Prejudice-to Kill a Mockingbird and Martin Luther King
Prejudice
Prejudice, the chain of hatred and ignorance, has haunted our history at every step. In the twenty-first century prejudice and its destruction can be viewed in many forms of modern literature. Two of the most famous and rejoiced literatures that examine the theme of prejudice are Harper Lee’s realist fiction novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and Martin Luther King’s heart warming speech ‘I Have a Dream’. Both texts explore the theme of prejudice of white Americans on the Blacks in the racially tense times of the early twentieth century. Unlike Harper Lee, Martin Luther King goes a step further to persuade the audience that there is prejudice present and we should be motivated to stop this evil from blossoming in our world. Furthermore, in his speech King also proposes a non-conformist yet non-aggressive approach to the hateful and unjust prejudice of the white society. Harper Lee portrays prejudice against race, gender, class and disability through her sequence of plot and various literary techniques such as symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, imagery, tone etc. to interweave a timeless story of good versus evil. On the other hand Martin Luther King also uses various literary techniques such as symbolism, imagery, repetition, tone, emotive language, etc. to display the racial prejudice illustrated in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Both Harper Lee and Luther King have written these emotional and heart touching stories to display the sin and destruction of prejudice to the world.
Written during the Civil Rights Movement, Harper Lee uses the writing style of Realist fiction to reveal the various Prejudices shown in the novel. Lee outlines the characters and plot of her story as fictional but the events of the story quite parallel to real life events of South America in the 1930s. Authentic events such as the Great Depression, racial segregation of the white and blacks, and the setting of the novel in Maycomb, Alabama are present in the novel to categorise it as a
Prejudice, the chain of hatred and ignorance, has haunted our history at every step. In the twenty-first century prejudice and its destruction can be viewed in many forms of modern literature. Two of the most famous and rejoiced literatures that examine the theme of prejudice are Harper Lee’s realist fiction novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and Martin Luther King’s heart warming speech ‘I Have a Dream’. Both texts explore the theme of prejudice of white Americans on the Blacks in the racially tense times of the early twentieth century. Unlike Harper Lee, Martin Luther King goes a step further to persuade the audience that there is prejudice present and we should be motivated to stop this evil from blossoming in our world. Furthermore, in his speech King also proposes a non-conformist yet non-aggressive approach to the hateful and unjust prejudice of the white society. Harper Lee portrays prejudice against race, gender, class and disability through her sequence of plot and various literary techniques such as symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, imagery, tone etc. to interweave a timeless story of good versus evil. On the other hand Martin Luther King also uses various literary techniques such as symbolism, imagery, repetition, tone, emotive language, etc. to display the racial prejudice illustrated in his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. Both Harper Lee and Luther King have written these emotional and heart touching stories to display the sin and destruction of prejudice to the world.
Written during the Civil Rights Movement, Harper Lee uses the writing style of Realist fiction to reveal the various Prejudices shown in the novel. Lee outlines the characters and plot of her story as fictional but the events of the story quite parallel to real life events of South America in the 1930s. Authentic events such as the Great Depression, racial segregation of the white and blacks, and the setting of the novel in Maycomb, Alabama are present in the novel to categorise it as a
Bibliography: [1] Lee. Harper, TO KILL A Mockingbird. United Kingdom: William Heinemann, 1960, p. 266 [2] Ibid