Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

304 Words1 Page

Thesis: In her novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee explores various forms of social inequality coexisting within Maycomb to expose the prejudices that exist in human nature. Miss Gates shows that racism is produced by a person that cannot seem to understand why someone would hurt other people. Frequently, the people of Maycomb overlook their prejudice desires and convince themselves that other issues happening are prejudice but them, themselves are not. In class, Miss Gates explains to her students about Hitler persecuting the Jews. She states, “That’s just the difference between Americans and Germans. We are a democracy and Germany is dictatorship… Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who

Show More
Related

  • Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    Segregation has played a substantial role throughout American history. Many court cases and different trials in different time periods have proven that a person’s skin color can dictate many things, such as where they go to school and where they sit on public transportation. The struggle to achieve equality was made even more difficult by the legislation of the Plessy vs. Ferguson case.

    Read More

  • How Does Miss Gates Show Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    307 Words  | 1 Pages

    Miss Gates describes Germany as a dictatorship which is the main reason Hitler was able to do so many horrible to things to those innocent people. She then does a comparison between Germany under Hitler’s rule and American society claiming that, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” (329). Miss Gates describes America as this very equal place where there is no type of injustice similar to that in Germany under Hitler’s rule. She is confident that people in America do not believe in persecuting people because there is no prejudice which proves she is completely blind to the injustice all around her. Although, not as severe, the black community in Maycomb did face some of the same unfair treatments, the main event being the Tom Robinson trials, thus making Miss Gate’s teachings an example of situational irony.

    Read More

  • Discrimination In Bob Ewell's To Kill A Mockingbird

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine a world where anyone who was born with brown hair got to give orders to anyone born with blonde hair. If you're born with brown hair, you could have better careers and the better education whereas the blondes wouldn’t even been given a fair court trial. If something like this happened overnight, there would be a huge uproar, but what if it happened over time and generations grew to accept it? Eventually, people would start to argue that brown haired people were naturally superior to blondes. If you were living in a tiny town in the Deep South, such as Maycomb, you’d have even less of a reason to question the status quo. Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird is trying to teach his kids, “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” Furthermore, the largest forms of discrimination in the novel are racism and classism.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Inhumanity In To Kill A Mockingbird

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    Maycomb is a fictional town in which we are exposed to the brutality of people. We follow Scout and Jem’s journey, which slowly reveals to us that the world is not a fair place and if anything, that the world can be quite cruel. This is shown through the ways in which characters act in a despicable manner towards others. Tom Robinson’s trial further gives us an insight as to the lies and racism that people are capable of. We are constantly confronted with the harsh reality that that the world is made up of numerous people that are filled with hatred, fueling them to act inhumanely towards others. Yet, at the end of the novel we are given a glimmer of hope as both Jem and Scout understanding this predominant concept, means that the next generation of Maycomb citizens may well be more compassionate towards one another

    Read More

  • Character Development In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

    807 Words  | 2 Pages

    Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird sets place in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama during the prominent period of racial inequality in the mid-twentieth century. To Kill a Mockingbird explores the transformations that follow one’s coming-of-age alongside the ambivalent morals of the 1950s. Changing the setting would affect the character development, conflict and atmosphere developing a new theme.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1573 Words  | 4 Pages

    I wonder why people criticize others when they technically are doing the same thing. This quote shows that the Maycomb people are blinded by their own actions. They criticize people, such as Hitler and the Nazis, but they do not recognize that they are doing horrible things themselves. Additionally, I felt by Scout pointing this out, she is slowly beginning to grow up and is getting involved in the adult world. Nevertheless, it suggests to the readers a part of Miss Gates’s character, as well. This concludes Miss Gates is a hypocritical and ignorant person. Miss Gates hates Hitler for the way he treated the Jews. However, she has the same hatred against the blacks. Because Miss Gates’ has hatred toward the African Americans without a given or true reason, it shows she is

    Read More

  • Examples Of Gender Discrimination In How To Kill A Mockingbird

    810 Words  | 2 Pages

    Within today’s world and all the way through history, everyone is either defined as a girl or boy. A simple concept known as a person’s sex or gender. Gender has established roles for each of the different sexes in which people are pushed in a guideline. As society advances there so often comes up with outliers, challengers, or rebels that propose against society’s gender rules. Harper Lee or the author of How to Kill a Mockingbird mentions the topic of gender and how people discriminate on it frequently. Even in times people push their children or even peers to being what they don’t personally feel like they are, as some transgender parents often due. Harper Lee wants to inferences that gender is a defining society rule.

    Read More

  • Should To Kill A Mockingbird Be Banned In Schools

    614 Words  | 2 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a book about how social inequality was different

    Read More

  • Scouting out Racism

    769 Words  | 2 Pages

    Slavery may have been temporary, but the effects it left behind are ingrained in our culture and influences the notion that blacks are less than whites. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee reveals the adverse effects of racial prejudice. This story takes place during the Great Depression in a small Alabama town named Maycomb. In this town, one’s skin color determines his social status. One of the main protagonists, Atticus Finch, is against racism in the South and tries to correct the ways of the community by defending a black man named Tom Robinson in court. The theme that racial prejudice is the root of several wrongdoings is supported by character interactions, the culture of the time period, and numerous conflicts throughout the plot.

    Read More

  • Caste System In To Kill A Mockingbird

    370 Words  | 1 Pages

    Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird challenges the magnitude of moral affliction, in which a person will endure, to fulfill societal expectations versus one’s personal responsibilities. Furthermore, Maycomb has a “caste system,” where family names that derive from Maycomb County are characterized as upper-class citizens. With African Americans, or “Nergroes,” being placed beneath the lowest social class, the Ewells or “poor white trash.’’ In result, societal expectations are considerably risen for those possessing ethical principles, societal regard, and unwavering respect from the citizens of Maycomb.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1302 Words  | 3 Pages

    How would you like it if someone walked up to you and berated you based on the color of your skin? A characteristic like that isn’t even something you can control, so an insult of that nature can leave one furious and oppressed. Discrimination is inevitable in any culture, throughout history, in modern times, and even in ancient times. For example, the oppression and murder of 6 million Jewish people during the Holocaust, the African Slave Trade which occurred for multiple centuries, and more recently, the “ethnic cleansing” of Rohingya people in Myanmar, brought on by the government of the Asian nation, all of which are tragedies doomed to happen when history repeats itself and people do not learn

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essays: Discrimination and Prejudice

    1388 Words  | 3 Pages

    Discrimination and Prejudice in Killing A Mocking Bird Discrimination and prejudice were very common acts in the early and middle 1900's. Prejudice in this book is displayed by the acts of hate and misunderstanding because of someone's color. People of color were the majority that were treated unfairly. During this time in the southern states, black people had to use separate bathrooms, drinking fountains, sections in restaurants, churches, and even go to separate schools. Although much of the discrimination was directed towards blacks, there were plenty of accounts towards impoverished families by those that had money.

    Read More

  • Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Racism in To Kill A Mockingbird

    549 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird: Influences on Scout from Interactions w/ Others

    589 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up in Maycomb, Southern Alabama in the 1930s was not an easy thing. Amid a town of prejudice and racism, stood a lone house where equality and respect for all gleamed like a shining star amid an empty space. The house of Atticus Finch was that shining star. Jean Louise Finch, also known as “Scout”, is given the opportunity of being raised in this house by her father, Atticus. I stole this essay from the net. As she grows, Atticus passes down his values of equality and righteousness to Scout and her brother Jeremy Atticus Finch, also known as “Jem”. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, we see Scout learns many lessons about dealing with prejudice by observing the behavior of other characters in the story.

    Read More

More about Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document