The 1960’s was a period of new mindsets. The Civil Right’s movement was occurring; people all over the country were beginning to see African Americans as humans instead of property. They were beginning to immerse into the general population. Segregation was finally coming to an end. However, some people were still unwilling to believe that African Americans should be tolerated as equally as Caucasians. Judgment of African Americans was still very prominent despite the steps that our nation was taking to merge them into our society. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird was written around the same time period that the Civil Right’s movement was enacted and in it, the author, Harper Lee, continuously implies that prejudging someone based on their race
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The author includes this theme to attempt to educate her readers that forming ideas about people, especially during a time of negative thinking towards a specific group of people, is not morally correct and people should make more of an effort to get to know someone before judgment. In a novel that attempts to lead people away from prejudgment of African American citizens, there are many cases in which African Americans are spoken negatively about without a reason. One of the main events that takes place in To Kill a Mockingbird is the trial between Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, and Bob Ewell. Mr. Ewell claimed to have seen Tom Robinson raping Mayella, Bob’s daughter, and decided to take the case to court. Before the trial, Tom was in a jail cell in the middle of the town when a lynch mob approached. They were there because they wanted him dead for his crime. Somehow, Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, knew that he needed to station himself outside the cell for Tom’s protection and if he hadn’t been there, Tom would have been lynched by the mob. When the mob met Atticus at the Tom’s cell a …show more content…
Harper Lee’s use of prejudgment in To Kill a Mockingbird could help the audience understand that someone shouldn’t be treated poorly because of an opinion the mind made based on his or her appearance or behavior. Before judgement, understand the background and history of a person. Harper Lee wanted to make it aware to the public, that people turn out to be different than what is expected. Most turn out to be very good people, and from the wise words of Atticus Finch, “‘Most people are… when you finally see them’” (Lee,
The author includes this theme to attempt to educate her readers that forming ideas about people, especially during a time of negative thinking towards a specific group of people, is not morally correct and people should make more of an effort to get to know someone before judgment. In a novel that attempts to lead people away from prejudgment of African American citizens, there are many cases in which African Americans are spoken negatively about without a reason. One of the main events that takes place in To Kill a Mockingbird is the trial between Tom Robinson, Mayella Ewell, and Bob Ewell. Mr. Ewell claimed to have seen Tom Robinson raping Mayella, Bob’s daughter, and decided to take the case to court. Before the trial, Tom was in a jail cell in the middle of the town when a lynch mob approached. They were there because they wanted him dead for his crime. Somehow, Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, knew that he needed to station himself outside the cell for Tom’s protection and if he hadn’t been there, Tom would have been lynched by the mob. When the mob met Atticus at the Tom’s cell a …show more content…
Harper Lee’s use of prejudgment in To Kill a Mockingbird could help the audience understand that someone shouldn’t be treated poorly because of an opinion the mind made based on his or her appearance or behavior. Before judgement, understand the background and history of a person. Harper Lee wanted to make it aware to the public, that people turn out to be different than what is expected. Most turn out to be very good people, and from the wise words of Atticus Finch, “‘Most people are… when you finally see them’” (Lee,