The characters of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are all different in their own way. Sometimes they can seem like the most infuriating people in the world, but then again they can be helpful, loving, and caring. The citizens of Maycomb County are stereotyped a lot throughout the book. They are labeled as many different things, but some of the stereotypes made aren’t entirely correct. A lot of people in To Kill a Mockingbird stereotype others by the way they look or talk based on what society considers normal. Two of the main characters in the book are stereotyped; Scout and Atticus Finch.
Scout Finch, the main character of the book, is a nine-year-old girl who is the narrator of the story. Scout’s Aunt Alexandra stereotypes Scout in
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Because of what people have heard about Scout, they stereotype that she isn’t ladylike because she acts like a boy and wears overalls. Mrs. Dubose, the Finch’s neighbor, says, “’…what are you doing in those overalls? You should be in a dress and camisole, young lady! You’ll grow up waiting on tables if somebody doesn’t change your ways- a Finch waiting on tables at the O.K. Café-hah!’”(Lee 135). In this case, Scout is considered a stereotype, but she changes her ways. Scout is confronted with her own stereotypes in the novel but as she grows and learns, she begins to regret her actions. Scout changes her ways throughout the book in order to get rid of the label people put on her. Even though she is still a tomboy at heart, Scout learns how to control her actions and act more like a lady.
Atticus Finch, Scout’s father, is also a victim of stereotyping. Atticus decides to help a black man (Tom Robinson) in court. Because of this decision, the people of Maycomb have a set opinion of Atticus Finch. They say that because he is working for “niggers”, he must be like them. They also say that because he chose to help Tom Robinson, that he doesn’t like white people, and more specifically, Mr. Bob Ewell. One day while strolling back from town, Scout and Jem see Mrs. Dubose. In response to saying hello, Mrs. Dubose says, “’Yes indeed, what has the world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you!’ She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it
Scout Finch changes and grows significantly over the course of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. In the beginning of the novel, Scout is a young girl who hadn't thought much of the prejudice in the world and was quick to judge others. Throughout the novel she becomes more aware of the prejudice in her own community, more sympathetic and understanding of others, and learns to stick to her morals. These changes were largely influenced by her father's example, the trial he was a part of, and her experiences in school.
Stereotyping, a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing, plays a big role in “To kill a Mockingbird”, and it’s also a big role in the thirties when everyone was different. In the story there are three different groups of people, the wealthy, the poor, and the black. Each of these group with some exceptions like the Finch family, looks at each other with offset opinions. The stereotyping in this story makes it come true and really plays a big part in character development.
there to spread the word of their god, but are being mocked while they do.
Stereotyping is a preconceived opinion or idea that asserts a particular individual/group is a perpetrator and leads to biased and prejudicial actions within institutional structures. The trial of Tom Robinson further extends the idea that stereotypical views influence a person’s actions and choices within a courthouse. In chapter 23, Scout, Jem and Aunt Alexandra express concern about Bob Ewell threatening to kill Atticus. This leads to Atticus and Jem discussing the harsh reality of the court's discriminatory views of a black person. Atticus vocalises his thoughts.
Stereotyping was used a lot in to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee . It was shown a lot against Tom Robinson in the court case. Also, with Dolphus Raymond Supposedly being a drunk. Lastly it was used against Boo being a terrible person and creepy. Those are just some of the ways the book to kill a mockingbird shows the impact stereotyping has on people, and how it can affect their life.
Scout Finch is the narrator of the book; she is very mature in her opinions and actions. She is a tomboy, which leads her to be very competitive and to get in fights with her male classmates. However, Scout is a very good kid; she always has the best intentions for her actions. Scout's primary role model is her father, Atticus who's main concerns while raising her was for her to become an intelligent, conscientious, individual while also being innocent to the social pressures of her town as a child.
Scout also faces prejudice among the people she knows very well, but Jem, her brother also has to face prejudices from the community as well, some of these people being their neighbors. ”But Mrs. Dubose held us: “Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers!” Jem stiffened. Mrs. Dubose’s shot had gone home and she knew it: “Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you!” She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for”(lee 135). Mrs. Dubose, being the neighbor of Scout and Jem harasses them
“You, miss Scout Finch, are of common folk. So you must obey common folk laws.” (Lee, 40) This interaction shows you how a social class separation is held against certain people in the town. The Ewells and the people of maycomb, but why did Atticus use such punitive choice of words? Thus, it's a reasonable solution to weed out ignorance of an unconscious stereotype because it begins with how our parents raise us to see others and our self. No matter how pure Atticus proponent proposal was or intended to be. It still shows even the good at heart people still have that pesky unconscious bias as well. And the only way to weed this out is to educate our children to understand what stereotyping is and how to be conscious that we as individuals are attributing to the judgement of those different from
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.
The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in a small town called Maycomb in the 1930s. In this novel the people of Maycomb discriminate against people that they have no background information about or people that are different in some way. An innocent black man is convicted of a crime he never commits, a man is stereotyped to be dangerous and scary and there are gender stereotypes.
Racial stereotypes are things where a person talks about how the other person’s race is. It describes all the “nasty” things in another person’s race. It’s basically gossiping about someone else’s race and ethnicity. Back then, in that time period, there were high amounts of racism and stereotypes, so in that case, a lot of African American people were most likely convicted for doing something they didn’t do. Even though the court is supposed to equally convict or release people who have commited a crime whether it’s Black or White people.
Discrimination, it has been part of human nature for a long time, especially relevant subject in literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the main character of Scout Finch was exposed to different types of discrimination as she grows up. Discrimination affected the lives of characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking Bird because of society’s prejudicial views of race, gender, and class.
For example, during the christmas party at Finch's Landing, Scout recollects on Aunt Alexandra’s character. She particularly remember her Aunt’s disapproval of her clothing, which were overalls. In Alexandra’s mind they were downright unfeminine, so she urges Scout to wear a dress. This tells the readers that Scout believes that one’s actions and characteristics should not be based off a stereotyped image of being male or female. Also, her resistance to an elder symbolizes a reality for change.
“Nigger”, “Colored-folks”, “Dinge”, racial slurs used in the South in the 1900s-1960s. The disgusting souls who discriminated, judged, hated, and segregated blacks. “White men rule”. Women, their voices, barely able to say as much as a sentence. The blacks, their voices, unable to say as much as even a word, and the children, innocent and curious, saw nothing and said nothing. Harper Lee represented the horrendous acts and judgments of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Alabama, 1930s, a small town with a big story. Tom Robinson, discriminated and unequal, was seen as “just another nigger” in Maycomb. “Nigger”, “Chocolate”, “Colored”, racial slurs that began long ago, and are still used to this day. The White
To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is a Pulitzer Prize winning novel, that offers a view of life through a young girl’s eyes. The novel is focused on two main themes which are racism and discrimination.