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Racism and literature
Scout to kill a mockingbird and racism
Scout to kill a mockingbird and racism
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Recommended: Racism and literature
Bullying And Discrimination Differences in the social status are observed considerably large in the society of Maycomb. Scout and Jem are two little children who are growing up, observing all the complicated incidents and trying to understand them. In the Maycomb County, incidents get more and more complicated as the dilemma of racism becomes bigger and bigger and as wise Atticus starts loosing faith in the good in people. Maycomb’s society is like a hierarchy. On the top there is Atticus Finch, he always tries to believe the good people. The ignorant farmers Cunningham’s are below the towns’ people, which are below Finches. The Ewell’s even lower on the society and the black society comes after them despite all of their honourable and respectable conditions. The place where black society stands on the social hierarchy enables Bob Ewell to cover his obscure presence by putting Tom Robinson down. Jem and Scout are growing in this society and Atticus keeps on trying to teach them to look at situations from another persons’ perspective to understand it better. This is like a moral lesson to the reader from Harper Lee. It is something that applies to everyone. The huge difference in social status is very destructive for the community and for Scout. For example, Scout doesn’t understand why Aunt Alexander doesn’t let her be friends with young Cunningham. Harper Lee uses children’s naivety and simplicity to show the complexities of the adult world and prejudice in human interaction. Atticus grows his children to be fair and equal. He is a very wise man, who in many situations knows how to act and what to do. In a racist society like Maycomb, he is brave enough to defend a black man. This trial is very important because it gives an insight of the society people and how they react to Tom’s death. At the end of this trial Jem looses his trust in rationality of the people and sees the irrational evil in people through this ugly incident. When the ladies of the county get together in Finches house, we get to know more about the women of Maycomb. They talk about how their black maids complain and that Jesus never complained so no education will make a “Christian” out of them. They don’t consider blacks as Christians. After all they believe in the same God. Women discuss and talk but they never really talk about anything that matters.
To Kill A Mockingbird displays an environment where one must be inhumane to another in order to become socially compatible. Maycomb has established a hierarchy where social compartmentalisation is the way of life. Men with a profession and a career are superior, while the farmers are near the bottom of the social strata and are considered inferior. No matter which remarkable qualities Negroes possess, they are always s...
Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb and is respected by all of the citizens. He finds good in everyone and he teaches his children the difference between justice and cruelty. He is committed to equality to every one of all races, so he agrees to defend Tom Robinson (a black man) who was accused of raping a white woman. After the town finds out what he ahs agreed to do, he is the scorn of the community and his family gets treated differently. The kids at school abuses Scout and she does not know why, because she is still young and does not really understand what is all happening. Jem is and eight year old boy who is just like any other in the county. He dreams of growing up and playing football, and never turns down any dare.
Atticus Finch also taught his children many valuable life lessons and views of life throughout the course of the novel. Due to the things Atticus said, Jem and Scout developed many qualities such as empathy and equality. Very few of the adults in Maycomb at the time had these qualities and perhaps if they had these qualities Tom Robinson would not have been wrongly convicted. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.(Page 33)” This piece of advice by Atticus changed Scout’s entire perspective of life. She began to climb into other people’s skin, which made her understand the problems other people face in life. She learned not to judge people because of the way they act, the family they come from or their skin colour. Not many other fathers at the time or even now could influenc...
One of the values of Maycomb is racism. However, there are a few that does not believe in this value, including Mr. Dolphus Raymond. Mr. Dolphus Raymond is a white man married to a black woman and has mixed children. He does not believe in society’s ideology regarding racism and knows that some citizens of Maycomb antagonize him. However, he does not care, as he prefers the colored people over white. He knows how unfair society is, from the way he gets treated. Moreover, Jem realizes the falsities of society, due to the injustice he sensed. After Tom’s verdict, Jem’s first clear sense of injustice provided a new perception on the world. When he was young, he believed that the people of Maycomb are the best folks, but the outcome of the trial changed this thought. Furthermore, Scout’s realization of the falsehood in society is with the hypocrisy of Miss Gates. She was taught by Miss Gates how Americans do not believe in persecution. However, Scout saw Miss Gates talk about the African Americans in an adverse way. Learning about the falsehood in society is part of
...ociety to a vast extent. It comments on the foundations of Maycomb as an isolated and inward looking society which allows racial prejudice to grow. The social division, stereotyping and prejudice are also emphasized as each family has a ‘streak’ and Tom Robinson’s case is as simple as ‘black and white’ Harper Lee also exposes the double standards and hypocrisy of the citizens of Maycomb, by using irony and giving the reader a perspective that the charters cannot see. At the forefront of all of the happenings in this book is Atticus Finch, who is represented as an honest man with strong values, he is a contrast to most people in Maycomb, and he shows us what it is to be a gentleman. Although Harper Lee does allow the reader to see some hope for Maycomb society and the changing racial attitudes within it, she generally criticizes their values to a much deeper extent.
Maycomb, an old town that is quiet and small, is suffering through the hardships of the Great Depression. It hits the poor the hardest. People in Maycomb soon have problems that involve the impact of the Great Depression. During the Great Depression the rich families soon have a problem like the poor do, which of course is poverty. Poverty soon makes its way down the caste system. In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, she vividly describes the domestic violence that the town Maycomb has and how “Maycomb’s disease” soon burst into disputes that involve Atticus Finch and his family; Jem and Scout. One of the most important topics that Harper Lee discusses in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. It
Racism was a very large part of society in the south during the 1930’s. Many colored people were thought of as less than their peers. Whites were considered better than African Americans were, and almost every white person accepted the unjust judgment. Racial discrimination hit hard in the south. Many of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird were impacted by racial discrimination, including Calpurnia, Scout, and Tom Robinson and his family.
