Theme Of Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

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.

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.

“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born with it; you’re taught it,” said Charles R Swindoll (Author). Prejudice is incorporated into How to Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and Miss Maudie are some of the ways prejudice is shown.

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.

Mr Radley was ashamed of his son’s behaviour when he got into the wrong crowd as a youngster and punished him by locking him up. There is a lot of gossip around Maycomb about Boo and people blame him for any bad things that happen in the neighbourhood, ‘Any stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.’ Jem turns him into a monster, ‘his hands were blood-stained’, and ‘his eyes popped’. At the end of the novel however, we find that Boo is misunderstood, and gossip of the town’s folk has made him up to be a ‘malevolent phantom’. Scout tells us he is timid, he had, ‘the voice of a child afraid of the dark’.

Stereotyping is a widely used opinion that holds people to false claims that are not fair nor true. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird many people, are stereotyped due to color, looks, or wealth. The novel is used to show how a person can become someone they are not due to what others think of them. Stereotyping is shown in many different types of literature such as the poem We Wear the Masks, the song Walk a mile in my shoes, and in the movie A Time to Kill.

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.

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.

In The Odyssey by Homer, many characters feel prejudiced toward others. Many of these characters have opinions solely based on rumor. Such characters are influenced by many factors,, but all of them lead to improper judgement. In the same context, many characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird also possess such prejudiced thoughts. Through her use of the characters within Maycomb, in her novel To Kill A Mockingbird; Harper Lee shows how injustice and prejudice between African American and white people was impossible to beat at this point in history, however some characters attempt to fight it anyways.

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.

In the world of films and novels, it has been popularized to depict stories of a teenage life. Many times, the stories are exaggerated for the purpose of entertainment, but because of it, they lose their more realistic qualities. Stereotypes become a regularity and normal human traits become ‘quirks’. Rarely are there accurate films portraying the small, but impactful, time of a person’s life, and Lady Bird written and directed by Greta Gerwig is one of them.

First of all, Boo Radley is one of the good characters in this novel, but he is considered an evil character. For example Jem described him as, “Boo was about and half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that why his hands were bloodstained…” (Lee 13). Also, many people in Maycomb knew the story of Boo stabbing his father in the knee with scissors. He

Prejudice is everywhere. In schools, in public, sometimes even at home. Prejudice is to judge and assume conclusions about someone based on their skin color or the fact that they are a woman. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee prejudice is shown in many different forms. The book is prejudice towards women to discrimination against blacks. Although the book took place in the 1960s and discrimination was okay for white people then, to prejudge someone based on their skin color is not the fair thing to do. Prejudice allows hasty and irrational decisions to be made.

As far back as the reader can remember, Boo Radley was depicted as a cold-hearted and insane human being. For instance, when Scout recalls that “Any small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work...he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch”(10). This is a clear example of some of the prejudice Boo would face on a regular basis, prejudice concerning him could always be heard around the town whether it was a warning or a myth. Due to the amount of prejudice Boo faces, he decides it is best to stay isolated from the people in Maycomb. The reader knows this could be the case as Scout thinks “Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all this time . . . because he [wanted] to stay inside”(304). As a consequence of prejudice, Boo’s reputation has been tarnished, he could never be trusted to come back into Maycomb again. Due to all the negative opinions surrounding him, he is no longer looked at as a member of society, but as an outcast who will forever be remembered as