Back to 1930s, prejudice is the most concerned thing of people in that period of time. It creates such hatred, crimes and racial segregation toward people. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee), Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and Atticus Finch are the victims of prejudice. It drives them into rough situations which they have to find the way to save themselves from this problem. Boo Radley is one of the character who is discriminated in several ways.
To Kill A Mockingbird takes readers to the roots of human behavior (Lee). It portrays how unkind people of Maycomb County could be. It shows a time when being different made life more difficult than it had to be. It was a time when people did not accept differences. It especially shows cruelty against blacks, lawyers, and the poor.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a book which highlights the injustices that were prevalent in southern life in the early 1900’s. In the south, racism towards African Americans was completely accepted. Back then, people had a different view on what was unjust that what many Americans of the south have today. The book gives us different viewpoints on what may be just or unjust, justice may even be illegal. A few things that I think are unjust in the book were Tom Robinson’s trial and the teachers.
Civil rights marches were led by Martin Luther King and Malcolm X in the 1960’s. The novel shows us how one single incident of persecution can effect a whole community. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson was charged with raping Mayella Ewell, found guilty by a racist jury, and was killed whilst trying to escape prison, even though Atticus proved to the jury that it was obvious that he was innocent. He was found guilty, however, because he was a Negro and seen to be less than human. Even though all of the jury were racist, some members of Maycomb County began to see that the unfair way in which they treated the Negroes was wrong.
It also had its negative effects on Atticus, when he was called degrading names like ‘nigger lover’ and being treated badly by the townspeople for defending Tom. His children were also persecuted because of his courageous act. Boo Radley was another man in the town who suffered severely due to the demeanour of others who had superstitions and judgements made up about him causing children to harass him just because he didn't want to leave his house and lastly Dolphus Raymond who suffered emotionally just because he lived with a black and had mixed children. The racial and prejudice attitudes of the townspeople in Maycomb is the driving force behind nearly all the negative events that happen in the story which caused emotional and physical pain to many
Mrs. Dubose criticizes him at one point and says, “Atticus is a Nigger lover!” or when she says, “Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” He also puts his re-election for legislature in jeopardy because of all the racist people living there. Most of the community think blacks are complete trash and should not inhabit their neighborhoods. Before the trial, Atticus leaves the house to go to the jailhouse to protect Tom Robinson from
Comparative Essay- To Kill a Mockingbird & A Time to Kill In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and Joe Schumacher’s A Time to Kill, one can see racism is a major issue for the characters who fight against it and for the characters who are victims of racial injustice in the setting of Maycomb and Kenton. The two major characters, Atticus and Jake prove that they are protagonists by fighting against racism. Through out the novel and film Tom Robinson Carl Lee are victims of racism. Finally, the settings of Maycomb and Kenton both have racial discrimination and white supremacy within the two towns. Therefore, in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and Joe Schumacher’s film A Time to Kill, the characters and setting reveal the theme of racial prejudice comparing the two.
How does Harper Lee use minor characters in To Kill A Mockingbird to explore some of the main concerns of the novel? 1) Harper Lee used Dolphous Raymond to explain how racism was at the time. Raymond could not be himself because people would judge him because he had a negro wife and children. 2) Harper Lee used Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose to explain how people were biased. Scout could not do anything without Aunt Alexandra and Mrs. Dubose criticizing what Scout was wearing, doing, and behaving.
Dylan Fiolek Prejudice in the South Racial prejudice was beyond horrible in the 1960s. A time to kill was a movie about a white lawyer who defends a black man for shooting to white woman. The black man raped and beat his daughter. To kill a Mockingbird was a book about a white lawyer who defends a black man. They accuse him of raping and beating a young white woman.
He does so by making the following points: the fact that the poor, uneducated, hopeless Mayella tried to cover up the fact that she broke the moral code of society by blaming Tom Robinson; the fact that the assumption that all blacks lie is untrue, and only some blacks lie, just as some whites lie; and the fact that on the street, people are not equal: some people are smarter than others, some are more talented, etc. But in a court of law, all men are equal. Through his speech, he hopes to make the jury and audience look at themselves and realize how awful prejudice really is. Unfortunately, his attempt is unsuccessful, and the innocent Tom Robinson is declared guilty of a crime he never committed, but one that was created inside the delusional mind of a poor and uneducated teenage girl. In 1935, society still fails to realize the cruelty of racism and the desperate need for acceptance; the only thing causing such hatred is skin