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Examples Of Oppression In To Kill A Mockingbird

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When was the last time you realized that someone you knew, or someone you have heard of, was going through prejudice or oppression? Now more than ever, people are being oppressed for multiple reasons: including racism, standard of living, social ties, even job positions. 51% of people in America alone express explicit anti-black racism. Oppression and prejudice is just as alive today as it was 50 years ago, it's just more subdued today. Similar to the Mockingbirds in history, the Mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird were prejudiced because they had different ideas than everyone else. With that said, Mockingbirds, in literature and in history, have experienced prejudice that should never have to be experienced in their figurative and literal …show more content…

“One of the greatest of these was an Athenian named Socrates, whose... questioning of the generally accepted notions of justice and virtue...”(36 Atkinson) made him a renowned philosopher in Athens. Perhaps one of the greatest minds of his lifetime, Socrates preferred to tell people that he wasn't smart because he knew many things, but rather he was smart because he knew that he knew nothing. While this caused him some fame with the general populace, it also caused him to get in trouble with the law enforcement and he was charged with “corrupting the youth” and was put to death. When the government found out about Socrates and the information he was spreading to the general populace of Athens, he was sent to prison where “[He] chose to drink poison rather than renounce his views... [causing society] to doubt the virtues of the democratic political system of Athens.”(37) Socrates, a renowned philosopher, was also a law abiding citizen and he knew that while if he did change his views it would allow him to live, it would make him just as horrible as the politicians that ran Athens. Inspired by the death of his mentor, Plato wrote about how Socrates still obeyed the laws of Athens—even in his final moments—in his book Crito. When Socrates was imprisoned due to the accusation of corrupting the youth, “[He] refused the chance to escape execution, arguing that as a citizen of Athens he has a duty to obey its laws.”(186) Knowing that it would kill him, Socrates still chose to obey the laws of Athens rather than changing his views on the government of Athens. He wanted to make an example of the government, showing that if your views differed even slightly from the norm, you would be killed. Throughout time, there have been many historical figures that would be considered prime examples of mockingbirds; this one is the

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