Examples Of Racism And Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Improved Essays
In the 1930s, racism and prejudice was a big issue on how people interacted and treated each other. It’s human nature to judge someone before meeting them. The assumptions that are made about these people can either be wrong or right. People can be deceived as someone who they really aren’t until you get to actually know them. This can relate to how throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scout Finch learn how many people in the world are not as they first appear. This lesson is received through multiple characters, including Mr. Raymond, Dill Harris, and Boo Radley. Mr. Dolphus Raymond is originally shown to be a drunken, wealthy, white man. In chapter 20, after Mr. Raymond confesses that there is only Coke in the bag he drinks from, says “...if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey- that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does.” From this the kids eventually figure out that he uses his ‘alcohol abuse’ as an excuse for how tired he is by the hypocrisy of his white society …show more content…
He is their small, confident, imaginative friend. Although, in chapter five the author says, “Dill Harris could tell the biggest ones I ever heard” in referring to him lying, “been up in a mail plane seventeen times, he had been to Nova Scotia, he had seen an elephant, and his granddaddy was Brigadier General Joe Wheeler and left him his sword.” Dill tells a lot of these lies to cover up his life. He’s hiding the fact that he’s not happy with his life. He tries to make it seem interesting so he won’t have to face the unfortunate realities in his life or have to let his friends know the saddening truth. This connects to the teaching of how some people aren’t how they first appear to be because at first look, you wouldn’t assume that Dill is actually sad and doesn’t enjoy his

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Dill's Personitilty

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Pages

    This quote is an allusion because it refers to Brigadier General Joe Wheeler, a famous general in the American Civil War. Dill bluffed and said that his grandfather was an American general which was a lie. The author made this refrence becuase he wanted to help the readers vizualize Dill's personitilty. The fact that Dill lied made the text about how dill is like any other kid who lies. The refrence to the Brigadier General was part of thelie that created Dill's traits.…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The people of Maycomb are significantly affected by racism and prejudice. Although there are many examples of this present throughout the text, I will be highlighting three of them; the first one being the Tom Robinson’s case. Another example of this is the bullying Jem and Scout receive as a result of Atticus defending Tom Robinson in court. The last example I’m going to share is the town's disapproval of Mr. Dolphus Raymond’s interracial relationship. All of these examples support my thesis of racism and prejudice being extraordinarily present in maycomb.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”(Lee 39). To Kill a Mockingbird shows its true meaning in every character. The novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, tells a story of two siblings, Jean Louise Finch (a.k.a Scout) and Jeremy Atticus Finch (a.k.a Jem), plus their friend, Charles Baker Harris (a.k.a Dill), during their summer adventures. In the novel, they make many assumptions about a strange, reserved man on their street, Mr. Arthur Radley (a.k.a Boo Radley), and like to mess with him.…

    • 1197 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    By focusing on individual racism, these readers fail to see how institutional racism can have a painful result. Calpurnia went to the court before and told Atticus that the kids were missing. That’s when people in the court said that the kids were up there with the African Americans. The kids had to go home to eat and Atticus agreed that they could come back. When the kids got back to the court after eating, Scout shuts her eyes and “Judge Taylor [starts] polling the jury: ‘Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty…’”…

    • 582 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In America back in the 1930s, social injustice was a normal thing, and even today, America struggles with this same problem, even though it may not be as bad as before. Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is a story set in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. It is about a young girl, named Scout, and the events that led to her brother, Jem, breaking his arm, while dealing with the everyday injustice and racism in Maycomb. Throughout Lee’s novel, there are many instances where things happen differently to certain groups of people, based upon things like their race, family name, and past. One notable event from the story is when Scout’s father, Atticus, stated, “You never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them,” and through the use of diction and symbolism, Lee proves that this quote is…

    • 609 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Harvey Milk, a gay rights activist, once stated, “All men are created equal. No matter how hard they try, they can never erase those words. That is what America is about.” Although it is a fundamental American idea that people are created equal, this often is not the case due to personal bias. The similar sentiment, unnecessary racism, is mirrored in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.…

    • 1003 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird: A Blow To Racism Beginning in the mid-1950s, the civil rights movement began to gain traction. There was an uproar aimed at addressing the racism and segregation that was prevalent and widespread in the United States. During this time, some activists—authors and public speakers—gained notoriety for their work with civil rights.…

    • 919 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The word racism, what does it referred to? According to google definitions, “The belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races”. As individuals, we see ourselves more superior than others. In "TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD", one of the major themes is racism.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    As time went by, when the trial —of Tom Robinson— was happening, Dill went outside of the courthouse because he couldn’t take the way were treating Tom — a black man being accused of rape— in this trial. Scout told “Dill, that’s his job. Why, if we didn’t have persecutors—well, we couldn’t have defense attorneys,... (199).”…

    • 1829 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prejudice In To Kill a Mockingbird “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy... That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 90, ch. 10). This quote, though simple, is absolutely bursting with meaning. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age story detailing the lives of two children living in 1930’s Alabama through the Great Depression.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Jem and Scout will believe Dill because they think he is smart and knows everything. In the book Dill says,"I figure if he'd come out and sit a spell with us he might not feel better." (Pg62) Dill thinks he doesn't feel good because he had been shut up and has nothing to eat but cats. Dill made all this up and Jem and Scout believed him. Clearly, Jem and…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The kids understand how prejudice impacts people’s everyday lives. Scout experiences some prejudice herself, and so does Tom Robinson. Prejudice is frequently portrayed throughout To Kill a Mockingbird by race, class, and gender. Racial prejudice is often used to show the injustice that takes place in the book.…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The world is not fair. In To Kill a Mockingbird, we see Scout Finch struggling to cope with this realization. She witnesses the false conviction of a Black man her father is defending. As Scout grows up, she sees that Maycomb is a town full of prejudice and racism and has trouble understanding why the world is this way.…

    • 732 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 10 Works Cited

    Boo doesn’t really leave his house but he does still try to talk to some of the people in the town. He starts putting gifts in the tree by his house for Jem and Scout to show how nice he really is he once fix Jem’s pants for him to show his kindness (Lee). Boo was a very heroic man and didn’t whatever he could to help once when Miss Maudie’s house caught on fire and Scout was watching it Boo snuck over and put a blanket around her. When Boo save’s the kids Scout changed her mind about him and tried to get to know the real person that sacrifices his self and not judge him (Felty).…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 10 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Racism stands for more than one thing. In this case Harper Lee expresses that the theme in “ To Kill A MocKingbird” is you should never judge or mistreat someone because of their skin color. In this book a black man was found guilty for raping a white women when he was clearly innocent, in addition he was also shot 17 times because he was black. In some cases shooting someone 17 times and is unarmed is called overkill. So, therefore, racism is still a big thing in the U.S. today Tom Robinson, an African American man found guilty for a crime he didn’t commit such as raping a white women, whose name is Mayella.…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays