Preview

Racial Inequality In The Book 'To Kill A Mockingbird'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
589 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Racial Inequality In The Book 'To Kill A Mockingbird'
Emily Moss
Mrs. Padgett
English II Pre-AP
9 January 2015

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout, the narrator, asks her father, “Atticus, are we going to win it?” to which he replies, “No honey” (Lee 87). Atticus knew his hometown of Maycomb would never emerge from its racial inequality, but he did everything he could to prevent it. Racial inequality is the unjust treatment of minority groups, such as African Americans. While some believe America can achieve true racial and social equality, America is unable to rid itself of racism because it is a human characteristic for people to group together with those whom they share similarities, and years of unequal opportunities for minorities will not be forgotten. Certainly, it is human nature

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, characters resist the status quo many of their family and friends believe in to take a stand against racial injustice. For example, Atticus takes the case to defend Tom against his family’s wishes, because if he didn't, “.... [he] couldn't hold [his] head up in town, [he] couldn't represent this county in the legislature..” (100). Scout was asking Atticus why he would defend Negroes if he wasn't supposed to, and Atticus told Scout he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't accept the case.…

    • 353 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird, by Nelle Harper Lee, was written in 1960. During the 1960's great movements towards equality and integration were taking place, there was great social injustice towards African-Americans. This was Lee's entire plot of the book he wanted to show how even when all evidence proofed a black man innocent when his word is faced the that of a white person or person of the privileged society, he will be found guilty. In To Kill a Mockingbird Lee wrote about a black man named Tom Robinson, who has been accused of raping a very poor white girl named Mayella Ewell, when in all actuality he did nothing but help her out. She made sexual advances towards him, and as he rejected Mayella's father walked in and became outraged and began…

    • 1291 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Social inequality was a major factor of society during The Great Depression. People frowned upon other races.Some welcomed them to their community but many others did not. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, There's a huge difference between two races. The novel explores human morality and shows many indications of it throughout the book.…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that can give a clear lesson to further the movement for racial equality. Scout is a little girl in the south. She is the main character and protagonist of the novel. She lives with her brother Jem and her father, Atticus. She is very intelligent, thanks to her father and she is a tomboy.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although American society has evolved from the one depicted in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, today’s society needs to be reminded that social and racial inequality is still present.…

    • 370 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine a world in which the tall people gave orders to short people. In this world, tall people got the best of everything and short people essentially got their rejects. Of course, short mates with short and tall mates with tall, creating a never ending cycle. Black people experienced this every day.…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine living in a rural town in Alabama back in the early nineteen hundreds; racism runs wild and social injustices occur frequently, unregulated by law enforcement. This is just what The Finch family in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has to deal with. This is an appealing story about the Finch family and the problems that they face, especially regarding an instance of racial oppression involving a black man and a white lawyer, Atticus Finch. Besides Atticus Finch, other characters in the town of Maycomb such as Boo Radley, and Scout Finch are all known for their courageous and sometimes defying actions throughout the book.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Any good parent wants to protect their children, but how can Atticus Finch protect his own from “Maycomb’s usual disease” (Lee 117; ch. 9)? The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in Maycomb, a small Alabama town, during the Great Depression era. Amidst the frenzy surrounding the trial of Tom Robinson, Jem and Scout Finch grow up and learn some uncomfortable truths about their beloved hometown and its residents. Prejudice is an unavoidable fact of life in Maycomb, no matter how well it is hidden away. This prejudice hurts both those who hate and the hated, and is motivated by race, gender, and socio-economic status.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social inequity is an arising issue has been affecting billions of people around the world for centuries, and it needs more attention! Even innocent teenagers have been exposed to these types of prejudices. Of course, the effects of it are not good. Different kinds of literature are useful tools for shining a light on social injustice, and writers are taking advantage of this fact and writing many novels about social inequities. Authors have been writing articles and stories about racial, social, financial and gender inequities which reflect to today’s society to try and galvanize readers into action.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Racism and injustice and violence sweep our world, bringing a tragic harvest of heartache and death,” Billy Graham once said. In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird Atticus is a father and a lawyer, who lives with his children, Jem and Scout, and their cook, Calpurnia, in a town of Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is a town populated with black and white people, where racism is apparent. White people feel they are superior than the black people and treat them poorly. Racism is evident when Tom Robinson lost the trial to Bob Ewell, because he was black, even though he is innocent. People were also being judged on appearance, or being treated improperly, like how people see the kind of person Boo Radley is in the beginning of the story. Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” is about injustice.…

    • 708 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Could a perfect society exist in where everyone is treated like equals? Social Justice is a cause that aims to create equality for everyone in the world. However, this aim is prohibited by repressive groups that view only themselves as worthy of ideal lives. These groups try to put down the vulnerable minorities and keep the imbalances in their society. Therefore, their actions create Social Injustice. These Social Injustices affects everyone in the society, whether they realize it or not. In the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the science fiction book Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, and the dystopian novel Unwind by Neal Shusterman, characters face various Social Injustices caused by unequal power. In these books, Social Injustice is created by an oppressive society viewing a more vulnerable group as inferior to them.…

    • 1819 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Injustice everywhere, is a threat to justice anywhere.” –Martin Luther King. When reading this quote what comes to your mind? It tells an obvious point which many people fail to recognize. When injustice is done to one person, another has to consider what would it take for him, or her to have the same injustice happen to them. People may say that injustice towards someone is a shame, but they don’t generally ponder on the possibility that it could happen to them at any given time. We see racial injustice happening frequently in courts. A man might get convicted of something he is not guilty for just because of his race, which is very unjust and inhumane. We see many ways of injustice in our world, like economic injustice, but one of the main examples of injustice is political and racial, especially in court rulings.…

    • 942 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Over the decades, some may say that the US has progressed. This is when it comes to things like technology, diversity, and schooling. Sadly, one thing has not changed, this would be prejudice towards black people. The events that occur today and the Civil Rights movement can be easily compared and contrasted, in spite of the time period being decades apart, grief towards the bigotry against African Americans is still as much as alike as it was before. Harper Lee’s well-known novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, displayed controversial themes of prejudice and segregation that occurred in the 1930s. The novel displays racial inequities still present today, these can be observable through occupations that are influenced through racial profiling, wrongful…

    • 1503 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Although gender discrimination is hidden with the other social norms, it is present and has a great impact on the daily lives of both men and women. Sexism has a similar effect on society like bacteria; while it may be beneficial for some, it can be harmful to others. This concept is what creates the significant gap between genders, while giving the impression that one gender, generally the male, is superior to the other. Sexism has made its way into a part of daily life; it is simply inevitable for the general population to follow the typical roles, established since the beginnings of the development of humanity. The basic foundations of the roles of men and women are heavily influenced by sexism; therefore, gender discrimination is clearly…

    • 1056 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From a very young age, I have always held a strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. Being able to sense when something throws off my moral compass is something that I pride myself on, which is how I relate deeply with Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, from To Kill a Mockingbird and Go Set a Watchman. In Watchman, Scout is now in her twenties, and trying to wrap her head around the rapidly changing times of the 1950s, when the entire country is on the brink of major social change on the racial front. Traveling from progressive New York City to her childhood home of Maycomb, Alabama, only deepens her confusion on racial issues. Scout is forced to formulate her own opinions when discovering the deepening troubles concerning race in her hometown……

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays