...Man accused of rape- because of the color of his skin. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, a black man, was convicted without sufficient evidence of raping a white girl and sentenced to prison. While trying to escape, he was shot and killed by the prison guards. Tom Robinson’s trial was unfair and was heard by a biased jury. The question now is: Would Tom’s case have played out in a modern court like it did in the book? The answer is NO! It is true that minorities feel that prejudices and racism against them are still present in our modern justice system, which can be supported by the recent riots and the “Black Lives Matter” movement. However, Tom Robinson’s trial would not have had the same outcome in our modern judicial system as it did in To Kill A Mockingbird due to modern day defenders of Civil Rights for all....
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...Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee discusses the effects of discrimination and the toll it takes on people. Through examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the townsfolk of a small town in Alabama, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of discrimination serve as the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story, as said by Atticus,“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee, 94). In essence, this story demonstrates the loss of innocence of many, especially Scout who is affected by sexism and racism most of all. By far, one of the most evident forms of discrimination present in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. It impacts the actions of every single character in the book and formulates...
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...known what the KKK stands for — hatred, discrimination and sometimes extreme violence," Carlo said. "We were so alarmed we went to the point of hiring a private security person,” according to The Burlington Free Press. Vermont is one of the most homogeneous states in the country. According to The United States Census Bureau: “The total percentage of black people in Vermont in 2015 was 1.3% whereas the total percentage of white people in Vermont was 94.8%.” In Vermont, people who are not white stand out and are sometimes not accepted. Similarly, discrimination...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird Tiffin University Lisa Caskey September 28, 2012 Degree Completion Program English 365 Issues in Literature Discrimination and prejudice were very common in the 1900’s. Prejudice is defined in the Webster’s dictionary as “preconceived judgment; or opinion; an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge”. (http://www.merriam-webster.com/). Discrimination is defined as “prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, and or treatment” (http://www.merriam-webster.com/). Discrimination and Prejudice run rampant in Maycomb County, Alabama. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story based in time of the Great Depression. The book displayed acts of hate based on the color of someone’s skin. Colored people were the main ones discriminated against. But there were instances where poverty stricken families were also discriminated against. The story begins in the summer in a small town called Maycomb County. The story is told from a child’s perspective. The child’s name is Scout finch. She is retelling the story of her and her brother Jem’s childhood. Their summer consists of playing games and acting out scenarios from different books. They also act out stories made up about people residing within their neighborhood. They do this along with “Dill” Miss Rachel’s nephew who comes to Maycomb for the summer. These stories are based on assumptions and judgments of what they believe...
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...Harper Lee demonstrates the racism of South in the 30's. Tom Robinson's trial represents the racist atmosphere of Maycomb's society. The racial bias of the people of Maycomb makes them blind to see the fact of Tom's innocence and this brings about his murder. Tom's murder echoes Aimé Césaire sarcastic statement in his Et les chiens se taisent, that "in the whole world no poor devil is lynched, no wretch is tortured, in whom I too am not degraded and murdered" (qtd in Black Skin, White Masks 61). Darren Felty in "An Overview of To Kill a Mockingbird", states: "Lee wants to make explicit the consequences of racism. She accomplishes this goal by employing Tom Robinson's trial to allude to different historical events such as the famous 'Scottsboro Boys' trials of the 1930s". According to Felty, in these trials nine black men were accused of raping two white women. Despite a lack of evidence, the men were sentenced to death by the white jury. Unlike Tom, they finally escaped death after a long time (2). Tom Robinson's trial mirrors these historical events to illustrate the racial binarity and segregation that the black people suffered throughout the colonial history. Racial binarity is prevalent in the novel. The narrow-minded people of Maycomb are in favor of segregation in their society and they consider sexual relationship as a threat to their segregation. According to Adam Smykowski in "Symbolism and Racism in To Kill a Mockingbird", For example, "the red geraniums that...
