From the 1930’s an abundant of people still view women, blacks, and age in a stereotypical way today. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows many different types of prejudice in the 1930’s, which affect the characters decision making and their views toward others. The prejudice we see most often in this book is racism. Women did not have the same rights as men back in the 1930’s. Ageism plays a big role as well in the book which affect the characters view towards others. To begin, Harper Lee demonstrates a lot of sexism towards women. Back then women did not have any choice, you were born a women, you have to act like one. Women are considered weak in the 1930’s. They were supposed to do things only women must do. Such as staying …show more content…
Adults use their age as an excuse to tell the kids what to do and control them, thinking they know everything. Jem showed a lot of ageism in the novel even though he is not an adult, ‘“It’s different for grown folks, we-”’ Jean-Louise stopped him right there. Scout then tried to take a swing at Jem because she’s have enough of him talking like he was a grown man. This quote showed ageism because Jem felt that he had the upper hand on Scout since he was 4 years older. Thus, making it a sign of ageism. On the other hand, children look at the age of different parents because they can’t do certain activities the other parents can. To Kill A Mockingbird shows a great example of this, “Atticus was feeble; he was nearly fifty. When Jem and I asked him why he was so old, he said he got started late, which we felt reflected upon his abilities and manliness. He was much older than the parents of our school contemporaries”. Scout and Jem are ashamed of Atticus’s age compared to the other parents of their friends. This represents ageism since the kids feel their father is inadequate to others because of his age. Hence, stereotypes about age category is omnipresent in the book and clearly shows how it was determining what you could or could not