...To Kill a Mockingbird; Racism Then and Now Here in the 21st Century, some may think that maltreatment towards certain minorities are uncommon or not nonexistant compared to the 20th Century. However, this is not the case for either the present or the past. Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mocking Bird argues against in-court racism set back in the 1930s, which is still found today. Lee’s usage of Scout as narrator helps readers see the social injustice of racism happening inside Maycomb. In the book, Scout was a very naive child and often asked a lot of questions about what took place around her. When Cecil Jacobs told Scout her father defended Negroes (in a negative connotation), Scout was confused why that was bad. She asks Atticus, “Do all...
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...Hatred and Racism in the 1930s The power of racism can affect one's behaviours and actions with one another. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a man named Tom Robinson is convicted of raping a 19-year-old girl that is part of the Ewells family. As a black man in the 1930s, it was hard not to be guilty of a crime against white people like the Ewells. Siding with Tom Robinson as a white man is also looked down upon. This can be proven by the reaction of a lady named Mrs. Dubose when she hears one of the main characters named Atticus was defending a man when she said: “your father’s no better than the N-words…” (To Kill A Mockingbird, 102) The quote shows Mrs. Dubose’s hatred and discrimination to black people. The quote also shows how defending a black man is hated by the people. Mrs. Dubose’s act gives...
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...same but it’s been here centuries. Racism. Or as some believe “my skin color makes me better because it’s lighter”. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper lee we see many examples of racism towards people of color. We are all the same inside. Out skin is all different and unique that makes you special. There is no need to judge someone for looking different than you. It doesn’t matter if their beliefs are. Your skin color doesn’t define who you are. It doesn’t change who you are inside. We are all human beings. One example of racism in the book To Kill A Mockingbird is when Scout and Jem were making a snowman with hardly any snow. We see Scout talking about how she’s never seen a...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age novel that is set in the early 1930s in a small and sleepy Southern town called Maycomb. It was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. The novel deals with childhood innocence and the conflict between good and evil in many different situations. Throughout the novel, the reader follows the childhood of a young girl called Jean Louise "Scout" Finch who lived with her family that included her father, Atticus, her brother, Jem, and their black cook, Calpurnia. Scout is the narrator and the protagonist of the novel and the reader is able to perceive, through her narration, a child's perspective of the world and the prejudice that exists within it. One of the themes that is prominent in the novel is black racism. The writer made that notable through the lifestyle of Maycomb, its citizens' notions and the case of Tom Robinson. These cases helped to shape Scout's opinion of the real world and her understanding of the dark and cruel sides of it. The theme also plays an important role in understanding and analyzing the novel as a whole. As the novel is a depiction of the writer's childhood, it elaborates to the reader the various aspects of real life in the United States of America during the 1930s and helps them get a view of the racial discrimination that shaped the American society at that time. That...
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...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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...The book that I chose to read is by Harper Lee, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.’ The novel’s setting features the Deep South and envelops an intense portrayal of prejudice and race narrated through a little girl’s eyes. Filled with impressive evocations of American life at the peak of the Great Depression that shook the nation in the 1930s, whilst also underpinned by caring and moral susceptibility, the novel proofs as both an excellent rendering of a particular place and time as well as an all-inclusive tale of how old and wicked perceptions can be triumphed by understanding. It was published by J.B Lippincott in New York in 1960 (Topham, 2018). ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ has received both positive and negative feedbacks from a wide audience of readers. However, over the past few decades, the book has been challenged by most learning institutions as well as readers which have led to its ban and censorship from several learning institutions. The objective of this paper is to establish why the book has been challenged. As a classic novel, Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ received the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. Although it has been considered a classic literature by several readers, the novel still remains in the top list of the banned books. The novel’s profanity, racial content, and its references to rape have provoked many...
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...The Reality of Racism Throughout our lives, we will all experience racism in some form xr another. We learn racism from society and we see how it affects people as we grow. In the novel, Scout who is a six-year-old child born and raised in 1930’s Maycomb County, Alabama. She grows up in a racist society were “colored people” are discriminated and learns about racism from society. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee the theme of racism is explored and it becomes clear that racism is something we learn from society. Scout starts to learn more about racism from society when she is talking to Francis. When Scout and her family go to Finch’s landing for Christmas and talks to Francis she learns a segment of what racism is. She realizes the prejudice of being associated with a “Colored person” when Francis says “I guess it ain't your fault that Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover” (94). Scout feels enraged at Francis when he calls Atticus this because even though she does not know what that word means, she still felt the prejudice of his words and she felt that what Francis called Atticus is not a good thing. From Francis’s words, Scout begins to develop an understanding of what racism is....
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...Let us not pretend that Bob Ewell and the majority of the Maycomb community are the last racists in the United States of America. They have company. As president of the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), my sensibilities are not delicate. I grew up in South Carolina as the civil war reached its climax, a place and time where racism was unambiguous and often violent. I would be the last person to deny that we have made remarkable progress against racial prejudice. However, with Tom Robinson’s recent trial, it is obvious that we still have a long way to go. The trial of Tom Robinson exemplified the entrenched prejudice that many, not only in Maycomb but also in the United States, hold against the Negroes in...
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...“I’m simply defending a Negro- his names Tom Robinson”. With these words Atticus informs Scout of his life altering task of standing up to the prejudice and racism that pervades the sleepy southern town that was Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. The effects of racism on Maycomb and its citizens will be discussed with further reference to ‘To kill a Mockingbird’. The court case of Tom Robinson seems to be a turning point for “the sleepy town “of Maycomb County. One acquires the impression that Tom is hated by everyone in the town as he, a black man, falls at the bottom of the social hierarchy that is very much a part of the town. Due to racism , black people are looked down upon by white people and the very few who choose to go against this norm...
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...Despite that throughout history it has always been shown in films from A Nation Reborn to literature To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism has always been questioned if it has played an effect in the court system. Because its is become more popular discussed in today society i feel it is important to get rid of it all together. While writing this essay on racism I found myself re questioning myself countless times as I did not wish to either contradict myself or come off as “strong left wing liberal” as some of the kids from our composition class would say. Throughout this essay I was doing countless research from the documentary on racism that we viewed in class to statistics regarding racism in the court system. I find that research in essay allows for us to gain knowledge in order to support our own ideas in the paper and to better grasp the realism of the pigeonholes that are present in our society today. The most valuable piece of evidence in my essay would be the interview I had with one of my former professors from high school who was a law teacher and was my mock trial coach. We read some Iowa court cases that were deemed to be racist primarily from the early fifties and late sixties when prejugdism and racism were much alive and well in the...
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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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...Racism has been a problem in the world for many years. People of all races have to deal with this; Racism can cause major emotional damage and physical damage to a person. In this book we can see many examples of racism, the self esteem damages it causes, the inappropriate names used and the result of growing up near racism; Insecurity. Racism can cause major self esteem damage to a person, no matter what age they are. If others are being racist towards someone, In order to deal with people who gave him a hard time, T.J.’s parents gave him some helpful advice: “To be loud when I run into racism, but I cannot expect it to be loud when it comes to me” (pg.3). T.J.’s parents want him to realize when he is being racially discriminated against and not to let it slide; he will have to stand up for himself....
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