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...building of the characters of Mayella Ewell, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radley. “I wonder if anybody had ever called her ma’am or “Miss Mayella” in her life, probably not as she took offense to routine courtesy what on earth was her life like?” (page.244) this was said by Scout as she realized the innocence of Mayella. Even though she was doing wrong in the story, by lying about Tom Robinson and accusing him of rape, being mistreated and disrespected her whole life has made her unable to see what she is doing is wrong. As Scout realizes Mayella didn’t know any better she starts to have empathy for Mayelle no...
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...Everyone has both a public appearance and a private reality. In life, people’s perception of who other people really are is almost always heavily blurred. In To Kill a Mockingbird, this is definitely true with Dolphus Raymond, Arthur Radley (Boo), and Tom Robinson. Dolphus Raymond, Arthur Radley, and Tom Robinson are all discriminated against because of people’s distorted perception of them. Who they really are is much different than who people think they are. Dolphus Raymond’s appearance to most people is that of an alcoholic. He only pretends to drink alcohol when in fact he is drinking cola. He does this so other people can easily justify his life. To the general public, Arthur Radley’s appearance is of a violent psychopath. In reality,...
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...A mockingbird is a harmless bird that makes the world more pleasant. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the mockingbird symbolizes Boo Radley, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson, who were peaceful people who never did any harm. To kill or harm them would be a sin. Scout's father, Atticus, tells Scout and Jem, “Shoot all the blue jays you want, if you can hit'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird." Atticus is portraying that they are innocent and to harm them would be a sin. The mockingbird symbolizes these three characters because it does not have its own song, the mockingbird only sings other birds' songs and is seen through the other bird’s voices. The people of Maycomb only knew Boo, Atticus and Tom by what others said about them. These characters do not really have their own voice or song, they are only known for what others say about them. Atticus is a lawyer in Maycomb, a typical southern town where racial discrimination is the normal behavior. When he decides to defend Tom Robinson a black man, the people in the town were threatening him for doing so. Though Atticus never showed any sign that he doubted what he was doing. Atticus saw the evil in his world and was only trying to protect his children from it. He simply denied the natural behavior to colored people and fought against it. Atticus took the hatred, pushed it aside, kept his head high and stayed true to himself. He never hurt a soul and was just as innocent as a mockingbird. Boo Radley went through...
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...to people in today’s society is prejudice. The idea of prejudice was shown throughout the novel, most prominently by Tom Robinson’s trial, and the character Arthur “Boo” Radley. Tom’s trial highlighted the idea of racial prejudice and the character Boo Radley, who is a victim of speculation and rumours, helped us better understand social prejudice. Racial and social prejudice are still prevalent and are experienced in our society today despite our seemingly enlightened and tolerant mind-set. Prejudice and the negative mind-set that it induces is influenced by our surrounding family, friends and media. Even though all humans are born with a strong moral conscience, we are bombarded with pictures and people that influence our first impressions of people and make us judgemental, unconsciously or not. The dictionary defines prejudice as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience, which is clearly the case in Alabama in the 1930’s. The 1930’s was the time of the Great Depression and was before the Black Civil Rights movement took place. People of colour or a different race suffered majorly due to discrimination and prejudice against them. People in small towns during this time period were often prejudiced against those who had a lower social status, and in Southern states of America, the ‘Blacks’ were the lowest of the low. Tom Robinson's trial and Boo Radley give the reader a deeper understanding of racial and social prejudice. As Jem states in Chapter...
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...Sharon Dang Stevenson Honors English I 11 October 2011 Racism “Any concept of one person being superior to another can lead to racism.” –Walter Lang. Racism is treating others differently based on the color of their skin and ethnicity. Not many people realize that racism still exists in our country. Even though we have fought for the freedom of slaves and against the prejudice of black people, racism still lives. Harper Lee shows an aspect of racism through the outcome of Tom Robinson’s case, the prejudice of the townspeople, and the Finches’ neighbors. “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life” (Lee 295). The outcome of Tom Robinson’s case shows that the jury is guilty of racism. Even if the evidence is clearly at fault with Bob Ewell, and most would say the Ewells’ are guilty, Robinson was the one taking the blame. Robinson was only trying to help Mayella Ewell and she seduced him. She wasn’t beaten by Tom, she was beaten by her own drunken father. The Ewells’ lied to the jury and yet they got away with it because of their skin color. The townspeople are also guilty of being prejudice. When Calpurnia take the children to church, she was scolded by Lula, a black lady not satisfied with the sight of white children in her church. She said, “You ain’t got no business bringing white chillun here-they got their church and we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?” (Lee...
