Lord of the Flies is a terrifying novel. How far do you agree with this statement? What methods does Golding use? Lord of the Flies is considered a frightening novel, because of the message it conveys: there is darkness within all of us. Some people, like Simon, understand this concept and he says: ‘Maybe there is a beast... maybe it’s only us.’ Other people, like Ralph, do not want to believe that there is a dark side to humanity and in Chapter 2 he constantly shouts: ‘but there isn’t a beast!’ Golding successfully gets across his message that there’s ‘darkness in man’s heart’ by the frightening way he describes several events in the book.
Therefore, the black community in Maycomb was crippled with fear. A fear that they will get lynched for a crime they did not commit. Stereotyping is a human instinct. We will always stereotype people's race, class and families. When Aunt Alexandra lived with the Finches, she said this to Scout about the Cunninghams, "Because he is trash, that's why you cant play with him.
I shouldn’t ought to let no stranger shoot my dog” (p 60). George takes this comment to heart, and this foreshadows George’s decision to kill Lennie himself later in the book. Lastly, the chapter in which Curley’s wife dies begins with Lennie stroking his dead puppy, which died because he petted it too hard. “When I’m doin’ my hair sometimes I jus’ set an’ stroke it ‘cause it’s so soft…Feel right aroun’ there an’ see how soft it is” (p 88). Since the reader knows Lennie likes to pet soft things, but he has a record of killing them when he does, it is obvious her death is imminent.
A piece of literature that relates to this quote is the fiction book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. This book relates to the quote because the whole story is about racism and a man named Atticus Finch trying to defend a falsely accused black man. The quote is implying that when times are troubled that's when we begin to see things as they really are. Scout particularly goes through this. In the beginning she's just this innocent kid, but by the end she sees the town in another light.
When Tom was accused of rape, this was the most racist point in the book to me. The people of Maycomb automatically labeled him as guilty. If I were in his position I would have wanted to fight back. Atticus Finch, a local lawyer and one of the main characters, is appointed as Tom’s lawyer. He is almost completely shunned from the town because he is trying to help a black man accused of rape.
Similarly in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is convicted and sentenced to death for the rape of a white woman without any substantial evidence. The only reason he is convicted is because he is a black man fighting against a white man in a court with a prejudiced jury. The theme of prejudice and discrimination is evident in both of these cases because the defendants were charged and convicted merely because they were deemed to be “different” by their close minded societies, questionable evidence from prejudiced sources was used during their trials and because the accusers knew that all those charged could easily be used as scapegoats. The defendants in both of the cases were chosen as suspects because they were deemed to be different by their close minded societies. In the case of the West Memphis Three, the prime suspect in the murder of the young boys, Damian Echols stated, “I wore black and was rumoured to worship Satan, and I was the perfect target when the police ran out of leads” (A Most Heinous Crime Fiona Steel.2003 <http://www.crimelibrary.com/notoriousmurders/famous/memphis/suspect_4.html>).
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird the rape trail of Tom Robinson vs Mayella Ewell, an African American man accused of raping a white teenage girl was held in a bias court room of Maycomb County. Tom Robinson was proven innocent but the end verdict did not match the proof, because no jury would chose to listen to a black man over a white girl due to the state of prejudice Maycomb was under. Racism this town got to the point where when Atticus Finch, a white lawyer chose to represent Tom in the case he was a disgrace and an outcast to the white community. Not only Atticus but his children all suffered from the judgement they were receiving from the whole community for Atticus representing an innocent man. Since children were exposed to this behavior the racism has been passed down to generation to generation.
From the racial prejudice used against Tom Robinson, to the economical prejudice against the Cunningham family, To Kill a Mockingbird has shown how people in Maycomb look at people. This book truly shows how the people in Maycomb Alabama are prejudice towards each other. It is very devastating that people would ever treat people like this and be prejudice like they are in this
What about To Kill a Mockingbird? To compress the entire novel, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the civil rights era in a town called Maycomb, Alabama. The book metaphorically displays the co-existence of good and evil. To demonstrate the co-existence, the broad picture is painted with a black male named Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping a white woman. With the time period of when the story takes place, you can imagine the dangers of this scenario.
Racism is evident throughout the novel. The mad-dog Tim Johnson was shot with hesitation. Sheriff Tate was reluctant to shoot the dog so Atticus had to step in and shoot him. Nathan Radley also said he would shoot at any person he thought was black. He said specifically, if anyone saw a black person, to tell that individual Nathan Radley had a bullet ready for him.