Racial and Gender Discrimination: A Plague Then and Now Discrimination is a cancer upon society. Discrimination seeps its roots into society’s greatest successes, poisons society's nonpareil triumphs, and toples the moral pillars on which Lady Justice stands. Discrimination today is just as prevalent as it was in the 1930’s, and there is no better epitome of 1930’s-era-discrimination than To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird, or TKAM, is a classic that depicts a period of a young girl’s life, Scout Finch, that spans several years and revolves around Scout’s conflict with herself and with society's promotion of discrimination. The principle conflict of this coming of age novel is the trial of Tom Robinson, an African American
Keeping this in mind, Lee does illustrate one character in TKAM as extraordinarily anti-women’s equality, Aunt Alexandra. Alexandra has a strict interpretation of southern society and wholeheartedly believes that a good woman is a housewife who fulfills her duties to her husband. However, Scout is generally impervious to her aunt’s views and retains the personality seen throughout the novel, a tomboy. Consequently instead of viewing both gender’s as respectable, which Scout would not have done under Alexandra’s instruction either, young Scout views femininity as a weakness. This ill view of her own biological identity is further strengthened by Jem, another evil male in Lee’s mind, who convinces Scout, “that girls ... hated them…” ( Lee 54). Two rhetorical devices within this passage are irony and a statement that professes a stereotype, and the rhetorical devices are used to express female superiority and male misogynistic tendencies. Firstly and ironically, Scout, the supposed representation of Lee as a young girl, envisions herself as a boy, whereas Lee believes that girls are inherently preferable to boys. Lee purposely has Scout represent these feelings, so that Lee could make the claim that the naivety of youth and a poor, most likely masculine, setting results in the hampering of a girl’s brilliance. Secondly, “other people” is a broad term that grants Lee the ability to stereotype men as haters of strong women who “always imagined things.” Through her analysis of naivety, setting, and misogynistic tendencies, Lee demonstrates how society naturally and unintentionally creates an environment for gender
Even though many social forces impact Scout in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, gender impacts Scout the greatest. It affects her in how other people treat her. Unexpectedly, Aunt Alexandra shows up at the Finch household, and Scout asks why she had just shown up. Aunt Alexandra replies, “We decided that it would be good for you to have some feminine influence. It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes and boys” (127). After Alexandra says this, Scout becomes puzzled because she does not think she needs a “feminine influence”. But, as she becomes older she is expected to act more lady like. Since she is a girl, she is expected to act prim and proper. Her being raised around men is acting against these stereotypes. Certainly, it is obvious that boys are more daring than girls. So while Jem and Dill want to get a sneak peak inside of Boo Radley’s house, Scout gets a little apprehensive. Jem shouts out, “Scout I’m telling you for the last time shut your trap or go home. I declare to the lord you’re getting more like a girl every day,” (51-52). After Jem said this, she decides she has no option but to join them. She does...
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in Alabama in the 1930s, and concerns itself primarily with the interrelated themes of prejudice and empathy. These themes are explored as the story follows Scout Finch as she learns lessons in empathy, ultimately rejecting prejudice. While all characters in Lee’s novel learn from their experiences, not all are able to grow in the same manner as Scout. The idea of a positive role model, typified by the character of Atticus Finch, and the ramifications of its absence, is a concept that Lee places much emphasis on. The isolated setting is also pivotal in the development of characters. Lee uses the contrast between characters that learn lessons in empathy and compassion, and characters that cling to the ideals of a small town, to explore factors that nurture or diminish prejudice.
Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird explores the concept of injustice and her readers are introduced to a society where the social hierarchy dominated acts of humanity. We are often put into situations where we witness member of society be inhumane to one another in order to fit into the community and to act selfishly to save yourself. Within the text, we are also commonly shown the racial discrimination that has become society’s norm. Because of the general acceptance of these behaviours, it is explicitly show to all that the major theme Lee is trying to portray is ‘Man’s inhumanity to man’.
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.
While the women in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird come in a variety of personalities and backgrounds, all of their lives are led by one constricting factor; their gender. Scout's upbringing as a young woman greatly contrasts that of her brother Jem. Jem is educated as a young boy growing into a man while Scout’s journey is taken as a woman. The manacle of womanhood is but a concept if one does not consider the harsh faults and inhibiting limits of men or rather the struggle for “masculinity” that men are similarly constrained. Though she is repeatedly told to have ladylike manners and to dress in more feminine way, Scout mostly denies this norm but is still able to become a young
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.
