Harper Lee uses the character Tom Robinson as character to use as an example to show how bad racism was back in the 1930’s. Tom Robinson was a black man accused of rape. It was common for people to be racist and use racist slang words back then. One example of racism Harper Lee uses is when Scout is talking to Francis and he called Atticus a “nigger-lover” (chapter: 9 page: 110) The reason being called a “nigger-lover” is racist because nigger was a racist way to refer to a black person back then. During slavery people would, called black people niggers rather than black people and they did not treat
Perhaps mockingbirds’ beautiful voices is the reason why Harper Lee chose them to symbolize “innocence and vulnerability” in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird (Bernard 78). Whatever the reason, Lee repeatedly emphasizes that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, which later becomes a symbol for Tom, Boo, and racism in general. The theme of racism is primarily portrayed through Lee’s use of symbolism in To Kill a Mockingbird, a story in the 1930s South where racism, although much changed, still prevails today. Although racism still exists, portrayals such as the ones in Lee’s novel have changed people’s views on African Americans and other races. The mockingbird is a major symbol in the novel because of Atticus’ belief that it is a sin to kill this bird.
Jim Crow Laws MadeEvident in the Jim Crow Laws In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there is terrible discrimination against the Black race; demonstrated in the trial of Tom Robinson. It is clearly evident that the Jim Crow Laws affected many of the Black’s lives. God has put us as human beings on this earth to protect and take care of his creation, which requires us to respect and love one another. He made this evident through the Ten Commandments. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird portrays discrimination against Tom Robinson by the Southern community of Maycomb, Alabama, as a result of the Jim Crow Laws, and in disregard of God’s law.
Racism Is there still racism in the world today? We can all probably agree that racism is present in our everyday lives. Back in the 1800s, racism was worst than ever imagined today. Slavery was still enforced in the South and free blacks were not treated better than the slaves were in the South. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain expresses the South’s attitude toward racism through certain characters and events that take place.
In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus defends Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, in a court trial. The town of Maycomb turns against him due to this. Atticus, furious about the reaction from his town, explains, “…why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand” (Lee 88). Atticus does not have any racial biases, and he does not agree with the views of the majority of the people of Maycomb. Atticus, describing his beliefs to Jem, “…The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be
Racism has been more of a social norm during the Great Depression than as an injustice, specifically the treatment towards African Americans. For example, in Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus states, " There's something in our world that makes men lose their heads –they couldn't be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it's a white man's word against a black man's, the white
Kianna M AMH 2091 Section 005 Strange Fruit: An Overview of Lynching in America After reading Strange Fruit: An Overview of Lynching in America, I could not help but feel a wave of discuss come over me. In the article, Hobbs discusses the practice of lynching in Southern America. What started off as a “type of vigilante justice,” emerged into an inhumane form of torture towards the African American community (90). Thus, one cannot help but ponder as to why this injustice flourished for as long as it did? As if being black in America was not enough to get you into trouble in the south, lynch laws and Jim Crow laws put into perspective of how racially inferior African Americans were presumed to be as opposed to their white counter parts; and used to reestablish a white social and political power (90 – 92).
Contagious and Deadly Prejudice Harper Lee’s work, To Kill a Mockingbird, displays the dilemmas and hardships of the 1930’s. There are a small amount of people who truly make decisions considering the way they actually feel. Tom Robinson is sentenced to a trial he is not guilty for, and Atticus takes his case. Tom Robinson is a black man in a prejudice and racial time period. Prejudice can be compared to a disease because it’s contagious, hereditary, and harmful.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird harsh injustices are endowed upon the Negro race. This is because it is placed in the south, before many civil rights acts were fully respected. The Negro with the biggest injustice in the novel is Tom Robinson. Robinson is put on a trial for a crime that he clearly did not commit. Because the color of Robinson’s skin he is given an unfair trial and is found to be guilty by the jury.
Southerners continued to marginalize Blacks in their behavior toward ex-slaves and the later African American generation, continuing the escalation of racial tensions through white terror and discriminatory attitudes (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 759). Most subversively, southern newspapers propagated stereotypes against African Americans in their coverage and descriptions of constitutional conventions (Logue, 1979, p. 342). Although Radical Reconstruction offered some progress toward social equality after the Civil War, its success was short-lived as African Americans suffered vast disenfranchisement through racist rulings, attitudes, and media representation in the South at the turn of the century. Rulings against African Americans After the Civil War had come to an end, African Americans in the South quickly made use of their new-found political and social rights, employing their right to vote from the Fifteenth Amendment and serving as prominent political figures (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 722). However, the formerly fervent commitment to Radical Reconstruction soon dwindled (Tindall & Shi, 2010, p. 739).