Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Society has progressed throughout the 21st century with prejudice still being a major issue. Despite all measures taken to avoid it, people constantly find reasons to hate. Prejudice comes in different forms, prejudice against gender, race, skin colour or class. Prejudice impacts society greatly because of the emotion it invokes as seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a Maycomb family that grows up during racist times and must overcome difficulties together in their prejudiced world. In To Kill a Mockingbird, three types of prejudice are displayed that affect the character’s actions and emotions, sexism, racism and social inequality.

Prejudice: noun. “Preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience” (Dictionary). Prejudice is one of the most relevant things in the lives of two children, Jem and Scout, in a small town, Maycomb, Alabama. It’s the 1930s, the Great Depression has already hit, and racism has already impacted this small, innocent town. Jem and Scout learn what their town is hiding by finding out who their neighbors really are. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, prejudice is like a second language to the people of Maycomb. It is shown by gender, race, and social status.

Prejudice should not exist in this world. But unfortunately, it does and it always will somehow. The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is an inspiring book and brings out hard truths about how the world used to be, about the great depression, and in some aspects how it still is today. It follows a girl named Scout and her family through three years of her childhood. Her father, Atticus Finch, took on a very big challenge to defend a negro for raping a girl. The book sort of revolves around this event. Prejudice is in many different forms of discrimination. Throughout the book it is demonstrated by race, class, and gender.

Tom Robinson’s role in this book shows a lot of prejudice. He is a black man convicted of raping a white women. This book is set in the 1930s, during this time period the Jim Crow Laws were still in place and racism was big. ‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’ Mr. Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling” (Lee, pg 197). Tom Robinson is talking about how he felt sorry for Miss Mayella, who is white. Mr Gilmer gets very upset stating that a nigger should not feel sorry for a white woman. "There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads -- they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white man always wins. They're ugly, but those are the fact of life.” (Lee, pg.220) Atticus is talking to the kids about how Tom Robinson will get the death sentence because of the color of his skin and how the jury looks at him. He talks about there is no court in Alabama that would’ve gave him something less. Basically it was Tom against a town full of white folks. Tom is a big symbol of prejudice in the book.

What really is prejudice? Prejudice is an opinion based only upon personal bias, and not any actual facts or evidence. Within the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are a variety of situations where prejudice is taken into effect over facts and evidence. When Lee does this, he is not only just giving the characters some detail, but he is also showing what prejudice really means and how it can affect people. A few examples could be when scout is basing her opinion on no facts, Lila at the church getting her opinion from just the kids being white, Boo Radley being judged without facts by everyone, and Tom Robinson being black meaning is already guilty.

Prejudice is defined as: “An unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” Harper Lee explores this theme throughout To Kill A Mockingbird with various characters demonstrating or being affected by it, especially because it is set in the turbulent time of 1930s southern USA. In particular, the theme is prominent in the characters Arthur (Boo) Radley, Atticus Finch, and Tom Robinson. I will begin with Arthur (Boo) Radley.

Prejudice is seen throughout the world in many forms even after the Civil Rights Movement. To Kill a Mockingbird shows the extreme prejudice that African Americans were faced with at that time period. This book shows prejudice through character interactions.

Life is like a thrill ride; one never knows what will be in store for them. Many characters in the story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee feel the same way about life, having experienced many surprising and unexpected turns of events. This story is about a sleepy southern town filled with prejudice, and a lawyer’s quest, along with his children Scout and Jem, to take steps in ridding the town of its prejudiced mindset. Atticus, the lawyer, defends an innocent black man, Tom Robinson, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, despite being a white man. However, everything does not go as planned, and the prejudiced mindset of the society overpowered Atticus’s fair-minded argument. A prejudiced society results in blindness,

To Kill a Mockingbird taught viewers a lot of lessons about racial prejudice, prejudice, and bravery, and that caused the critics to praise the film. An example of racial prejudice in the film is when Atticus is sitting outside the jail protecting Tom Robinson because there was a concern of a lynch mob coming for Tom. Everyone in the mob believes Tom is guilty because of the color of his skin. Then, Scout, Jem, and Dill run up to defend Atticus from the mob. Scout spots Mr. Cunningham among the group, and asks him how his entailments are coming along. Scout also says she goes to school with his son. When Scout tells Mr. Cunningham that entailments are bad, the group and Mr. Cunningham look ashamed. Then, Mr. Cunningham tells the group to clear out. The group of people that came to lynch

“To better understand a person you have to climb up inside their skin and walk around in it.” The quote previously stated by Atticus in the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an unveiling of the upcoming forms of prejudice. The setting for the novel is a fictitious town called Maycomb. This town is situated in Alabama. The racial prejudice shown in the novel has a lot to do with the town being situated in the southern United States. The backwardness and narrow-mindedness of the community fueled racism in Maycomb. These negative qualities account for the social and religious prejudices in the novel. Maycomb people have very inward looking views and so these views are passed on

Firstly, Tom Robinson is just one character that is prejudged in the novel. He is accused of raping a white girl named Mayella and it is a problem to the jury that a black man is trying to defend himself in court. Atticus realizes how Tom is being treated unfairly and that it is uncommon for African Americans and white people to associate with each other. During Atticus’s speech, Mayella is accused of lying in her testimony when “she kissed a black man [which is] something that in our society is unspeakable” (Lee 272). The black man who Atticus refers to is Tom. He is ridiculed and judged by several people in the book and he gets all this

The town of Maycomb was the standard for treatment of Negros in the 1930s. An example of discrimination Negros faced in To Kill a Mockingbird, was when Mr. Radley made the assumption a black person was sneaking around in this yard. Miss Stephanie said that, “Shot in the air. Scared him pale, though. Says if anybody sees a white nigger around, that’s the one” (Lee, P.54). This shows how Mr. Radley assumed only a Negro would sneak into his yard. Maycomb also shows prejudice towards Atticus when he defends Tom Robbinson. Even Atticus’s family displays prejudice towards Atticus, “I guess it ain’t your fault if uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the family” (Lee, P.83). This is Francis regurgitating what his family has told him. Prejudice goes beyond Maycomb’s habits and extends right into the court of law with tom’s trial. Tom was wrongly accused as a result of a prejudice jury. Even a knowledgeable man, Atticus, knows that Tom would not be proven innocent

A recluse, many rumours, such as, he is dead, mentally insane, been locked up in a house for at least three decades, and only comes out in the cloak of night. A man, wanted dead for sexual abuse of a white woman and being colored. A group of women given no responsibilities, almost no power, and seen as fragile. These prejudices change a community, which looks congenial from the surface, but the inside demonstrates how prejudices can divide a community. This is what happens over the course of a few years in the community of Maycomb, and the events that unfold are recounted by an adult, named Scout, through her eyes when she was younger, in, Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird.

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay 3 November 2014 Question 1: Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced, says Mrs Gates in Chapter 26. In a well-reasoned essay, discuss how prejudice is considered to be one of the main themes of the novel. ____________________________________________________________________________ In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are a number of themes that role out throughout the novel but prejudice is one that continuously seems to appear in most of the chapters.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, it displays many lessons and challenges for colored people and the way they are allowed to live. A colored person receives different privileges and lifestyle then a white person. When something different happens many have a preconceived opinion that isn't based on any reason or experience, resulting in a prejudice. To Kill A Mockingbird shows many different prejudices in Maycomb country and how a community as a whole becomes a prejudice in many ways by how they treat people, racism, and respect for one another. A white woman and a white man are treated with great kindness; a black woman and black man are often not treated with the same kindness.