Racism, Sexism and Socioeconomic Prejudice in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mocking Bird is a book that has been turned into a movie. The themes that are covered in this interesting book and movie ranges from racism, prejudice to social injustice which goes to show how human beings can be very cruel to fellow human beings simply because they are different from themselves. Tom Robinson’s trial further shows that in a society where the white race is seen to be superior, no other race mattered. This paper therefore is an analysis of the themes that emerge from the court proceedings of the Tom Robinson trial. It goes on to analyze how the content shapes the language used and how social identities, functions and relations are performed through language choices.

To Kill a Mockingbird, written in 1960 by Harper Lee, is a classical tale of how racism and prejudice affected the lives of African-Americans in a small Alabama community in the early 1900s. Racism affects multiple events throughout the book. If racism could have been overcome, many people in Maycomb could have had a different life. During the book, racism played an important role in three major events. These events included Helen Robinson not being able to get a job, Tom Robinson’s conviction, and Miss Merriweather explaining her feelings toward black people.

The prejudice seen in the fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee corresponds with the real narrow-mindedness during this time period. A fair trial would be unlikely during this time period between a white and a black man. Tom Robinson was presumed guilty because of his race.

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Is Stereotyping and racism truly wrong? In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee six year old Scout Finch, and her older brother Jem, live with their father in cozy Maycomb, Alabama. They love to spend time with their close friend Dill, and also spy on their mysterious and reclusive neighbor, Boo Radley. Later Atticus, there widowed father, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges from the Ewell family, exposing the children to the evil of stereotyping and racism in the South. Throughout the trial Atticus taught his children to respect others, no matter what action they were accused of committing. Atticus lived by the theme respect others, protect the innocent, and always take a moral stance.

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 attitude. Despite being a white man, a lawyer named Atticus, defends an innocent black man accused of raping a white woman. However, everything does not go as was hoped, and the mindset of the society overpowered Atticus’s fair-minded argument. From this emerges a theme regarding the bigotry and bias overwhelming Maycomb: A

Racism was very “popular” as you should say back in the 1930’s . Whites had all the power while blacks and other minorities were suppose to fear them. In Maycomb , Alabama racism was around and had effects on citizens. Segregating whites from blacks is a horrid thing. It’s inhuman to say you're better than someone else because of their skin color. We as humans are equal some may be more wealthy than others but when it all comes down to it we will all go in the same box in the same ground. Racism was and still is a horrible thing and it affected a lot people.

“I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that?” (Sojourner Truth) Truer words were never spoken in 1851 and in 2016 as well. Gender should not affect the way others view women, but in a city like Chicago, where 87% of women between the ages of 16-64 have personally experienced sexual harassment by a male stranger, sexism is still clearly an issue today. Our research and classic readings in our HWOC class suggest that women are often perceived as being lesser and are treated differently than men in the arts, in sports, at the office, and on the streets. This cultural mindset needs to change if sexism is to remain only on the pages of classic literature and be erased from local communities and modern society.

According to the United Nations Foundation, 62 million girls around the world are refused education. Mentorship programs, such as Step Up, helps to maintain girls in school to get them closer to achieve their dreams. The novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, focuses on the lives of Jem and Scout, as Scout retells three important years of her childhood where she learns a lifetime’s worth of valuable lessons. To Kill A Mockingbird is about growing up in Alabama during the 1930s, after the Great Depression. During this era, there happened to be rampant discrimination, as such, there was also the same level of discrimination in the small fictional location of Maycomb County. Through the eyes of Scout, readers see how

Harper Lee uses racism, hypercriticism, prejudice, and many different scenarios to show confliction in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Lee uses confliction to provide knowledge to the reader, showing that as the novel progresses and more conflictions arise, not all men are created equal. There are multiple conflicts throughout Harper Lee’s novel that influenced the plot of To Kill A Mockingbird, one of which was the trial between Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell over the rape of his daughter, Mayella Ewell.

Inequality is a theme that runs throughout all of history. Harper Lee uses the theme of inequality in her book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Tom Robinson must deal with inequality when he is accused of a crime he didn’t commit because no one will trust a black man over a white man. The Cunningham family must face discrimination because of their lack of money. Scout even faces inequality when she tries to play with Jem and Dill. The theme of inequality is a strong one in Lee’s book, and her use of inequality doesn’t only define racism, but also discrimination based on wealth and gender.

Throughout the book To Kill A Mockingbird Lee discusses the effects of ignorance and the toll it takes on people such as Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout herself, and many more. Through her examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the populist of poverty stricken Southerners, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of ignorance are the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story. A good example of this injustice is the trial of Tom Robinson, who is falsely accused of raping a white girl and is found guilty. The book is from the point of view Scout, a child, who has an advantage over most kids due to her having a lawyer as a dad, to see the other side of the story. Her father tells her in the story, “you never really know a man until

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.

Racism was a very large part of society in the south during the 1930’s. Many colored people were thought of as less than their peers. Whites were considered better than African Americans were, and almost every white person accepted the unjust judgment. Racial discrimination hit hard in the south. Many of the characters in To Kill a Mockingbird were impacted by racial discrimination, including Calpurnia, Scout, and Tom Robinson and his family.

For centuries, the people of America have faced and fought prejudice and inequality of various forms. We are constantly bombarded by the media and news with examples of discrimination. Either highlighting an incident or inaccurately portraying the “perfect’ size in advertising. Many have fought tirelessly to achieve equality and rid of prejudice towards those seen as "different". I find it sickening to see others shamed and hated for things such as the color of their skin or not being like the majority of others. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, you can find examples of prejudice and hate in many instances.