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. One such activist was Harper Lee. In 1960, she wrote the novel To Kill a Mockingbird that captivated the nation, causing positive change as well as conflict. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee attempts to sway people’s views on racism in the United States by using characterization to compare the two sides of racism, and diction to show the stark differences between the
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Their diction plays a large role in representing their social class and decency. First, the most obvious example is Bob Ewell. He speaks in rough slang intermittent with swearing and other vulgar terms. In almost every instance of his dialogue, he talks disrespectfully and offensively. For example, he says, “"I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" (Lee 84). In that one sentence, Ewell dehumanizes and insults Tom Robinson. He says that Tom was “ruttin’” on Mayella, which is a verb usually attributed to animals. Second, he calls Tom a “black nigger”. The word “n****r” is an incredibly offensive word, and the redundancy of the phrase emphasizes how he holds race above all else. By showing how Ewell talks, Harper Lee presents readers with what forms racism comes in, and how harmful it can be. Now, characters that speak properly, without vulgarity, are generally of higher class and have had more education. The obvious example is Atticus. Atticus speaks eloquently and always converses respectfully. He is highly educated and views racism negatively. Thus, readers can infer that the person with an education would be against prejudice and the uneducated person would be ignorant and intolerant. Readers will side with education, and again view racism with a negative …show more content…
She used the device of characterization to illustrate the individual sides of the race debate and how character traits play a role in what side they are on. Characters like Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell, who are foils of each other, were used to display each “side”. Harper Lee also used diction to show the decency of certain characters and their social class. She showed that diction is directly correlated to education which is directly correlated to views on racism. She established that people with more education and better diction are more enlightened and less opposed to racial equality than those without it. By using these devices to paint a vivid picture, Harper Lee effectively works to sway readers’ mindsets against racism and
Their diction plays a large role in representing their social class and decency. First, the most obvious example is Bob Ewell. He speaks in rough slang intermittent with swearing and other vulgar terms. In almost every instance of his dialogue, he talks disrespectfully and offensively. For example, he says, “"I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin' on my Mayella!" (Lee 84). In that one sentence, Ewell dehumanizes and insults Tom Robinson. He says that Tom was “ruttin’” on Mayella, which is a verb usually attributed to animals. Second, he calls Tom a “black nigger”. The word “n****r” is an incredibly offensive word, and the redundancy of the phrase emphasizes how he holds race above all else. By showing how Ewell talks, Harper Lee presents readers with what forms racism comes in, and how harmful it can be. Now, characters that speak properly, without vulgarity, are generally of higher class and have had more education. The obvious example is Atticus. Atticus speaks eloquently and always converses respectfully. He is highly educated and views racism negatively. Thus, readers can infer that the person with an education would be against prejudice and the uneducated person would be ignorant and intolerant. Readers will side with education, and again view racism with a negative …show more content…
She used the device of characterization to illustrate the individual sides of the race debate and how character traits play a role in what side they are on. Characters like Atticus Finch and Bob Ewell, who are foils of each other, were used to display each “side”. Harper Lee also used diction to show the decency of certain characters and their social class. She showed that diction is directly correlated to education which is directly correlated to views on racism. She established that people with more education and better diction are more enlightened and less opposed to racial equality than those without it. By using these devices to paint a vivid picture, Harper Lee effectively works to sway readers’ mindsets against racism and