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...The session inside the story says “ Thomas Robinson… guided his arm to the Bible and his rubber-like left hand sought contact with the black binding. As he raised his right hand, the useless one slipped off the Bible and hit the clerk’s table” (Lee 254). Provided with the evidence that Tom Robinson’s left arm was useless due to an accident- it would be obvious that he did not beat up Mayella Ewell because her bruise was made by someone left-handed, but all the jurors ruled guilty. Harper Lee makes the jurors seem ignorant as they just ignored the fact that it was impossible for Tom to use his left arm/hand. It would not have ended this way if Tom Robinson’s race was Caucasian, which is why Harper Lee made Tom to be African American. Being African American would be like having the least amount of power in Maycomb; even less than the Ewell’s (which their status was pretty low) even if you were a good man with a good name. By Lee making the power structure this way, we can see the unfairness and racism in the jurors way, which isn’t acceptable. Another example of racial bias can be found during when Atticus talked to Scout about how they weren’t going to win the case. Atticus says “Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we...
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...Discrimination is so unknowingly dangerous, it causes a plethora of people to die. In the literary works of To Kill a Mocking Bird, and 12 Angry Men, people were killed or almost killed because of their ethnic or social economic background. These situations happen all over the world, and these stories bring them to life. Maycomb, a quiet old town in the South, has one problem-discrimination towards those who are different. For this reason alone, Tom Robinson, a black slave, was sent to death for a crime he didn't commit. Jem stated, "once you have a drop of negro blood, you are all black," (Lee 56) when talking about a half black citizen. The mere association with black people makes yourself "black". The people of Maycomb avoid black people...
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...Discrimination is the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people or things, especially on the grounds of race, religion, age, or sex. Recognition and understanding of the difference between one thing and another. The treatment of a person or particular group of people differently, in a way that is worse than the way people are usually treated. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the characters that were discriminated was Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, Scout, Jem, The Ewells, Mr. Dolphus Raymond, and The Black Community in the south. Harper Lee shows discrimination of religion and age of the character named Boo Radley by when Miss Maudie said, “ You know old Mr. Radley was a foot-washing Baptist...” (Lee Page...
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...I’d like to analyze the extract from a book which is entitled “To kill a mockingbird”. The author is Harper Lee, an American author known for her 1960-Pulitzer-Prize-winning and who is considered now by many to be a literary icon. Harper Lee was born in 1926 in the state of Alabama. In 1945-1949 she studied law at the University of Alabama. Her novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ which deals with the issues of racism that were observed by the author as a child in her hometown was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. The book became an international bestseller and was adapted into screen in 1962. The story of “To kill a mockingbird” takes place during a tumultuous time in the South. At that time black people were treated as people of lower level than white people and racial tensions were running high in the South as a whole, especially in Alabama. People all over the US followed events like the Scottsboro incident, 1955 bus boycott and also Martin Luther King’s rise to leadership. Harper Lee is said to have been influenced by these events very much. Though many details of To Kill a Mockingbird are apparently autobiographical she has insisted that the novel is a work of fiction. The text under analysis belongs to the group of fictional texts. The literary trend is realism. The book is brilliant and powerful and it is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The story takes place during three years of the Great Depression in...
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...Harper Lee uses foreshadowing in her novel to help her audience understand the topic of racism in Maycomb. She first uses foreshadowing when Atticus says”...It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what (Lee, 112).” The trial hasn't even begun and Atticus knows he won't win, all because Tom Robinson happens to be black. She is foreshadowing how Tom Robinson's trial will ultimately end. This quote is foreshadowing the conviction of an innocent man for a crime he did not commit, all because of the color of his skin. He will be convicted because he is considered to be even less than the white “trash” of the town. It's an evident example of the racism that took place in Maycomb during...
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