Racial Tension In To Kill A Mockingbird

Improved Essays
The best way to understand somebody is to become familiar with their surroundings and the circumstances. People often disregard others without trying to make sense of their feelings or motive. However, Scout Finch, a young girl still trying to understand the ways of the world, is attempting to exercise empathy for others in her community starting at a young age. Jem Finch, Scout’s older brother, similarly has very little knowledge of the world that he is a part of in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The time period in which the novel takes place is a very diverse part of history that is full of racial tension. Their father, Atticus Finch, is an educated lawyer who believes that the race of a person does not determine their character and …show more content…
Boo Radley’s reputation is based completely on rumors developed by the members of the neighborhood. Scout and Jem believed all of the rumors they had heard, up until the day that they found soap figurines in a tree. The shock they felt was evident when Jem declares “These are us.” taking not of the small details that resemble him and Scout (Lee 80). At this point, the children realize that Boo Radley might not be the terrible guy he has been painted to be, but their first impressions were solely based on the horrible things they had heard. Down the line, Scout’s perspective on Boo is sharpened. After a man attacks Scout and Jem, Boo Radley is summoned to the Finch household by the sheriff of the county. The attack is discussed and once the situation is cleared up, Scout offers to escort Boo home. Like a kind lady, Scout brings Boo all the way to the door, and then turns around, but before she can leave she starts to see the past few years play out in her head, but from Boo’s perspective. She goes on to state “Just standing on the Radley porch was enough,” because she finally understood (Lee 374). Throughout all those years, Scout’s neighbors had described Boo to be a monstrous person, but by looking at things through his perspective she established a clear

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Boo Radley Maturity

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is about a young girl, Scout, her brother, Jem, and their friend, Dill living in Maycomb County during the early 1930s. The three children hear stories about their neighbor, Arthur “Boo” Radley, and decide they want to try to get him out of his house. A few unsuccessful summers later, Scout’s father, Atticus, is a lawyer that has been assigned a colored man’s case. The man, Tom Robinson, was accused of raping a white woman. As the children know this isn’t true, they don’t understand why he was found guilty.…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Because of her formable mind, Scout is able to believe such bizarre characteristic of Boo, seeing him as this monster of a man with a thirst for blood. With her believing this claim it leads Scout wanting to know more about Boo Radley and see the beast for herself. In a way Boo is a childhood mystery to Scout, allowing her to not only explore and questionable nature of Boo, but he is also as a childish story of a monster allowing her to believe that such a monstress creature exist. Scout is a young girl with a childish mind, and with the rumors of Boo Radley being spread around her it only fuels the flame of her…

    • 1493 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    The main idea of this story is racial injustice to the South. As the first paragraph starts of her ancestors come to America was a fur trader and apothecary named Simon Finch, and he established a successful farm. It was on the Alabama river the farm was called Finch’s Landing, It supported the family for many years. Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, who was a lawyer in his nea by town Maycomb, his brother Jack Finch who went to medical school in Boston, and their sister Alexandra stayed to run the landing.…

    • 1079 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Radley kept Boo chained up in the basement, but Scout thought to herself about how Atticus said “it wasn’t that sort of thing, that there were other ways of making people ghost” (11). Atticus knew there was mental abuse in the Radley house causing Boo to isolate himself from society. Once again, when Scout was talking to Miss Maudie about Boo, Scout asked if the stories about Mr. Arthur were true. Miss Maudie replied with no and, “that house is a sad house… The things that happen to people we never really know.”…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Danielle, I agree with you that the segregation in Charleston had gone too far. It was 2008 before anything was done about it. That is too long for such a practice to be performed. The reason for this was the parents, as you said. They wanted to keep with tradition, so, they kept segregated the only thing they could, the prom.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “First of all, if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. 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” (39). What Atticus is doing is trying to convince Scout that Miss Caroline is doing what she believes is right and if she could see that, then she would get along with Miss Caroline better. Atticus says this early on in the book to Scout after she tells him all of the hardships she encountered on her first day of school and this theme stays true all the way through the entire book of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses Dolphus Raymond, Boo Radley,…

    • 1022 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Just standing on the Radley porch was enough." (373) This shows us that she finally sees what Boo has been seeing this whole time and now views him as a human being instead of a monster who stalks people at night. She sees him reaching out through the hole in the tree trying to get close to someone. This shows the development and maturity of Scouts character from being scared of the one who everyone else is scared of ,to reaching out to him and accepting him for who he…

    • 1288 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    She is standing on the Radley porch and imagines what Boo has seen over the past few years. Scout eventually realizes Boo is not a “scary monster” as she thought in the beginning of the story and has gotten the children gifts and had recently saved their lives, which progresses a new vision of Boo being a good…

    • 685 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Only Scout and her father are able to see the real Boo Radley. At first, Scout remembers the Radley house and residents from society's point of view. “Inside the House lived a malevolent phantom. [...] All stealthy crimes committed in Maycomb were his [Boo] work. [...] people still looked at the Radley place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions”…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    This is a very special realization for Scout; she acknowledges Radley's good nature and kindness. She realizes that Radley had given them their lives, the most important gift of all. Radley has indeed found a place in the children's hearts, and through his natural goodness he comes out as the true hero of To Kill a Mockingbird. . Through many fundamental stages in the novel, the character of Boo Radley is slowly unraveled depicting his true self.…

    • 1616 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scout, her brother Jem, and their friend Dill are all captivated and simultaneously afraid of their neighbor, Arthur “Boo” Radley who keeps to himself, creating an aura of mystery and many whispers among the townspeople. The children are fascinated with him and try to come up with ways to see the reclusive man, but despite his gestures…

    • 2009 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird Essay - Racism It doesn’t matter what race you are. In the dark we’re all the same color. In Harper Lee's book, To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many examples of racism. During this time in history racism was acceptable.…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “History, despite wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.” In the novel entitled To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee a novel that focus on innocents, with a straightforward sense of what's good and what’s evil. There are many historical events happening. The novel is set in Maycomb county, Alabama, and it deals with racial and social class prejudice. Throughout the novel Harper Lee divides it into three historical events: racial inequality, the Jim Crow South, and the Great Depression.…

    • 661 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, is a novel about a family consisting of Scout, her older brother Jem, and her father Atticus. It takes place in Maycomb, Alabama, during the Great Depression. Tensions rise in Maycomb due to all of the segregation that takes place between the blacks and whites. The Finch family, which is white, is put to shame when Atticus defends a black man in court.…

    • 802 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved 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