated. But others like Bob Ewell is a very racist man. For example, he and a bunch of other people got together and went to the jail that Tom Robinson was staying in and they wanted to do some bad things to him. I think that this book taught many people to respect others. It really gets to the point of how to treat

Paul Simon, the musician, once said, “If you can get humor and seriousness at the same time, [you have] created a special little thing, and [that is] what [I am] looking for, because if you get pompous, you lose everything” (Simon 1). Racism in the 1930s and until the 1960s was a very serious issue. As stated, authors have taken this serious issue and turned it into great pieces of literature. Many of them have truly shown the seriousness of racism in society. Even though, criticism, as always, continues. Some critics have argued that Scout, in To Kill A Mockingbird, is an unreliable narrator. This is simply because Scout is a child. They suspect she is too innocent, naïve, and has an unbiased view. However, Scout as the narrator is a

“To Kill A Mockingbird” has many big ideas throughout the story that have to do with justice, being prejudice, and courage. The word prejudice is one of the key ideas throughout the story because in many examples characters in the story have a preconceived opinion towards many different ideas. Another big idea in the story is justice. Justice has to do with being fair, however in many cases throughout the book people are treated anything but fairly. And lastly, courage played a major part in the lives of many characters throughout the story. In the story,”To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, it states that it states that people from the 1930’s had many problems to deal with regarding being prejudice and having justice, however Scout and many

One thing we must notice beforehand, is the title of the book. What does killing a mockingbird have anything to do with the book? Well, mockingbirds basically represent the characters who are prejudged. It is showing the effect of prejudice on innocent characters such as Tom Robinson and Boo Radley. Towards the end of the book Scout explains to Atticus that harming Boo Radley is “Sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird”(Lee120). Even though Scout herself is at a very young age, she tries to explain Boo’s innocence by comparing him with a mockingbird. As most people would recognize, killing a mockingbird is like destroying innocence, and harming an innocent person will get you nothing but guilt. Furthermore Calpurnia explains “Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy...but sing their hearts out for us. Thats why its a sin to kill a mockingbird”(120). If you look at it in a way, Calpurnia kind of taught Scout a life lesson. Prejudging someone is like making enemies in your mind. It only makes a person feel guilty about their past decisions. Prejudice isn't just seen as one case in the story, but more as a theme throughout. In the end we can all agree that “To kill a Mockingbird” as the title, links with the theme prejudice.

The plot of the book To Kill a Mockingbird is at 1900s in US, and it’s based on racial discrimination. Throughout the entire novel, the author Harper Lee explained how it likes during 1900s in US. She is trying to prove that the world is not always fair, and sometimes it doesn’t matter what you do, what really matters is what race are you. 2 of the main characters Scout and Jem, they found out how unfortunate the world is. They have understood that there are many innocent people in the world who is a mockingbird.

The world we live in isn’t perfect, neither are the people who live in it. Hate and judgement affect hundreds of millions of people negatively daily. Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is a story that takes place in the 1930s that describes a period of Jean Louise ‘Scout’ Finch and a trial of a black man accused of raping a white woman. This story is relevant to teach to today’s youth because it depicts the struggle of minorities in life, the fundamentals of doing the right thing and it accurately displays the maturity that children can go through.

Author Harper Lee once said, “Prejudice, a dirty word, and faith, a clean one, have something in common: they both begin where reason ends.”In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, written by author Harper Lee speaks about the social injustice and the racism segregation of the black people in the south. The genres associated with To A Kill Mockingbird are Southern Gothic, Coming-of-Age Fiction, Bildungsroman.To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel narrated by a young girl in the 1930’s who lived in Southern Alabama. In this novel she tells little stories and events that had happened throughout her life. During the 1930’s it was a very common thing to have race segregation. To Kill a Mockingbird contains a countless number of themes;many in which readers can relate. One Prominent theme is discrimination comes in many forms. The constraining theme is revealed through the protagonists, antagonists and through conflict throughout the novel.