Often times, literature reflects the problems within a society. An author finds their character’s struggles and triumphs in the people of each era. Inspirations from real life events fuel not only great literature but also books that become remarkable social pieces. A perfect example is Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This novel is reflective of the 1930’s era. In the story racism runs rampant through society with only a noble few trying to stop it. The racism that is apparent and a focal point for the novel is, although fiction, closely matched to that of a racist era in America. Racism represents fear of the unknown in many themes in the book as well as in the daily aspect of life. Racism is something that has always existed, exists now and will most likely exist in years to come. Although it has diminished a great deal since the beginning of the 20th century, it is still a problem in today’s world and many feel that it may always be a problem. Civil rights movements have helped ease the sting of racism. For example, Martin Luther King Jr. was a black man who fought for civil rights in a peaceful and non-violent way, by giving powerful and persuasive speeches. “Non violence is a way of humility and self-restraint. We Negroes talk a great deal about our rights, and rightly so. We proudly proclaim that three-fourths of the people of the world are colored” (King Jr. 220).in fact, his lectures and dialogues “sparked the conscience of a generation“(King Center-1). Even after civil rights movements there are still so many people in the world that cannot see through race, gender and ethnic background. Stereotyping and poor judgment are still very active in people’s minds today. Black people were and in some instances still are discriminated against and looked down upon because of the color of their skin. One saying “Never judge a book by its cover” goes along with the idea to judge people by their character rather than the way they look. Additionally in To Kill a Mockingbird, the plot is mainly based on the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson who is wrongly accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. The main character, Scout, is just beginning to figure things out. All evidence leads to prove he is innocent, yet just the fact that he was a black man living in a southern racist town where white people are superior to black people is enough to get him c... ... middle of paper ... ...rdict it is clear as day that Tom Robinson is an innocent man. Yet, that is not enough to convince the judge or the jury to release him. Even though Atticus , his lawyer as well as Jem and Scout’s father is able to tell the jury that “Lying…this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men”(Lee 204). Tom Robinson a day later makes a desperate flee to try to escape from prison but is shot down and dies. After being killed attempting to flee from the confines of prison life, Tom, in an editorial by Mr. Underwood, is compared to, “a harmless songbird killed by senseless hunters” (Lee-242). Here again, the image of the mockingbird is raised; sighting another individual's discontent with the treatment of Tom by the town of Maycomb. In a nutshell, To Kill A Mockingbird is about racism and prejudice, both themes that have been very harmful to society. These elements have run through society and have been represented equally in the book also. Racism and Prejudice haunt ignorance and vice versa. By writing this novel Harper Lee fought her own battle and raised awareness not only of racial prejudice that occurred in the 20’s and 30’s but also in today’s world.
To Kill a Mocking Bird expresses the racist attitudes of Maycomb most dominantly in the court case involving Tom Robinson (who's lawyer is Atticus Finch) and Mayella Eule. The trial makes blatantly obvious to the reader that Tom Robinson, the black man accused of rape is innocent and yet the jury finds him guilty. It also establishes that Mayella was actually beaten by her father and although the evidence that points to this occurrence is circumstantial, it is made perfectly clear. The court case also clarifies to the reader the frightful nature and obvious abundance of racism within the small town of Maycomb.
Robinson resembles a mockingbird because he does not cause any harm to the town of Maycomb. This particular mockingbird is killed when Mayella Ewell falsely accuses him of rape. Although all the evidence proves that Robinson is innocent, it is a battle between an African American and a white woman. “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow but people have a way of carry their resentments right into the jury box” (Lee 220). Robinson is eventually convicted because of the prejudice and racism that clouds everyone in the jury and every citizen of Maycomb. “Tom Robinson’s a colored man, Jem. No jury in this part of the world’s going to say “We think you’re guilty, but not very on a charge on like that.” It was either a straight acquittal or nothing” (Lee 219). Tom Robinson may not be guilty of raping Mayella, but he is guilty of feeling sorry for a lonely, white
To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee sheds light upon the controversy of racism and justice in his classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The notion of equality in accordance with the law and the pursuit of justice are hindered by racial discrimination. The essence of human nature is pondered. Are we inclined to be good or in the wrath of evil? The novel reflects on the contrasting nature of appearance versus reality.
1. Show how at least two individual episodes, sections or events in your studied text held your interest as a reader.
Smykowski, Adam. "Symbolism and Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird." Readings on "To Kill a Mockingbird". Ed. Terry O'Neill. San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press, 2000. 52-56. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 194. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 14 Jan. 2014.
Mood helps in creating an atmosphere in a literary work by means of setting, theme, diction and tone. Throughout the book To kill a mockingbird the author wanted the mood to be sorrowful or vexed or just fret about how the people are acting because seeing how things were being treated or how people acted would be enough to make you feel angry or sad or worried for the people who were in the book. You always wanted to know what was going to come next or how something would end. Vex was a very prominent mood in this story and is definitely the most relevant.
