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Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Decent Essays

Stereotypes destroy communities
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.

Stereotyping people is wrong and it stops them from growing. People should not be discriminated against by other people unless they have valid information to back up their claims and the reason they are discriminating against the people

People in Maycomb are stereotyped and discriminated against based on their race. When Jem, Scout and Dill are in Nathan Radley’s backyard, they see a shadow, the shadow scares them so they run out of the backyard which drew Nathan Radley’s attention. Nathan Radley shoots his shotgun in the air. The sound of the shotgun attracts Nathan’s neighbours, they all gather up in front of his house to find out what is going on then Miss Maudie says “Mr.Radley shot at a negro in his collard patch”(72). Miss Maudie was not even there when the shot was fired, neither does she have any other information about the situation nor does she see anyone run away yet she thinks the person who Nathan Radley shot at is black and no one even questions her statement about Nathan shooting a black person, everyone believes her. This shows that

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