Growing up in a prejudiced environment can cause individuals to develop biased views in regard to both gender and class. This is true in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, where such prejudices are prevalent in the way of life of 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The novel is centered around the trial of a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. The narrator, a young girl named Scout, is able to get a close up view of the trial because her father is defending Tom Robinson, the defendant. The aura of the town divided by the trial reveals certain people’s prejudices to Scout, giving her a better perspective of her world.
Racism is a huge problem around the world. It ruins lives and makes people not want to live because of all the disgusting effects that come with it. The worst thing about racism is that people can’t control what color skin they have and how they look but people still judge them and don’t respect them. Racism discriminates characters because discriminates characters because it prevents, equal respect, equal laws / rights, and equal fairness.
...she describes the pompous women. The author uses the women's conversations to emphasize the reasons Scout remains a tomboy and refuses the traits of Maycomb females.
In a desperate attempt to save his client, Tom Robinson, from death, Atticus Finch boldly declares, “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (Lee 271). The gross amounts of lurid racial inequality in the early 20th century South is unfathomable to the everyday modern person. African-Americans received absolutely no equality anywhere, especially not in American court rooms. After reading accounts of the trials of nine young men accused of raping two white women, novelist Harper Lee took up her pen and wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, a blistering exposition of tragic inequalities suffered by African Americans told from the point of view of a young girl. Though there are a few trivial differences between the events of the Scottsboro trials and the trial of Tom Robinson portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird, such as the accusers’ attitudes towards attention, the two cases share a superabundance of similarities. Among these are the preservation of idealist views regarding southern womanhood and excessive brutality utilized by police.
One way Harper Lee develops gender inequity through stereotypes is through Scout’s experiences with the women in Maycomb. Scout is laughed at for wearing pants under her dress. Scout prefers pants over dresses because she’s a tomboy and can be more active in “britches.” On Sunday, Scout dressed up, but still had pants under her dress. When Scout is at the gathering with the women, Miss Maudie says, “‘You’re mighty dressed up, Miss Jean Louise,’ she said. ‘Where are your britches today?’ ‘Under my dress.’ I hadn’t meant to be funny, but the ladies laughed. My cheeks grew hot as I realized my mistake” (Lee 307). Because Scout is laughed at for wearing pants and not for something she thought was funny, she feels singled out and degraded. The ladies of Maycomb laughed at her because she had done something “wrong” in their eyes. She wore pants
In 1960, a novel was written to outline injustices and racism against those who were innocent, though unfairly judged because of social expectations and prejudiced beliefs. This novel not only presented these issues, but is also considered a revolutionary piece of literature, still being read by many people today, more than 50 years later. The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, has caused some controversy about the intents of the book and the way certain people or groups are presented. Whether To Kill a Mockingbird as a narrative outshines the issue it presents is a debatable argument. However, I believe that the narrative of the novel supports the concerns exhibited for numerous reasons. In what follows, some of these are presented: the historical
In the novel, ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee some characters suffer in the hands of justice and fairness more than others. Many characters in the novel are discriminated against such as Calpurnia, Dolphus Raymond, Helen Robinson, Burris Ewell and more. However I will be focusing on the discrimination against Tom Robinson for his race, Walter Cunningham for his low socioeconomic status and Boo Radley for the rumors and supposed mental instability he holds. I chose those three because they are the most prominent and I will discuss how the discrimination against the characters therefore leads to their injustice or unfairness.
Sexism is not as common a topic in comparison to racism, but does play a role in the development of the novel. This type of discrimination is expressed towards women from men and women alike. Men feel compelled to protect women from unsightly things, (Lee 221), and the women in Maycomb have the mind set that, to be a lady, they must conform to society's expectations of them. They believe they must dress, act, and speak a certain way to appease the community. Aunt Alexandra is a big believer in acting the way society expects her to and attempts to impose these values on her niece, Scout, who becomes mortified, as she has always been a tomboy and prefers spending time in the dirt. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my [Scout's] attire. She said I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed ...
In most countries, women only earn between 60 and 75% of men’s wages, for the same work. Sexism is still a problem in today’s society, but it has improved since Scout’s generation in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Scout believes from an early age that girls aren’t good, and that she can avoid the judgement that comes with being a girl by not acting like one. Being a girl for Scout is less a matter of what she's born with and more a matter of what she does. Scout’s elders influence her perception of womanhood by putting preconceived sexist views in her head. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” Harper Lee shows the reader how all women are expected to act lady like and be proper through the actions of Mrs. Dubose, Jem, and Atticus.