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.
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.
Double consciousness is a concept that Du Bois first explores in his 1903 publication, “The Souls of Black Folk”. Double consciousness describes the individual sensation of feeling as though your identity is divided into several parts, making it difficult or impossible to have one unified identity. Du Bois spoke of this within the context of race relations in the United States. He asserted that since American blacks have lived in a society that has historically repressed and devalued them that it has become difficult for them to unify their black identity with their American identity. Double consciousness forces blacks to not only view themselves from their own unique perspective, but to also view themselves as they might be perceived by the outside world.
He believed it was “a crime for anyone who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.” This corresponds with the second amendment in the United States Constitution: the right of individuals to keep and bear arms. Therefore, when someone is in an hostile environment, he or she can use violence a gun to defend or protect others. Also,“when the laws fails to protect Negroes from whites’ attack, then those Negroes should use arms, if necessary, to defend themselves.” During the 1960s, there were countless of Sibley 2 African American’s getting persecuted and lynched just because of their skin color. Nonviolence would not protect anyone when a member of the KKK, or other extreme racists, would come toward someone with murderous and homicidal
In the south most prominently there were a set of unwritten laws made to segregate white people from black people. These laws included the general lack of respect for black people and their names as well as the rule that black people must refer to white as either ‘sir’ or ‘mister’; it was made to keep white people as the superior race and show the inferiority of black people, showing the deep rooted mentality of the American public to never
Thus, they were officially denied every opportunity for an education in the slave states, while in the free states they were largely excluded from the schools for whites and were given only that training deemed suitable for their inferior status. Indeed, in many places in the North their exclusion from educational opportunities was as complete as it was in the South.”(pg. 78,79) Clearly blacks were deeply encouraged to forgo any hopes of a education in America. The second point of inequality John speaks of is the one in the law. John states “Inequality in the administration of justice and the enforcement of the laws was apparent to any who cared to look.
Some may see Hrothgar as a coward; he really cares deeply for the welfare of his people, a quality that is admired by many. Grendel as a character portrays the dark and evil side of human nature and people, something we can all relate to. Grendel causes much death, destruction and grief, with his blood-thirsty rampages on the town of Herot. “So mankind’s enemy continued his crimes, killing as often as he could, coming alone, bloodthirsty and horrible.” It is interesting to note that even though he represented evil the poem says that; “he never dared to touch King Hrothgar’s
Some of these groups and people included ‘Malcolm X’, Rosa Parks, and ‘The Black Panthers’. Malcolm X saw King’s campaign as trying to persuade the African American citizens to forget the days of slavery, and forget what the white men had done to their people. His stance was passive/aggressive and wanted equality by any means, including violence. Malcolm X was assassinated by a white supremacist during a speech and died of bullet wounds. Also, ‘The Black Panthers’ were a very violent group and saw King’s campaign as time consuming and feared it being forgotten in the process.
(Golding 82). Jack publicly makes fun of the littluns. Jack disrespects the other boys' feelings, making them feel inferior and acting as if their fears are a sign of weakness. The younger boys' feelings of inferiority force them to follow Jack's orders, for fear of being punished or threatened if they go against his ideas. Jack's second anarchist method of leadership is made up of his passion for brutal hunting.
In the assertion ‘all people are good, but it’s the external forces of society that make a man evil’ I immediately think of the ‘Ballad of Joe Meek’. Joe Meek was generally a ‘good’ person before his encounter with the police officers. He had good intentions by telling the police officers they were wrong for putting their hands on the young woman, but the blatant disrespect the police officers showed him changed his outlook. The actions taken by the police officers stand as the external forces or catalysts for Joe Meek’s violent rampage. Back in our ‘Rise of Man’ unit, many people in the class agreed that the quality that makes man is the ability to be shaped by our experiences.