...To Kill A Mockingbird is a story about a young girl named Scout as she grows up in the racially segregated south. The major event of this story is about a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of the rape of Mayella Ewell. Atticus Finch, Scout's father, and Tom’s lawyer knows that Tom is innocent in the trial but is ultimately found guilty of the crime. July 11, 1960. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she develops many themes but the one that sticks out to me is racism. The book takes place during the 1960’s in the south during the civil rights movement. Even though the book takes place during the 1960’s when there were civil right movements, even today in 2018 we still see African Americans fighting for their rights. The book impacts me today because I witness the racial tensions that happen everyday. It also affects the future because if something isn’t done for equal rights for everybody there will still be tensions just like in the 1960’s. Comparing the present and the 1960’s I notice very little has changed African Americans are still fighting for equal...
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...“Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” (Lee #323) In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird racism is an important theme in the book. The majority of Maycomb are racist by calling dark colored people “niggers” and even though Scout’s father is white, Atticus defends a African American named Tom Robinson. Scout doesn’t understand why people use the word “nigger” at first she says it because children at school use it, and its common. Throughout the story Scout starts to realize how wrong racism in Maycomb is and that it is used commonly by others. In the beginning, Scout was unsure why she shouldn’t say “nigger¨ but she hears it at school as a common word that everyone says. She asks “Do you defend niggers,...
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...To Kill A Mockingbird There were are a lot of people in the world who thought that it was okay for them to take advantage and discriminate others who were not the same race as them. The term for people doing this to others is called racism. Racism is still around today even, you can find it bassically anywhere you go because that is how often it occurs. Many people thought nothing of it back then, but then people started noticing that it was not a very good thing to do. People started thinking this because racism led to slavery and they did not think that it was right for one race to serve the other. Mostly all of the states up in the north had voted and banned slavery for that state, but the states in the south still liked the idea of it and did not agree to ban it. There were a lot of different times that racism had occurred back then, mostly in the eighteen hundreds, but two of the most known times were the “Scottsboro Boys Trials” and the “Emmett Till Murder”. Also the Tom Robinson case in a very famous book called To Kill A Mockingbird is an excellent example of racism not only from an individual but from a whole town. There are still a lot of times today that racism could be accounted for, one of the major times is the racism that started after the nine eleven incident that had...
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...Racism According to the Dictionary, racism is “prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior.” Harper Lee’s, 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place is the early 1930’s during the Great Depression in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. The town of Maycomb has shown its racism in many different ways. Racism is shown through the Tom Robinson case, Bob Ewell’s actions, and the actions of Aunt Alexandra. Throughout the Tom Robinson Case racism is shown through the jury and its actions. Tom Robinson was accused of rape and even after all of Atticus’ hard work to try and prove him innocent, he was found guilty and sentenced to death.When...
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...Racism is a reoccurring theme in southern novels. Whether the main protagonist is black or white, racism is represented in Ellen Foster, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and How to Kill a Mocking Bird. All three girls, Scout, Marguerite, and Ellen, are surrounded by racism. However, the girls do not seem to understand exactly why society is so offended by black people. This is a hard concept for little girls to understand. To begin with, Kaye Gibbons’ Ellen Foster is about an eleven-year-old who lives with her alcoholic dad and sick mother. One day, Ellen discovers that her mother has overdosed on her medication, and her father does little to nothing to help. Due to her mother passing away, Ellen’s father abuses her physically and mentally....
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...Historical Influences in To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a “time of devastation and uncertainty”, also it was a time “bread lines and debt” in the American history (McCabe 12). After the stock market crashed in 1929 there was a height during the time that “ the unemployment rate had reached nearly 25 percent” (McCabe 12). In To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee had many historical influences several from real life events. Harper Lee drew her influences from Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a racial caste system. Jim Crow are a bunch of harsh against Blacks laws (Pilgrim). The Whites did these actions because they disliked any benefit made Blacks including economic and political (Pilgrim). If the Blacks are to disobey then the punishments could be a lynching (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws are seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the laws that you could see was “ Never assert or even intimate that...
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...Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee discusses the effects of discrimination and the toll it takes on people. Through examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the townsfolk of a small town in Alabama, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of discrimination serve as the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story, as said by Atticus,“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee, 94). In essence, this story demonstrates the loss of innocence of many, especially Scout who is affected by sexism and racism most of all. By far, one of the most evident forms of discrimination present in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. It impacts the actions of every single character in the book and formulates...
