“To Kill A Mockingbird” is marvelous and unforgettable novel. Not only show how dramatic, sad in and old town – Maycomb be like, but through her unique writings, some big conflicts about politics and critical is going on through this tired old Southern town. Not just in general like education, friendship, neighbors but also pacific in individuals like family and the people’s characteristics themselves. In one book yet can covered with such many problems, Harper Lee must have been experienced a lot and deeply understanding that time. That is why the book lives, becoming literature and get the love from the audiences a lot. One of the problem and mostly run along with the story and interest me is racism between white people and black people socially. Fiction usually based on what happened in real life. This novel, Harper Lee based on what she seen and writes about it. Racism was quite popular that moment. At the start of the story Harper doesn’t want to go directly into the problems but wanted it grows slowly through a vision of a little girl – Scout. It begins with the memories of a child “when he was nearly thirteen”. This is another interesting way from style of writing, beginning slowly and calm yet deeply meaning in the end. In this novel and all above 15 first chapters, racism exist in people’s mind, on actions and mostly from dialogue, questions they’ve been asked by people around. Relationship in social also causes the problems like this to happen too. White people always racism, they usually messed up with people around and rarely respect colored people. They always think white people are the definition of perfect and others don’t which is not true. We all know that white people lead this thing, but in “To Kill A Mockingbi... ... middle of paper ... ...from Maycomb town that time. This happen a lot in real life, even nowadays, not only about racism but also about how you look, what appearance, rich or poor, pretty or not. Sum up, the social relationship between these people here, this old town Maycomb is complicated and pretty tense. This novel has taught us so much, thanks to Harper Lee – one of the greatest writers of all time. It has opened our eyes wider about racism at that time and compared it to nowadays it has become so much better. People are equally, no matter what skin color you are, what religion you have, or where you’re from, what you’re appearance looks like, we are all equal, and we are all the same – human. So instead of treating badly to one another we should all united and make the world a better place. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: Warner Books, December 1982.
Racism is evident in the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout the story whites are constantly challenging blacks, and vice versa, because blacks want to be seen as equals and not as a lesser race.
All in all, Harper Lee used racism in her novel to develop the characters in it and relay certain messages, and not history, to the readers and these are the purposes of any literature, which are fulfilled by using specific themes and merging them into one meaningful piece of literature. So, while racism is one of the important themes of the novel, it is not the only theme that the novel is focused on. Therefore, there are some differences between racism in her novel and racism in the United States of America in the 1930s. However, while those differences could affect our comprehension to a certain extent, they should not prevent us from appreciating the novel and the messages that it conveys through racism.
“Beneath the armor of skin and bone and mind, most of our colors are amazingly the same.” This quote by Aberjhani is very relatable to “To Kill A Mockingbird”. The novel by Harper Lee was published in 1960. The book involves racism, rape, and inequality. A major theme in the book is unfairness. Maycomb County is a small, prejudice town in Alabama. The town is divided between racist Whites, and innocent Blacks. African Americans had no rights and no power in the 1930s. Whites had a lot more rights, and had power over the Black community. From innocent Blacks being killed, court siding with Whites, Maycomb is a very unfair town.
Racism obstructs a person 's innocence making them feel as if they are held guilty for their race. As one author 's says, “Race doesn 't really exist for you because it has never been a barrier. Black folks don 't have that choice” (GoodReads). She simply implies that race of a non-black person does not matter because it’s the only race that is conflicted with. Black people, in the early 1800s until the late 1980s, were judged solely based on their race. Two authors relate their characters on racism and how the white community obstructed the significance of their black characters. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, she introduces a fictional town, in which the white community shows inconsideration towards the blacks. Lee focuses on one
“There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but these are the facts of life.” (Lee 295 ) Racism is a problem that is still going on around the world today. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Bob Ewell, a white man, falsely accuses Tom Robinson, an african-american man, of raping his daughter, Mayella Ewell. That is not the only way racism is shown in the book though, it’s also shown through the way people in Maycomb treat colored people and segregation.
In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee there is a major theme. Racism is present everywhere throughout this book, from the beginning to the end. This theme is developed by all the people in the town of Maycomb being racist towards African Americans, and some African Americans are being racist towards white people. Harper Lee has made Maycomb townspeople racist to show that this book was set during the Great Depression. We can tell it’s during this time period because of the way people lived and how the author uses language to create the sense of the book being set in that time. Therefore, the most important theme in the book is racism because of the way everyone in the town acts towards each other and treats each other.
