Introduction
Section One: Harper Lee’s Life
Section Two: Time Period Influences on Lee’s Writing
Section Three: Influence of Stereotypes
Section Four: To Kill a Mockingbird Reviews
Conclusion
Works Cited
Introduction
Which doll is better? In the 1950s, psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark asked black children between three and seven to answer this simple, yet revealing question. The kids were shown four dolls that were exactly the same except for their skin colors. Almost three quarters of the children chose the white doll as being superior and attributed positive characteristics to it. When asked why they picked it, they replied with, “Because it’s white” (Abagond). Almost half a century later, in 2005, Kiri Davis repeated the test to see if psychology has changed in any way. Results show 71% of the children preferring the white doll (Edne). These tests demonstrate the incredible stereotypical beliefs still present today. The belief that there is only one acceptable perception to anything is ingrained into society’s minds, and limits individuals from thinking for themselves. Author Harper Lee explores this topic as she displays to readers prevalent stereotypes and their effects in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
Section One: Harper Lee’s Life
Harper Lee was born April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman (A.C.) Lee, was a former newspaper editor who served as a state senator and lawyer. Due to his occupations, A.C. had a tremendous influence on her writing. Not only is A.C. a writer just like Lee; but, the main character in Lee’s novel, Scout Finches’, father, Atticus, also practices law. Atticus defends a black man accused of raping a white woman who is found guilty and murdered. Simil...
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"POLL FINDS WHITES USE STEREOTYPES." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 Jan. 1991. Web. 09 Feb. 2014. .
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Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, published in 1960, is a novel which explores the theme of challenging racial prejudice. Within this novel, Lee has portrayed unintentional racial prejudice through the characters Atticus Finch, Link Deas and Scout Finch. With these characters, and their roles in exploring the theme of racial prejudice, Harper Lee has set unintentional boundaries for readers, as result, racial prejudicial thinking from contemporary perspective, in comparison to historical views, is challenged to a small extent.
There 's a point in everyone 's life when people are forced to wear a mask to hide their true selves. People want to fit into what they think is normal. Most of the time, the individual behind the mask is very different from what they are being perceived as. They can be evil and wicked, or they can be smart, loving, and caring. Characters in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee live through the Great Depression and Segregation. They all have qualities that make them unique in their own ways. In the town of Maycomb, Alabama, citizens are put under stereotypes all throughout the novel. Characters get assigned labels that aren 't entirely correct. Dolphus Raymond, Mayella Ewell, and Boo Radley are all products of what it looks
Why are different races and social classes treated so differently? Why was education so horrible at some points in time? Two of the characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are Jem and Scout. When Jem and Scout are growing up, they find out that many things are not as they seem. Certain people are not treated as well as others just because of the color of their skin, how they live, educational status, or even on just urban legend. At courthouses back then, blacks had to sit in a balcony. Many people in this time were so uneducated that they couldn’t read out of hymn books at church, if they had any. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different kinds of prejudice and educational problems in the 1930’s in Maycomb County, Alabama.
The prejudices present in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, display the views of the Old South. Defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a prejudice is an adverse opinion formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge. A significant prejudice present is sexism against women. The segregation of social classes is also exhibited in the novel. Most importantly, racism plays a dominant role in To Kill a Mockingbird. Although very common in the South, the prejudices displayed are morally wrong.
Scout's perception of prejudice is evolved through countless experiences in Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. Written in the nineteen thirties, To Kill a Mockingbird promotes the understanding of self-discovery through Scout, an intelligent and outspoken child living with respectable family in Maycomb County, Alabama. Throughout various encounters in the novel, Harper Lee causes Scout's perspective to change and develop from innocence to awareness and eventually towards understanding.