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...Racism, Poverty, and Violence in To Kill a Mockingbird Maycomb, like other Southern towns, suffers considerably during the Great Depression. Poverty reaches from the privileged families, like the Finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” Ewells, who live on the outskirts of town. Racism violently attacks the people of Maycomb and causes many conflicts throughout the novel which causes violence amongst the citizens. Harper Lee uses the characters involved in To Kill a Mockingbird as symbols of the main themes of the story, which includes, poverty, racism, and violence and these recurring themes influence the actions of the characters in numerous ways. Poverty is repeatedly referenced throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Many citizens...
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...found guilty. This is what happened to Tom Robinson in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Harper Lee used real life stories as a guide to help her write her novel correctly and accurately. The novel is tied to a few stories such as, Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. One of the first connections to America’s history of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. To begin, Jim Crow was a racist system that promoted inequality between the races. A bountiful number of people believed the laws were necessary to keep black people in their place. In addition, they used the Jim Crow...
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...by their own skin color, and there was different schools, churches, and neighborhood depending on ones race. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee used different historical references and connections about the inequality between blacks and whites, and some of the struggles faced by both races. Included, are connections to the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and issues of racism during that era. In To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the first connections was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws created inequality between the two races of whites and blacks. There were reasons why people thought the laws were needed. They thought that whites were superior to blacks...
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...after the stock market crash in 1929 (McCabe). The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during this time, and faces many challenges related to The Great Depression. Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, used inspiration from these real-life historical events to hook into her novel. Some of these significant historical events include the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials in conjunction with racism. One of the first known influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a collection of unrelenting anti-black laws (Pilgrim). These laws weren’t just simply a set list of rules,...
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...It’s A Sin To Kill A Mockingbird Life isn’t fair. Everyone has heard this phrase at least one time, and most absolutely agree. Our world is far from perfect, it always has and always will. Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, is a great example of this. This is an amazing story of a small-town girl named Scout Finch back in the 1930’s. She lives with her older brother (Jem), her father (Atticus), and her black maid (Calpurnia). Atticus is a well known and respected lawyer, who is appointed to a case he takes personally. A black man named Tom Robinson is accused of rape. A white racist man named Bob Ewell claims he raped his daughter. The case has gotten the whole town’s attention, and the Finch’s who are one of the most respected families...
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...events to influence her book To Kill a Mockingbird. The Great Depression took place throughout the whole book(McCabe 12). The two words that came to play in The Great Depression were bread lines and debt(McCabe 12). Many people had to start getting free meals(McCabe 13). Many students could not even go to college(McCabe 14). In addition to the Great depression more influences were the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws was a racial caste system(Pilgrim). These laws were only used for the colored people between 1877 and 1960’s. One law was that a black man was not allowed to offer...
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...protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, is the daughter of a lawyer, a single father who raises both her and her brother, Jem. Nelle Harper Lee was also the daughter of a lawyer, Amasa Coleman Lee, who raised her, two sisters, and a brother, while their mother was suffering from a bipolar disorder. By just describing their immediate family situations, there is already a few similarities between both families. Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, is not an autobiography, but there is no doubt there is a strong sense of relativity between Harper Lee and the young Scout Finch. One of the similarities between Scout and Lee is their early exposure to racism as young children. Lee has a very strong experience with racism or segregation, due to the fact of her father being a lawyer who represented all kinds of black clients, and the developing chaos of discrimination, riots, and racism. On March 25, 1931, nine young men were accused and arrested for rape of two white women, which means that Lee would have been around at that time. Both women denied having been raped by any of the men. After a period of five trials, five of the men were sentenced to long prison sentences and many lawyers thought the sentences were motivated by racial prejudice. Harper Lee addresses this in her novel by saying, “People generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for (To Kill a Mockingbird.) Another time when Harper was exposed to racism was when Lee’s father...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird: Prejudice Essay Prejudices are all around. Race, gender, religion. There really is no way of making this stop, but there are ways of making them more obvious, so the people can see how bad they can be. One way is through literature. Harper Lee did this very well in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird which is told by Scout, a six-year-old girl, and her life through a few years when racism was at its peak. Scout's father is a lawyer who supports most everyone and causes much controversy when he accepts a case where he must defend a black man. Racism is the most emphasized prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird because of the time that this book was set in. That was the norm. Some examples are when Aunt Alexandra wouldn't let Scout visit her housekeeper's house only because she was black. Another example is when Tom Robinson, the black man Atticus is defending, is in the Maycomb City jail. There was an angry mob of white men outside of his cell wanting to kill him. Some may say that gender is the most emphasized prejudice in this novel. While it is brought up a lot,...
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