The inequalities of race, social class, and age is a major theme demonstrated in the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee as well as in modern day society. The segregation of African Americans is a obvious problem in the text. The African Americans were always in different places than the whites and this is still happening in places like schools today. Social class has become a big problem in modern day society and in the text. Each person or family is put into a social class and that behavior is relevant in modern society. Peoples age has always affected one’s rights or the way they are treated. The African Americans lived in a different area than the whites and the lower social class lives near them. This is the case in modern society, the lower class and some African Americans live in a different location either because they can’t afford it or any other reasons that may cause them to live in a different location. …show more content…
Although this book is set in the early 1930’s, racial segregation is still a serious topic in modern society. “The colored balcony ran along three walls” of the courtroom where the Africans were to sit (Lee, 219). The balcony was up above the whites because the whites didn’t want to sit near them. The African Americans were not to sit in the lower part of the courtroom because they are being segregated. In modern society, many African Americans go to school with “poverty, limited resources, social strife and health problems” (“Segregation Today,” 2003). The students that go to lower rated schools tend to not do very good in school because the schools are not prepared for higher education. A higher education level would benefit students, but segregation causes many African Americans to not get the education they deserve. People are being separated based on the color of their skin and this causes many conflicts between
One fall day in 1930, Emma Akin drove her freshly washed car down a dusty road known as Texas Street. Although Mrs. Akin had lived in the town of Drumright for ten years, this was the first time she had ever gone into this part of the town. You see, Mrs. Akin was a white woman and this section of the community consisted only of African-Americans. Mrs. Akin was not certain what she would find, as she had never even spoken to a black person. You see, during this time in history many white persons did not want anything to do with the African-Americans. They believed that white and black persons should not be friends or even live in the same area.
The desired integration between minority and majority groups in schools has not been fulfilled. All white schools are no longer allowed to occur since the Brown decision (Hannah, 2014). Therefore, based on racial means, the schools system would be perceived as more balanced. However, apartheid schools, or schools with virtually all non-white groups, have become prominent (Segregation Today, n.d.). Institutions filled with minority races are legal and lead to inequalities between the minority and majority groups in the country. Factors, like poverty, are greatly centered in these schools which detrimentally affect the attendees’ future, as based on findings by a Southern Poverty Law Center (Segregation Today, n.d.). This center specializes in legal advocacy of civil rights and public interest litigations,and therefore, has an immense amount of knowledge on the interbalance between races. Clearly, the Brown v. Board ruling forced integration into white schools but not the same manner for black schools. This, in turn, concentrates poverty into the non-white schools .
“Segregation of white and colored children in public schools has a detrimental effect upon the colored children. The impact is greater when it has the sanction of the law, for the policy of separating the races is usually interpreted as denoting the inferiority of the negro group. A sense of inferiority affects the motivation of a child to learn. Segregation with the sanction of law, therefore, has a tendency to [retard] the educational and mental development of negro children and to deprive them of some of the benefits they would receive in a racial[ly] integrated school system.” Through this quote, the Warren Court thoroughly established why separate is not and has never been truly equal in regards to public education since segregation consequently lays down a system that has a damaging effect on the psyche of young African-American students leading them to deem themselves as inferior to Caucasians. Moreover, it causes African-American students to internalize their feelings of inferiority which causes them to have a lack of motivation in their education, slow their learning and mental growth, and miss out on achieving their full educational potential. Furthermore, one can assume that segregation could cause African-American students to mistakenly consider themselves as less academically and
Social Inequalities In the novel to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee shows a theme of social inequalities throughout the book. Social Inequalities is one of many things that is still present till this day in age. Proves to you that your inequality and relevance can be determined by anything from the people around you daily. To Kill a Mockingbird, the town of Maycomb is an excellent example of the discriminatory practices in place during the 1930s.
For my Argumentative Essay “Modern Day Re-Segregation in Today’s Schools”, I will be addressing Professor Kelly Bradford and my fellow students of Ivy Tech online English Composition 111-54H. As I chose Martin Luther King’s “Letter from A Birmingham Jail” as my core reading topic, I have gained an interest in not only the fight for civil rights that Mr. King lead in the 1950’s but have gotten interested in how there is still a large gap in equality in education due to the current situation of not only educational segregation but social and economic segregation. Through my research I have discovered that not only segregation in the schools is on the rise, but that socioeconomic segregation exists and is fueling the decrease in academic success by impoverished students. Through my writing I want to demonstrate that the socioeconomic isolation and segregation not only affects those that are directly bound by it, but that it affects every American in some form or other. I am submitting my writing as a formal academic manuscript.