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Harper Lee takes inspiration for her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, from her own life experiences. The story tells about the lives of Jean Louise Finch and Jem Finch, the two children of a talented lawyer, who introduces them to racism and bigotry at a very young age. The Tom Robinson trial, similar to the Scottsboro trial, causes Jem and Scout to recognize the distinctly different types of people living in Maycomb. Man’s inhumanity to man compels Harper Lee to uncover the shameful acts of society; these injustices, especially those of the Tom Robinson trial, open Scout and Jem’s eyes to the defective perspectives held by society; reading To Kill A Mockingbird, leads me to wonder how far our society has truly come.
“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.
The novel "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee is a simplistic view of life in the Deep South of America in the 1930s. An innocent but humorous stance in the story is through the eyes of Scout and Jem Finch. Scout is a young adolescent who is growing up with the controversy that surrounds her fathers lawsuit. Her father, Atticus Finch is a lawyer who is defending a black man, Tom Robinson, with the charge of raping a white girl. The lives of the characters are changed by racism and this is the force that develops during the course of the narrative.
Though racism seems to be a thing of the past, there is still room for progression in the United States. Having been a country that was widely accepting of the enslavement of African Americans over a century ago, many Americans have not evolved nor turned the page on the subject. Despite the many movements, trials, and acts developed by our society to ensure civil rights to all African Americans, America remains a principally racist country. The only effective way to defeat racism is to not practice or teach what was once taught one hundred years ago. Author Alex Haley is quoted, “Racism is taught in our society, it is not automatic. It is learned behavior toward persons with dissimilar physical characteristics.” If we do not teach our youth of prejudice or hatred towards human beings for something as trivial as differing skin color I believe racism, not only concentrated in the United States, but globally, will diminish.
'Democracy,' she said. 'Does anybody have a definition?' ... 'Equal rights for all, special privileges for none' (Lee 248).
“They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ’em, like somethin’ I’d try to do. All crooked” (Lee 58). The book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee has many different stereotypes that play into it. A stereotype, by Merriam-Webster definition is “an often unfair and untrue belief that many people have about all people or things with a particular characteristic.” To Kill a Mockingbird is about three children named Scout, Jem, and Dill and is set during the Great Depression. Theses children are best friends and throughout the book they try to see a mysterious character named Boo Radley. He has many mysteries about himself that are constantly told by Maycomb’s adults. Atticus Finch, Scout and Jem’s daughter, has to defend a black man
Stereotypes are created in today’s society for people who are deemed as different, not dominant, or unprivileged. Those who do not fall into a stereotype are often seen as privileged. One of the largest, and longest lived stereotype is race, specifically those who are African American. It is seen as a privilege to be viewed and treated as a white person, while those who fall into any other race are viewed and treated as being different. Recently, I have become very aware of difficulties facing the minorities. Before I witnessed an incident, I had been blind to the fact that there are privileges and so many stereotypes in today’s society. This blindness that I was experiencing, however, “is an aspect of privilege itself, … ‘the luxury of obliviousness’”
The characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are all different in their own way. Sometimes they can seem like the most infuriating people in the world, but then again they can be helpful, loving, and caring. The citizens of Maycomb County are stereotyped a lot throughout the book. They are labeled as many different things, but some of the stereotypes made aren’t entirely correct. A lot of people in To Kill a Mockingbird stereotype others by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. Two of the main characters in the book are stereotyped; Scout and Atticus Finch.
Adichie talks about her writing at a young age and writes, “All my characters were white and blue eyed. They played in the snow. They ate apples. And they talked about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out.” (1). Throughout the British books she reads as a child, her mind assumes that all white people do the same things. Therefore, she stereotypes them because of that. These books foster her brain to think all white people play in the snow but in reality this is not true. Gay on the other hand claims, “I remember one redheaded, freckle-faced kid on the football team yelling across the locker room to one of the few black players, ‘The only thing I respect about you is your dick”(20). This is clearly an act of racism, but stereotypical as well, and it happens in front of Gay at a very young age. The white football player assumes the other has a large penis simply because he is black; stereotypes that are associated with black men. Both recollections of childhood experiences illustrate the stereotypes that become manifested into a child’s perspective in their early