The War of Racism
While many themes exist throughout the book, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, one that plays an especially important role in the book is racism. It plays such an important role because of the era Harper Lee, put the book in. Taking place during the nineteen thirties, down south in Alabama, racism occurred in everyday life for all these people. Only later would a shift of thinking come where blacks were no longer looked down upon, but that would have to wait several years. For now, during the time the book takes place racism is alive and well. So alive in fact the even Christians who are called to love everyone, had the mindset that blacks were inferior to whites. How does racism appear in To Kill a Mockingbird? …show more content…
Dubose the bitter, deathly sick neighbor down the street. Readers of To Kill a Mockingbird first meet her when Jem and Scout are walking across the street with their father. "Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I 'll tell you!" She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. "Your father 's no better than the n***ers and trash he works for!" (135). Mrs. Dubose, a not so sweet elderly woman, who unnoticed to Jem and Scout is dying of a painful disease and does drugs to relive the pain a little. But from her we see the normal way of thinking towards African American 's and that was that they were like trash, far to inferior for whites especially, to defend one of them in court for a crime as severe as rape, a thought almost everyone in the small town of Maycomb believed. Although the attitude of most people was racist some people, very few, thought that no one was worthless not even blacks. From the quote we also see how Jem and Scout 's father Atticus caused a lot of problems for this small quiet town. This ruckus made the Finch family public enemy number one, with insults such as that of Mrs. Dubose occurring frequently from members of their own …show more content…
First, readers read about Mrs. Dubose and her love of hollering insults across the street, Mr. Cunningham and his "gang" trying to get through Atticus to get to Tom Robinson, and Maya and Bob Ewell trying to get away with lying. From this racism readers see all of the harm that comes when racism plays such an integral part of life. What they thought as normal made life terrible for a entire group of people who were treated as less than human. Today racism has lost a lot of ground, with many not determining a person 's worth by the color of their skin, but by the way they live their
While many themes exist throughout the book, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, one that plays an especially important role in the book is racism. It plays such an important role because of the era Harper Lee, put the book in. Taking place during the nineteen thirties, down south in Alabama, racism occurred in everyday life for all these people. Only later would a shift of thinking come where blacks were no longer looked down upon, but that would have to wait several years. For now, during the time the book takes place racism is alive and well. So alive in fact the even Christians who are called to love everyone, had the mindset that blacks were inferior to whites. How does racism appear in To Kill a Mockingbird? …show more content…
Dubose the bitter, deathly sick neighbor down the street. Readers of To Kill a Mockingbird first meet her when Jem and Scout are walking across the street with their father. "Yes indeed, what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his raising? I 'll tell you!" She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. "Your father 's no better than the n***ers and trash he works for!" (135). Mrs. Dubose, a not so sweet elderly woman, who unnoticed to Jem and Scout is dying of a painful disease and does drugs to relive the pain a little. But from her we see the normal way of thinking towards African American 's and that was that they were like trash, far to inferior for whites especially, to defend one of them in court for a crime as severe as rape, a thought almost everyone in the small town of Maycomb believed. Although the attitude of most people was racist some people, very few, thought that no one was worthless not even blacks. From the quote we also see how Jem and Scout 's father Atticus caused a lot of problems for this small quiet town. This ruckus made the Finch family public enemy number one, with insults such as that of Mrs. Dubose occurring frequently from members of their own …show more content…
First, readers read about Mrs. Dubose and her love of hollering insults across the street, Mr. Cunningham and his "gang" trying to get through Atticus to get to Tom Robinson, and Maya and Bob Ewell trying to get away with lying. From this racism readers see all of the harm that comes when racism plays such an integral part of life. What they thought as normal made life terrible for a entire group of people who were treated as less than human. Today racism has lost a lot of ground, with many not determining a person 's worth by the color of their skin, but by the way they live their