Prejudice in Maycomb in the 1930's in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The prominent theme of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is the portrait
of prejudice, in a small southern American town called Maycomb in the
1930’s.
Maycomb is believed to be a replica, of the town Monroeville where the
author Harper Lee grew up. Her knowledge of the society in Monroeville
(Maycomb) enables her to hit the reader with more impact; she can
portray her views on prejudice and discrimination with stronger force
and focus. She gives a realistic representation of people’s attitudes
in the Deep South in the 1930’s.
Slavery had been abolished in America after the civil war of 1861-5
this gave black people equal rights. But their freedom made life
harder for black people initially, white people (especially in the
south), found it hard to accept them as an equal in their society, so
they remained segregated.
This is shown in the novel, the black community has its own part of
the town, on the outskirts, near the town dump. Also they have their
own church, First Purchase African M.E. Church paid for from the first
earnings from freed slaves. ‘Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and
white men gambled in it on weekdays’, this shows blatant disrespect
for the black community. This segregation is also evident in the
courthouse, white people sit in the courtroom, where as the coloured
people had to sit in the coloured balcony, they were only allowed to
enter the courtroom, when every white person had gone in and taken
their seats.
Being in the midst of the economic depression of 1929, poverty swept
the country, the white community saw black peop...
... middle of paper ...
...d of their traditions, but they don’t leave any room for
people to better themselves, once you are categorised that’s how you
are looked on. People know their place and their family history
dictates what they do. If your black your not to be trusted, if you’re
a farmer you are considered poor and a lower class of people. If you
live your life differently in any way you are looked on as a lesser
person.
Harper Lee tries to show the reader, we can all learn to combat
prejudice if we follow Atticus’s maxim. That if you attempt to stand
in another’s shoes or skin, you can learn to understand them, which
will lead to tolerance and hopefully no prejudice.
The title To Kill a Mockingbird sends a powerful message that is
echoed throughout the book that ‘it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird’,
which is a symbol of innocence.
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the Early 1930’s. The 1930’s was a decade of racism,pain and struggle. However, this decade soon became the new beginning. To escape the horrendous reality of being unemployed and unable to provide for their families, many turned to entertainment to escape the hardships and realities that they were going through. Many families went to church regularly to ask for forgiveness and to hope that things would change for the better. Many churches seen about a 5 percent increase in the amount of members attending church when the Great Depression had started. Also, the 1930s was a time where there was a lot of tension between the races. Discrimination against blacks was not yet illegal, and therefore
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.
The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are laws that took place in between 1877 to the mid 1960s (Pilgrim). These laws are of segregation between blacks and whites to give blacks fewer rights. Christians and Ministers believed that Whites were the chosen people; Blacks were lesser people and only suppose to be servants, and that God Supported Ra
“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born prejudice; you’re taught it” –Charles R Swindoll. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a young girl named Scout who lives in a world filled with prejudice. There are many instances and types of prejudice in the novel. A man named Tom Robinson was convicted for doing a crime he never did because of the color of his skin. To this day, Tom would have never been tried because the evidence assuredly shows he is not guilty. One only becomes prejudice if you are taught it from other prejudice people. Harper Lee shows this idea throughout her novel through her characters, dialogue and theme.
“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 has numerous accounts of racism and prejudice throughout the entire piece. The novel is set in the 1930's, a time when racism was very prevalent. Although bigotry and segregation were pointed in majority towards blacks, other accounts towards whites were also heard of, though not as commonly. There are acts that are so discreet that you almost don't catch them, but along with those, there are blatant acts of bigotry that would never occur in our time. Lee addresses many of these feelings in her novel.
The story, To Kill a Mockingbird is a very fine novel which exemplifies the life in the south and the human rights and values given to everybody. The book especially took the case of prejudice to a serious extreme. From the title, a mockingbird through the eyes of Harper Lee, is a person who has fallen victim to vicious stereotypes. The title To Kill a Mockingbird explains itself quite clearly in the end of the novel when Tom Robinson, one of the mockingbirds, is killed due to the stereotypes dumped upon him. Often, the use of stereotypes just breaks down the real truth of a person.
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.
Prejudice is a strong word. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a black man, Tom Robinson, was accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, and was brought to trial. There were distinct views concerning Tom Robinson's innocence – views influenced by prejudice. The townspeople of Maycomb believed in Tom's guilt while Atticus and the children believed in Tom's innocence.
In conclusion, Maycomb is a community where discrimination and prejudice are very common. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee introduces the three main prejudices or discrimination. The first one is the discrimination on the gender. Women are supposed to be wearing dresses and cannot be in the jury. Secondly, individuals are discriminated based on their social status. Aunt Alexandra doesn’t allow Walter to come in their home for dinner because he is a Cunningham. Thirdly, individuals are discriminate based on their race. Whites give neither any respect to them nor their worship places.
Every town has problems and the town of Maycomb from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee is no different. Maycomb citizens are put forth with social problems created from racism. As a result of racism, physical abuse was plentiful in the town of Maycomb. The citizens of Maycomb were caught up in a cycle of racial discrimination, proving that racism does not benefit anyone.
Hypocrisy is as much a part of Maycomb’s society as church and community spirit. For example, Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa, but she thinks black people in her community are a disgrace (p.234). The hypocrisy of this teaching is shown as soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’. This is due to the fact that she herself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow at the killing of innocent black men. Furthermore, it is obvious Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter, Mayella, and that he is the one who violated her, not Tom Robinson (p.178). Since there is such hypocrisy in Maycomb, there are excuses made for whites. The jury probably thinks that if they pronounce Tom innocent the citizens will mock them as they do to Atticus. Harper Lee uses hypocrisy to show how the people of Maycomb are so engulfed in a variety of elements that they unknowingly complete acts of unjustified discrimination.
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible” (Angelou). Maya Angelou illustrates the destructive nature of prejudice, and the effects that it may have on society. Her childhood took place primarily in the 1930’s, a time also known as the Depression Era where racism dictated the lives of many African-Americans that Harper Lee details in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Martin Luther King Jr., an advocate of black rights during the depression era, details in his essay “An Experiment in Love” how Christian love, or “agape” had sparked the African-American nonviolence movement. The novel is told through the perspective of a 6-year old girl, Scout and centralizes on two innocent figures, Arthur Radley, a social outcast, and Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape, who are persecuted due to the prejudiced view of the town. As she matures and learns about the town, she begins to develop ideas and pass judgment on individuals that are in the town. Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, takes up the court trial to defend Tom Robinson, who is wrongly accused and sentenced of the rape of a white woman and eventually runs, only to be shot by the prison guards. Despite the open communication present in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, there is deficiency of love, as the author illustrates that societal prejudice is inevitable and leads to discrimination.