One of the widely recognized controversies in American history is the 1930s, which housed the Great Depression and the post-civil war, the ruling of Plessy versus Ferguson and the Jim Crow Laws, and segregation. While textbooks detail the factual aspect of the time there is only one other literature that can exhibit the emotion experienced in the era. To Kill a Mockingbird is the acclaimed novel that displays the experiences of the South, through inequality and segregation, social class differences and the right to fairness. The novel’s experiences are narrated through a grown Scout, who appears as a little girl in the novel, offering her innocent views on the happenings in Maycomb County. The most observed aspect of the novel is race and racism; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the prime focus of the novel, the issue of race is bound to be discussed throughout the novel is race, racism and segregation; with Tom Robinson’s trial being the focus of the novel, the issue of race is heavily represented throughout the novel. With Mockingbird being a common book among English Language Arts and Literatures classrooms, the topic of race is bound to surface amid a young, twenty-first century group of student of students with the inevitability of this discussion, the question remains on how to approach the conversation as an educator. As an educator, one should seek to establish the context of the times, prepare the students for the conversation and examine the other characters and situations similarly to race. Educators must also be introspective before examining their students’ feelings, so that they are not surprised by their emotions and can also express their feelings to their students. The discussion should target a goal, one of examin...
Maycomb, a tired, slow moving town, has minimal events occurring. The town’s rumors and gossip circulate around allowing it to endure. Childness and livelihood are present through the novel for characters, but not for the Finch children. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee thoroughly examines the thematic development of innocence being robbed and how Jem, Scout, Tom Robinson, and Arthur “Boo” Radley’s innocence is stripped during events such as the Tom Robinson trial, along with when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout.
She begins to wonder about the strange things that are going on in her hometown; she realizes not everything in Maycomb is perfect as she once believed. Scout is an outcast to the town because she does not conform to society like the others instead she begins to become curious about the community she lives in and what the people of her society follow. During the Tom Robinson trial she sneaks in a witnesses the whole trail and she has a very deep conversation with Jem as she reveals, “ [ scout thinks] there is one type of folks. Folks”(227). Her curiosity lead to her understanding of the people of Maycomb. She reveals a conformist society brings out the mediocrity in maycomb. This shows the wrongful effects of a conformist as it does not portray any strong qualities rather only shows the same thoughts, actions, and personalities of the whole town. This condemns the society’s true qualities and doesn’t allow its people to live a successful independent
The hatred that the citizens of Maycomb felt towards the black community extended to anyone who became involved with them, especially the Finch family because Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson. Scout and Jem suffered the most from this hatred because their peers were children, who are nearly always less candid than adults. Most of the people who were unhappy with Atticus would just try to keep away from him, which was bad enough. The children however, verbally abused Scout and Jem. Scout responded to this with physical violence, even though it was discouraged by her father. The sad thing is that they were mistreated even by members of their family, like Scout’s cousin Francis.
Hypocrisy is as much a part of Maycomb’s society as church and community spirit. For example, Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa, but she thinks black people in her community are a disgrace (p.234). The hypocrisy of this teaching is shown as soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’. This is due to the fact that she herself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow at the killing of innocent black men. Furthermore, it is obvious Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter, Mayella, and that he is the one who violated her, not Tom Robinson (p.178). Since there is such hypocrisy in Maycomb, there are excuses made for whites. The jury probably thinks that if they pronounce Tom innocent the citizens will mock them as they do to Atticus. Harper Lee uses hypocrisy to show how the people of Maycomb are so engulfed in a variety of elements that they unknowingly complete acts of unjustified discrimination.
Scout learned how Maycomb society worked through the people in her life, like Atticus and Aunt Alexandria. When Aunt Alexandria visited the Finch household, she introduced Scout to high society, which Scout did not enjoy. Nevertheless, Alexandria attempted to get Scout into wearing dresses and gossiping about town life. This attempt may have failed, but it showed Scout exactly how a lot of ugly gossip and ideas in general traveled around. The complexities of Maycomb’s societal life
A small city nestled in the state of Alabama, Maycomb has got its faults, just like any other place in the world, but one of its main faults or (pg.88) “Maycomb's usual disease,” as Atticus calls it in the book is prejudice. Jem and Scout learn a lot about prejudice when a black man named Tom Robinson is accused of raping a white woman named Mayella Ewell and their father, Atticus, is called on to be his lawyer. They realize the hate that people have buried deep within their heart when they see a black man accused of doing something only because of his color. On pg.241, Scout starts understanding this and thinks, “Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men's hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” As the case continues, up until the death of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout learn more and more about prejudice and how the hate that people have towards others causes them to take wrong actions. They also see how unfair it is that a white man can get treated better and think of himself better than a black man only because he was born white. This prejudice and the trial cause Jem and Scout to get in argum...
“Scout, I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time…” (227). Prejudice and discrimination are major issues that are present in the town of Maycomb; Scout and her brother Jem are young children who learn about the disturbing existence of the bigotry that they were previously unaware of in their familiar southern hometown throughout the trial of Tom Robinson, an innocent African American who is accused of rape by a white woman. To Kill a Mockingbird introduces a world that harbors prejudice against some of its very citizens and describes how discrimination was a major flaw in society and still is a flaw present day society. The author, Harper Lee develops