Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout’s perspective of Boo Radley changes as others influence her. Initially, Scout thinks as Boo as a malevolent phantom, and is scared of him because of the stories she hears. Midway through the novel, Boo starts to reveal himself to Scout, and she starts on her journey to realizing who he really is. Finally, after Boo saves Scout and Jem from Bob Ewell, Scout walks Boo back home. Now on the porch of the Radley place, Scout looks at her street from Boo’s perspective, and she realizes that Boo is just like anyone else, but he just rather live a reclusive life. Ultimately, Scout learns that she can not judge anyone until she is able to see life from their perspective.

He did a harmless prank years ago, when he was a kid, and his father punished him and he has been a prisoner in his own home since. He doesn’t do anything to harm anyone in Maycomb and they make him into a monster. For example, he helps the kids in various ways, from giving scout a blanket outside while Miss Maudie’s house was on fire, fixing Jem’s ripped pants, and saving the children from being killed by Bob Ewell. Atticus and Sheriff Tate agree it wouldn’t be a good idea to say Boo was the one who killed Bob because it would be hard for him to stand trial. Scout says, “Well, it’d be sort of like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?”

The book “To Kill A Mockingbird” was written by Harper lee. Throughout the book Lee uses a story to get a deeper meaning out to her audience and the world. During the where the story was set there were inequality issues and very prejudice opinions. Intertwined in the book she addresses the controversial topics like race and different forms of prejudice. There were several different forms of prejudice in this book.

The novel To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee has many powerful characters that have been greatly affected by the prejudice system back in the 1930s. Tom Robinson, Dolphus Raymond, and Boo Radley are all characters from this novel who have had biased accusations made against them. Tom Robinson, a twenty-five year old black man with a family of his own, was falsely accused of raping nineteen year old Mayella Ewell. Dolphus Raymond is a white man who is married to a black woman and is profoundly judged for his decisions. Boo Radley is a very mysterious character in this book, he has a very parochial outlook on things as he has hardly ever left his home.

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that explores the ideas of injustice towards “mockingbirds” people of minority difference in the 1930’s that were charged guilty for just living. During this novel, there is a man named Tom Robinson who is being falsely accused of raping a privelliged white woman from a racist family. This white family is a prime example of racism during this terrible American era. Tom represents a mockingbird because he did nothing wrong, brought the normalized racism out into the light to be questioned and he was a victim of a cruel reality that is still being portrayed in today's world. Tom Robinson resembles a mockingbird because he is not a harmful man and he was truly innocent.

“Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know it when he put the blanket around you” (81). Arthur Radley is a true representation of

Radley is understood to be mistreated by his father in his childhood and was locked away in his home for a minor infraction, making him the gossip of the town in Maycomb. Early in the book, Jem depicts Boo as a terrifying monster who had “blood-stained hands (pg.14)” and a “long jagged scar (pg.14)” from “din[ing] on raw squirrels and cats (pg.14)”. The author creates this gruesome imagery through the frightening connotations of Boo’s description to highlight the children’s’ negative perception of him. However, Boo is a hapless and innocent individual. The audience is first positioned to view Boo as such when he showed an unanticipated act of heroism, saving Jem and Scout from Bob Ewell’s attempted murder.

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird the author Harper Lee creates a strong theme showing how two of the main characters represent the innocence of a mockingbird. The two characters that are portrayed as sinners are accused of by men who are blinded by pride to the point where lives are taken. The virtue of Tom Robinson is displayed throughout the course of this story. For example, a witness from the audience at Tom Robinson’s trial speaks out and announces, “I just want the whole lot of you to know one thing right now.

In Harper’s Lee novel To Kill a Mockingbird, a mockingbird is used to symbolize innocence, kindness, and purity but is harmed by the face of prejudice and injustice. The character who best personifies the “mockingbird” is Tom Robinson. Tom is a kind-hearted, hard-working, generous, and innocent man. But due to societal norms in the time period where the novel takes place, he is heavily prejudiced and discriminated against. A mockingbird represents the idea of innocence destroyed by something “negative” which parallels Tom Robinson’s story where he is innocent, trying to live his life, but is affected by societal norms because of his skin color.

Written in the Southern Gothic style, Harper Lee’s bildungsroman novel To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) draws attention to the themes of injustice, innocence versus prejudice and moral decay. TKAM explores various forms of stereotypical assumptions, flaws within the American judicial system, and the superiority complex embedded in people. These properties contribute to a single outcome—a decadent social system where prejudice dominates. The snowman, the bluejays and Tim Johnson are symbols of prejudice within Maycomb, while the mockingbird serves in the capacity of a metaphor for the vulnerability of innocence.

Literature can be analyzed with many different critical lenses. While analyzing To Kill a Mockingbird, one may use a critical lens to recognize the different ideas throughout the novel. Harper Lee’s novel demonstrates her perspective on intolerance and discrimination within the early twentieth century. Firstly, intolerance of people who are different is very prevalent within the novel.

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee the term mockingbird symbolizes innocence in a person. In the novel it focuses on the fact that innocence, represented by the mockingbird, can be wrongfully harmed. There are two characters: Tom Robinson and Arthur “Boo” Radley that are supposed to represent the mockingbird. In the novel, Tom Robinson is the best example of a mockingbird because he is prosecuted for a crime he did not commit. Also, he was judged unfairly based on the color of his skin in his trial.

Boo Radley who “was not seen again for fifteen years”, is the most misunderstood person in Maycomb. His childhood mistakes marginalise him from society by a “form of intimidation Mr Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight.” To elaborate, Boo did not intend to separate himself and be perceived as a “malevolent phantom.” In truth, Boo is intensely lonely and wants to befriend the children in which he saves their lives. Similarly, in The

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee tells a story of racial prejudice during the Depression and how it is combated. The main development in the novel is that a Atticus, the father of Scout and Jem, has been appointed to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young white woman named Mayella. Many people in the town of Maycomb, particularly people involved with the case of Tom, have a negative attitude towards African Americans. Prejudice was a terrible issue in the South during the Depression, but Atticus Finch shows that racial injustice can be combated in two main ways, each having different levels of effectiveness.

Boo Radley had been kept in isolation for so long, he didn’t know how to communicate or socialise properly. He has been misunderstood as a malevolent person, when he actually is a benevolent person. He displays this when he put a blanket around Scout, whilst she and Jem watched the fire. As readers, we are shown social prejudice by the assumptions made about the Radley’s. Another example of social prejudice is the