People have always treated others differently for little differences between each other. People judge others because of these differences and have different standards for different people. This is called social inequality. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee was trying to show that people should not treat people differently because of their differences.
This chapter elaborates on how racism has a negative impact on African American education, in which has been happening for many decades and is currently taking place. Furthermore, it speaks about segregation and how it currently exists in different ways. Additionally, it speaks on how segregation not only exist in one school, but it likewise exists across the school districts. It speaks on how segregation in these schools has a negative impact on students’ academic success and future success.
To KIll a Mockingbird Theme Analysis Essay To Kill a Mockingbird is a very fast moving book which is told from a first person point of view and follows scout from the age six to age nine. It takes place place in the 1930’s, she will be the protagonist in this book you will see a lot social inequities in maycomb where this books takes place. To begin with social inequities in To Kill a Mockingbird are shown through the Cunninghams social status. This is shown furthermore, by Walter Cunningham by which scout says “miss Caroline he is a Cunningham”(Lee26).
Almost six decades have gone past since the struggles of Brown vs Board of Education. The segregation of that era still persist in today’s black American community but through a different form. The new Jim Crow is not law decreed but through institutional racism. Black students attend school where around 90 percent of students are nonwhite or minorities. Public schools around black
In Harper Lee’s bildungsroman or “coming-of-age” novel To Kill a Mockingbird, based on Lee’s experiences as a child growing up in Alabama in the 1930’s, the theme of social inequality is woven throughout the novel as seen through the eyes of the narrator, Scout Finch. Scout is evidently a representation of Lee, who was similarly the child of an attorney in rural Alabama. In the early twentieth century, the separation between the races and classes was accepted as the societal norm. Although he is a character who is not even introduced until the second half of the novel, Bob Ewell plays a role in reinforcing the idea, to paraphrase George Orwell, that “all men are created equal, but some are more equal than others.” Due to his race, class, and lineage, Harper Lee displays that Bob Ewell’s low place in society was determined at birth, and would continue to be passed down to his children and future generations, without any chance to improve their lot in life or how the rest of society saw them.
African Americans were now out of their jobs “black unemployment rates in the South were double or even triple that of the white population. In Atlanta, nearly 70 percent of black workers were jobless in 1934”(Klein), because their white counterparts were taking over. Not only did African Americans now have to worry about their white counterparts taking over their jobs, they also had to worry about them taking over their homes from them, “The Civilian Conservation Corps established racially segregated camps, while the Federal Housing Administration refused to insure mortgages in African American neighborhoods”(Klein). Following this African Americans were now having to worry about their safety “Lynchings, which had declined to eight in 1932, surged to 28 in 1933”(Race Relations in the 1930s and 1940s). Racism started to consume the African American community quickly and their day-to-day lives became even harder to go
Outside the town limits, across the old sawmill tracks, lies a building with old paint crumbling off the sides and a cemetery lying right beside it. The brick-hard clay covered the land underneath both the churchyard and the cemetery. There lied crumbling tombstones and some new ones as well. Each one having an assortment of shattered coca-cola bottles, colorful glass, and dozens upon dozens of burnt out candles surrounding them. This was a happy place. The sweet aroma of Negro blossomed in the air, curating a scent of peppermint, snuff, and sweet lilac. It felt welcoming and homely. During the mid-1920s, in the darling town of Maycomb, Alabama, not all people had such a humbleness to them. Many people were not treated with the same respect and kindness as others, as shown in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, shows concerns about social class and how it affects everyone around them. Being different during the mid-1930s was excruciating, even though they were factors that can’t be controlled, and Lee wanted to make a point about that.
In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and
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.
In the Bildungsroman novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the protagonist Jean Louise “Scout” Finch lives in Maycomb, Alabama. In Maycomb, races are segregated and people are alienated; Arthur “Boo” Radley was isolated by most of Maycomb, for example. In the novel, Scout met people in different social classes such as: Robert E. Lee “Bob” Ewell, Tom Robinson, Calpurnia, and Atticus Finch. Through the use of complications, imageries, and characters, Lee implies stereotypes and how a person’s development can be impacted by social classes.