Permitting any sort of discriminatory process over another race while withholding the mindset that that race is inferior to yours, is racism in its purest form. According to accredited psychological case studies, this process was proven to be taught and inherited, rather than naturally obtained, as many followers of the practice tend to believe. Through this writing, the reader should expect a heavy cross-reference with Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, abbreviated TKAM, from which the story primarily takes place in the racially-pronounced 1930’s South. More specifically, the story occurs in the town of Maycomb, where many of the characters are critically influenced by racism.…
To Kill A Mockingbird is a novel that presents extreme prejudice against blacks. The prejudice is shown on several occasions, especially in the Tom Robinson trial. Tom’s trial is similar to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case that took place in 1896. In both cases the defendant is ruled guilty because of their skin color.…
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.…
The fictional trial of Tom Robinson in Mockingbird and the trial of the “Scottsboro Boys” feature many similarities with each other, in that the Scottsboro case involved “nine black youths [who were] tried for allegedly raping two white woman,” whereas Tom Robinson is tried for “raping Mayella Ewell, the daughter of a poor white man,” with the former later serving as the inspiration for the latter, in which both trials resulted in guilty verdicts and death sentences for the defendants as given out by “all-white juries,” although the evidence implied exactly the contrary (Flynt, Salter). Also, both trials were heavily influenced by the nature and scale of the Great Depression for that particular time period in which the trials take place. For example, the two women in the Scottsboro case were hoboing on a train “returning to Huntsville from unsuccessful job searches in the cotton mills of Chattanooga” and to avoid “vagrancy and morality charges” for participating in a fight that occurred on the train, they “falsely accused the nine black men [of rape]” (Linder, Salter). This parallels the situation in which Tom Robinson found himself in, in a period of “economic depression when many blacks and whites shared a common poverty,” wherein the white population of Maycomb did not have much sympathy for the plight of Tom Robinson as they were dealing with a lot of problems themselves (Flynt).…
Maycomb County, in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, willingly took a white man’s word, an ignoble white man’s word, over that of an obviously innocent black man. “We can educate ‘em till we’re blue in the face, we can try till we drop to make Christians out of ‘em, but there’s no lady safe in her bed these nights,” (266) Mrs. Farrow declares, promulgating the idea that a certain people group must be stereotyped and encouraging the belief that all “darkys” were crass and savage. But, Tom Robinson had done nothing. Tom, no matter the color of his skin, maintained gentlemanly comportment.…
Harper Lee, in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), argues via the closing statement of Atticus Finch against the mistreatment of black people. In his closing argument, Atticus argues that the defendant, Tom Robinson, is innocent, and should not be so quickly accused or condemned simply because of the color of his skin. Lee supports her argument by illustrating that the townspeople's beliefs about black people are obviously false. The author's purpose is to show the immorality of the oppression of black people. The author writes in a formal tone, using Atticus's diction to make an emotional appeal to Maycomb county, and America by extension, that black people are no more criminal than white; that the prejudice against them besmirches the…
In the iconic novel “To kill a mocking bird” Many different social issues are focused upon, in that list racism with African Americans is endemic throughout the novel. The novel is set in 1930’s Maycomb County, Alabama. Much has changed since the civil war in terms of racism, but in Southern America racism is still extremely prominent. Racism is shown with the neighbours, within families and even surprisingly throughout the school. “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an' that nigger oughta hang from the water tank.”…
The famous children's novel and winner of the Pulitzer Award, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a perfect example of how blacks were treated back in the 1930s, and really, during that entire era. This story is about injustice and racism towards the so called “negroes”. A white man named Atticus Finch is given the task to defend a black man accused of rape, and acts as his lawyer. This is not easy for Atticus or his family, as they are repeatedly taunted and made fun of for taking the side of the African-American, something that was considered absurd back in the day. This alone just makes you wonder how it would be to roam the streets in a different colored skin.…
To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Racism is one of the worst things in this society, and Haper lee shows us the way of life in the south of America in the 1930s in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. This story is from the point of view of Scout Finch who is the Child of Atticus who is a lawyer defending a black man, Tom Robinson who is being accused of raping a white girl. And the wife of Tom Robinson, Helen Robinson. These characters are affected and some more affected than other drastically, some even ruining lives.…
To Kill A Mockingbird Essay Ever since people of different nationalities first came into contact with each other, there have been conflicts. Whether it be the Holocaust, Armenian genocide, white supremacy in the 18th century, ethnic cleansing in Africa, Manifest destiny, or the Balkan situation, they all have one thing in common: race. People have inexplicably not been able to see past their physical differences. They associate others’ race with their attributes, traits, and characteristics.…
To kill a mockingbird Harper lee’s book, to kill a mocking bird, is a classic story which represents morals and the fight against prejudice and discrimination. Although the setting of the book took place in the 1930 's, the release of the novel could not have come at a more significant time. Published in the 1960, I feel that to kill a mockingbird was heavily influenced by the ongoing societal shift of standards and perceptions. Change was escalating quickly, people fought to change basically every way of life. In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement was well on its way toward significantly revolutionizing how the U.S. related to race.…
Comparing and Contrasting the Trials of To Kill a Mockingbird and The Scottsboro Boys Racism and prejudiced views, although they still exist today, used to have huge negative impacts on the way people used to live back in the 1930’s. The Declaration of Independence stated that “all men are created equal.” Although that was said and implied, the right was still robbed from others because of the color of their skin. The novel written by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird perfectly portrays this in a court case set in the 1930’s where a man Tom Robinson is convicted of rape solely because of the color of his skin.…
The Effects of Tradition in To Kill a Mockingbird The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a fictional story that paints a picture of how life was in the 1930s. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb County, a fictional town in southern Alabama; similar to the town Harper Lee grew up in. All through out the 1800s, there was a substantial amount of hate toward African Americans. Unfortunately, this stuck with many people through the traditions of one generation passing it down to another.…
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.…
In Harper Lee’s book,”To Kill a Mockingbird”, there were social issues like discrimination, lack of equality, and human rights. These issues were really effectively illustrated in the book, and they are important for the world the know. In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper lee explains how people of certain groups were discriminated against, stereotyped, and treated unequally. First, discrimination was very common in the book, For example,”In Lee’s novel of a small town, the Africanist presence is muted in the spite of the trial in which an innocent black man by the name Tom Robinson was accused of rapeing a white woman named Mayella Ewell, (Baeker).…