Influences In To Kill A Mockingbird

1486 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Racism in literature

Literature based on Reality: For the discovery of influences upon Harper Lee America is supposed to be a country of freedom. A land where people should marry to whom they wish, or be able to drink at any water fountain without having to worry about being judged for being a different color. Why were these time periods even like this? Even in the past everyone had their own differences; but from these past events they have came to the resolution of being different is not only acceptable, but is desirable. Today everyone is able to be where ever they want to without being judged for it. The writing of Harper Lee 's novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, was influenced by the murder of Emmett Till, Jim Crow laws, and The Scottsboro Trials. The first real In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird a African American, named Tom Robinson was convicted of raping a young white women named Mayella Ewell (Lee ). Mayella Ewell was not ever supposed to tempt an African American especially a man (Lee ). On November 21, Tom came over to help this young white lady do the chores that should of been done by a man (Lee 166). Tom lended a hand for Mayella Ewell, just for kindness for a white women. And Mayella knew she had done a forbidden mistake; she tempted an African American man (Lee ). She tempted him by trying to kiss him after inviting him inside to do another task (Lee). Knowing this was prohibited as a white woman she had to cover it up, and make it look like Tom tempted a white women. She did this by making it look like Tom raped her, and beat her up (Lee). Atticus had many facts that showed that Robinson did not rape Mayella Ewell. Mr. Ewell is left handed said Judge Taylor (Lee 177). There was no hope for Tom all of the juries were white men. "There 's something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they...[could not] be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it is a white man 's word against a black man 's, the white man always wins. They are ugly, but those are the facts of life.” Since segregation was going on during this time no one preferenced African Americans over whites. This incident is similar to the event that Today America is different in many ways, unlike the past people actually accept and desire that everyone is different, nowadays everyone has their own traits. This shows how much the world has overcome in such witlessness as segregation and, it is an indication of how far humanity could go in the

Show More
Related

  • Similarities Between Scottsboro Boys And To Kill A Mockingbird

    1387 Words  | 3 Pages

    To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is one of the most successful works of fiction in American Literature. Although To Kill a Mockingbird is classified as a work of fiction, there is evidence to support the claim that To Kill a Mockingbird was modeled after the Scottsboro Trials of 1931. There are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Trials. The Scottsboro Boys were nine, young, African American men who were falsely accused of raping two white women while illegally riding a train in Alabama. Harper Lee was also about six years old when these trials took place. This is the reason why Harper Lee chose to write her novel through the eyes of a six year old. The trials inspired her to write To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper

    Read More

  • Tom Robinson Stereotypes

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    Accused of raping a poor white girl, innocent Tom Robinson is now faced with a desperate trial. “The evil assumption-that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.” (Lee 273). Atticus delivers a powerful speech to the courthouse audience highlighting the disturbing truth of the unfair society. Although there was substantial evidence proving Tom’s innocence against Mayella Ewell, Tom was convicted for the rape the Ewell’s made up to disguise their guilty faults. The stereotypical accusation of the unjustifiable verdict costed Tom his life, when he grew “tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take his own.” (Lee 315). There are always two sides to a story and specifically someone from the black community had their strong opinion on those of the white community. When Calpurnia brought Jem and Scout to her church, they were interrogated by an angered Lula. “You ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here-they got their church, we got our’n.” (Lee 158). Lula makes a stereotypical judgement, after seeing Jem and Scout she immediately labels them white, and we can infer her thoughts are pulled from her prior knowledge of the stereotypical racist white community. She has never met Jem and Scout yet is quick to group

    Read More

  • Discrimination In Bob Ewell's To Kill A Mockingbird

    708 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of the storylines in the novel is the Robinson-Ewell trial. Tom Robinson is an innocent African-American, accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a lower-class white girl. At the trial hearing, everyone is able to tell his or her side of the story before Tom is allowed to speak. All stories, however, offer two different versions of Tom and Mayella’s relationship. Moreover, Mayella and Bob Ewell tell the jury what they expect to hear, about Tom being a monster. They explain that there was no reason for his actions against Mayella. According to them, along with the rest of Maycomb, it's just expected that a black man would rape any white woman if he had the opportunity. The Tom spoken of by the Ewells shows the stereotypes that justify whites to be superior to blacks. However, Tom tells the jury about his innocence. He pr...

    Read More

  • Victim or Villain? Mayella Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird

    734 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...er comes back, Mayella panics and screams because of the fear and shame of being seen tempting a black man. Since she knows it is unacceptable and still does it, Mayella should be prepared to hold responsibility for her actions.

    Read More

  • How Is Harper Lee's Life Reflected In To Kill A Mockingbird

    360 Words  | 1 Pages

    To Kill A Mockingbird is a cultural and classic novel wrote by Harper Lee. A connection people believe is that the novel is based off of Harper Lee’s childhood. There are reasons to believe that there is a connection between the book and the author's life.