Despite great strides made by congress in order to pass non-discrimination bills, there are still people that experience racial prejudice. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, makes racial prejudice a central topic. Harper Lee takes her readers back to the 1930’s in the fictional town of Maycomb in which there is a divide between blacks and whites: black people are prejudiced against white people, and white people are prejudiced against black people. She uses characters like Jem and Scout, who are kids, to show how they can become a victim to racial prejudice, and this experience consequently ruins their innocence. Through Jem and Scout’s tumultuous and racially-charged coming of age experience, Harper Lee suggests that racism can destroy a child’s innocence.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, racism is a pervasive force that affects everybody who crosses its path. Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more subtle. The most obvious way racism presents itself in Maycomb is the outcome of Tom Robinson’s trial, but it also affects Atticus, who chooses to put all his effort into defending Tom Robinson. Racism even found its way into the lives of Jem and Scout when Atticus is appointed the defense attorney for the trial. Racism presents itself in many different forms in Maycomb and manages to attach itself to the most innocent of people regardless of their race.
The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a novel about a girl growing up in a white house in the racist town with a father who defends a black man. Throughout the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops the theme that even though equality is given to all, if you are different person you are not treated equal. This theme Harper Lee creates still matters because it connects to the real world because even today, as colored people are treated as non equal to the whites, such as the story of Michael Brown and Donald Trump making racial marks on Latinos.
Is our society capable of overcoming racism? Sadly, no our society is not capable of overcoming racism. Race or racial ideology runs deep in our history and culture. Racism is at the core of our political culture. What is racism? Racism is a prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on their beliefs. It is the most important issue in Harper Lee famous book To Kill A Mockingbird.Racism cannot be destroyed,but it can be taught to be controlled.
Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community.
The citizens of Maycomb deal with many social issues due to the conflict of racism. Social out casting is a result of racism. This can be proven when Jem says, “They don’t belong anywhere. Coloured folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white, white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re coloured, so they’re just in between, don’t belong anywhere. “(Harper Lee, page 161). The mixed children of Mr. Raymond are socially out casted from the whole town, as no one wants to be with them, both races find them a disgrace to their own race. These children have got no one, but themselves to be with and this is not fair because these children could be just as capable as any other child. This shows Maycomb’s disregard to equality. Moreover, children’s minds are often diluted with confusion because of the prejudice acts of racism. Dill is an innocent child who is also put through this confusion as he says, “That old Mr. Gilmer doin’ him thataway, talking so hateful to him….It was the way he said it made me sick, plain sick” ( Harper Lee, page 198) The adults in Maycomb are unfortunately diverting Dill’s mind. Dill being too young to understand the people of Maycomb, realizes that being racist is unfair. In addition, verbal aggression creates tension between many citizens of Maycomb. Tension is built through, “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillum here...
Harper Lee, the author, used great details on how the color of people can make a person feel differently about some one. This book explains how difficult it was to take a stand. Many of the characters knew what was right, but continued to follow through with the ridiculous punishments that they would push towards the colored people. To Kill A Mockingbird is a book about how racism could affect many situations and decisions in the old days, and sometimes now.
Not only is To Kill a Mockingbird a fun novel to read, it is purposeful. Harper Lee wrote the novel to demonstrate the way in which the world and its people should live together in harmony through a basic moral attitude of treating others with respect and kindness. The novel received the Pulitzer Prize in 1960, which places it among the best adult novels ever written; although it achieved this high recognition, today’s primary readers are adolescents. However, at the turning of the twenty-first century, one might wrongfully assume Harper Lee intended To Kill a Mockingbird a novel for adolescents and ignore its lessons for adults. According to “’Fine Fancy Gentlemen’ and ‘Yappy Folks’: Contending Voices in To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Theodore Hovet and Grace-Ann Hovet, Lee’s work is important because she does not supply the normal assumptions most in America harbor regarding the origins of racism. To the contrary, they argue that “Rather than ascribing racial prejudice primarily to ‘poor white trash’ (qtd. in Newitz and Wray), Lee demonstrates how issues of gender and class intensify prejudice, silence the voices that might challenge the existing order, and greatly complicate many Americans’ conception of the causes of racism and segregation” (67). Reading To Kill a Mockingbird provides its audience with a basic moral code by which to live and encounter individuals who appear different or make choices unlike those made by the mainstream populace. Therefore, this novel becomes part of our moral culture; regardless of age, people learn from the moral codes taught by defense attorney Atticus Finch, his children, and his community.
For centuries racial tensions in America has suffered plenty. Within Harper Lee’s fictional novel,To Kill a Mockingbird, the audience is shown how intense race relations, and social injustice. By analyzing race relations both in the novel and present day, one can conclude that social injustice has improved, which can be discussed through specific events in the novel and current issues today.