To Kill A Mockingbird Stereotypes Essay

For many years, African Americans have faced the challenge of being accurately and positively portrayed within mainstream media, such as American made films. They are often represented as people who are inferior to those of the Caucasian race, and are frequently presented with problems that are related to racial discrimination. The portrayal of African Americans in media such as movies has often been considered a large contributing factor to the racial tensions that still exist in our world today (Lemons, 1977). The movie, To Kill a Mockingbird, sheds light on the portrayal of African Americans in movies, and how stereotypes can greatly impact the lives of those who are not of the Caucasian race.

”Representation” is the way symbols are used to communicate within society to express ideas, which have certain meanings (Luther, 2012). African Americans in particular have been represented negatively throughout the course of history in a variety of different media fashions. Stereotypes of African Americans are frequently conveyed in music, news coverages, magazines, and even films (Lemons,

In this movie, four main lessons are taught to the audience about stereotypes and the problems that exists between races. The first lesson that is taught to the audience is learning how to put yourself in someone else’s shoes. The main character, Scout, learns this lesson during experiences she has throughout the entire movie. She especially learns this at the end when she realizes her neighbor, Boo Radley, who she was frightened of for so long, was actually a completely different person then what she originally thought. She feared Boo Radley because of the way the people in her community stereotyped him to be, and this shows how when African Americans are stereotyped to be violent, this causes people to fear them and assume that they are violent people as