    Read More

  • Essay on Character Parallels in To Kill a Mockingbird

    462 Words  | 1 Pages

    In real life there are many different types of people, some of them are similar

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Just Mercy

    1068 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Harper Lee’s fictional novel To Kill A Mockingbird, an African American field hand is falsely accused of raping a white women. Set in the 1930’s in the small town of Monroeville Alabama, Addicus Finch an even handed white attorney tries to shed a light on the injustice of this innocent black man’s conviction. Atticus feels that the justice system should be color blind, and he defends Tom as an innocent man, not a man of color.

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay On Racial Equality

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    America has always been a country with different cultures, races, and people. Only, not everyone has been accepting of different kinds of people. A persons thoughts on another person can differ depending on a person's race, gender, or age. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, racial equality is nonexistent. The African Americans were treated like they weren’t people, and were totally isolated from the Maycomb, Alabama society. America will never achieve true racial and social equality because people are ignorant, have a history of being prejudiced, and are unjust.

    Read More

  • Education in To Kill a Mockingbird

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    A well-developed theme in To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is education and its importance to aging. Scout learns self-control, courage, and standing up for what is right. Scout Finch’s education process begins outside of the classroom with Atticus, her father, as the teacher. The Finch family lives in Maycomb County, Alabama, during the 1930s, where prejudice and inequality of races is widely accepted and practiced. Atticus stands alone, in defense, when a black man is taken to trial for the rape of a white woman. Scout learns, through her father, many valuable lessons that influence her actions daily.

    Read More

  • Ethnic Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    915 Words  | 2 Pages

    America has drastically changed throughout the years and has improved to become better. Although the past has problems with gender, socio-economics, age and ethnicity. The main problem that was in the past that even still happens today is ethnicity. Ethnicity inequality was a big problem involving African Americans, but are slowly changing today. Back in the days, racism was a huge problem that we had. Black people were slaves and treated poorly. Segregation has been a cause for an example, School and busses were separated by skin color. There were two schools, one for white skinned and one for the black skins. They even had separate drinking fountains and sit sat in the back of the busses. They were sometimes openly abused just for doing nothing. It’s

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    As To Kill a Mockingbird indicated, the legal system in courtrooms was affected by the pervasive racial injustice and stereotyping of the premodern era. Despitethis overwhelming evidence that had unarguably proved their innocence Tom Robinson, who had been of raping a white woman, was “a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” And even Atticus Finch’s final plea that “In the name of God, do your duty,” the failure of the jurors from completing this moral obligation and achieving an impartial verdict was because the jury was not a full representation of Maycomb. Although the novel establishes that the town of Maycomb had women and minorities, the jury itself was monochromatic and only consisted of twelve white men. It was due to this absence of diversity that inhibited the Maycomb jurors from granting Tom Robinson with his right to a

    Read More

  • To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

    2185 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Dialectical Journal Chapters 19-25

    1924 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...uth to fully understand that it is typical to act superior to those with colored skin. All Dill sees is a man being rude to another, just because of his skin color. While Atticus clearly shows everyone in the court that it was almost impossible for Tom Robinson to have beat Mayella, he still loses the case just because he was a black man against a white woman. Lee includes, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee 323) This enforces how it didn’t matter what Tom was really doing or why Mayella was screaming, but just by the way Tom looked they were able to essentially pin the rape and the beatings on Tom. Of course this was not true and he did not receive the justice he deserved, but that didn’t matter to Maycomb. All that mattered was the color of his skin and what the teenage white girl named Mayella Ewell said about him.

    Read More

  • Shelley Vs Kraemer Discrimination

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle" (Martin Luther King, Jr.). America's laws have changed drastically over the years, such changes seemingly unpredictable and nearly impossible to avoid. Many believe that the effort of one person to make a difference is in vain, but backed with all of America's passion for a better country, anything from the removal of a law or the fight for equality is possible. Because of the effort of American citizens, the United States is the way it is now. At America's beginning, discrimination was the norm, the slavery of African Americans socially acceptable and expected. While this was seen as normal and accepted by a majority of society, the rising of those

    Read More

  • Themes And Symbolism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Symbolism. Why is it important in a novel? Why do authors incorporate symbols into their writing? Symbolism aids the reader in understanding what the author wants to portray. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, she writes about the racism in a small town in Alabama named Maycomb set in the 1930’s and about two children growing up and learning that their town is not as perfect as they thought. The theme topic appearance versus reality helps to get a better understanding of the symbols used in the novel and that you should not judge something by their appearance, you should judge by the reality of what it is. “As Atticus once advised me to do, I tried to climb into Jem’s skin and walk around in it.” (Scout page 77) In her novel, there are many symbols throughout the narrative that relate to the theme topic appearance versus reality. Harper Lee writes symbols into her novel, such as the snowman, Mrs. Dubose’s Camellia flower and Dolphus Raymond’s Coca-Cola bottle to help reinforce the theme topic of appearance versus reality throughout the novel.

    Read More

More about Influences In To Kill A Mockingbird

Open Document