In the opening chapters of “To Kill A Mockingbird,” Harper Lee introduces several subtle instances of racism. However, when Jem and Scout are welcomed into Cal’s Church in chapter 12, the reader really gets to travel behind the false disguise of Maycomb County’s white society to see the harsh realities of the injustices suffered by the blacks. The black community is completely separate from the whites -- in fact, Cal lives in a totally different part of town!
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee seems like a complete replica of the lives of people living in a small Southern U.S. town. The themes expressed in this novel are as relevant today as when this novel was written, and also the most significant literary devices used by Lee. The novel brings forward many important themes, such as the importance of education, recognition of inner courage, and the misfortunes of prejudice. This novel was written in the 1930s. This was the period of the “Great Depression” when it was very common to see people without jobs, homes and food. In those days, the rivalry between the whites and the blacks deepened even more due to the competition for the few available jobs. A very famous court case at that time was the Scottsboro trials. These trials were based on the accusation against nine black men for raping two white women. These trials began on March 25, 1931. The Scottsboro trials were very similar to Tom Robinson’s trial. The similarities include the time factor and also the fact that in both cases, white women accused black men.
Scout learned a number of things in the book, but most of them all refer back to a statement that Atticus and Calpurnia said, which goes, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because all they do is sing their hearts our for us.” (Lee, pg. 90). Scout learned that about people, too. She learned that some people don’t do anything to you, so it would be a sin to do something mean in return. Over the course of the story Scout becomes more mature and learns the most important facts of life. She was living through a very difficult time and most of that helped her get through.
Tom is a black man who would never harm anyone. This man is everything that a good person is, honest, kind, and he would put others before himself, and even worked to help a woman for free. Tom Robinson represents the innocence of the Mockingbird. Although being almost the definition of innocence, he is blamed for assaulting and raping a white woman, when, in reality this was not the truth. He tries as hard as he can to convince the jury with lines such as “Mr Finch, I got down offa that chair an’ turned around an’ she sort of jumped on me,”(Lee 259) trying to tell the jury that it was Mayella that assaulted him, not the other way around. With Tom found guilty, another form of innocence was killed in Maycomb
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee contain a very engaging family who are the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams are very poor; they are people who live in the woods. They are a family who depend highly on crops. Walter Cunningham, the 'father' of the family has to work hard on the cultivation of crops because crops is the only form of wages for them. The Cunninghams have no money. Their only way to survive is through paying others with their crops. The Cunninghams are not main characters in the book, but they are characters who 'brought out' other characters' personality. Harper Lee displays that there is a lot of prejudice going on in Maycomb by putting the Cunninghams in the book. "The Cunninghams [were] country folks, farmers"(21) who are very honest people in Maycomb, they "never took anything they [could not] pay back"(23), but they are unfairly mistreated by part of the society in Maycomb.
Some readers believe that it is the focal point of the novel, however it is just another way that Lee criticises the act of stereotyping. Racism is the belief that an entire race has certain characteristics that makes it either inferior or superior to other races, it is an oversimplified image of a certain group of people. In other words, racism is a form of stereotyping. The black people in the novel are perceived as untrustworthy by the townspeople, they face the harsh stereotype that all blacks are deceitful and unsafe. African Americans were often treated as though they were of lesser value than whites. As a result, Tom Robinson was made a scapegoat only because he was an African American man that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although Tom was not conforming to the prejudice standards society set for African Americans because he was being kind by helping Mayella Ewell with household chores, he was still accused of raping her because the town could not accept the fact that a black person was doing something selfless. Despite the amount of evidence that proves Tom’s innocence and Atticus’s plea to the jury to disregard Tom’s skin color when making their decisions, they still ruled that he was guilty only because he was black. The stereotype of black people being untrustworthy and immoral is so imbedded into the citizens’ heads that they chose to ignore evidence that proves Tom’s
“Opinions founded on prejudice are always to sustained to the greatest violence.” In To Kill a Mockingbird prejudice is a blanket that embraces the town of Maycomb. To Kill a Mockingbird is about two children, Scout and Jem, in which Scout, a little girl, is the narrator. The children learn through many experiences throughout the book about how prejudice overcomes their home, Maycomb. Atticus, their father, who fights the injustice as a lawyer tries to defend an African-American man, Tom Robinson, convicted falsely of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell. Throughout the duration of the case, the three, Atticus, Scout and Jem go through harsh circumstances. The children see as prejudice has even influenced the other children of Maycomb as they
The novel TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee has numerous accounts of racism and prejudice throughout the entire piece. The novel is set in the 1930's, a time when racism was very prevalent. Although bigotry and segregation were pointed in majority towards blacks, other accounts towards whites were also heard of, though not as commonly. There are acts that are so discreet that you almost don't catch them, but along with those, there are blatant acts of bigotry that would never occur in our time. Lee addresses many of these feelings in her novel.
Scout Finch is not the stereotypical girl from the 1930’s. Agents the wishes of everyone around her, she grows up in overalls instead of dresses. Scout plays in the dirt and sand, instead of in the kitchen. In the novel To Kill a Mocking Bird, by Harper Lee, Scout is the wild spirited narrator, growing up in the small town of Maycomb. As she gets older, she learns mostly from her father Atticus how to interact with people. Scout learns to show dignity and respect to everyone, under any circumstances.