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White people think they are better than them and consider it a crime if a black man beats a white man in any way shape or form. This is when Tom Robinson comes into play. He is a huge aspect of the book. He is put into trial for supposedly raping Mayella Ewell. When the court date comes, the information gathered from both sides point to Tom as being innocent. Many people suspect Mr. Bob Ewell was the man that beat Mayella for coming to a black man. Evidence suggest that Tom Robinson only losses his case because of his colour. Even in the courtroom, people are divided by their colour and class. The black people of the crowd have to sit on the balcony while the white folk sit on the floor. This is discrimination against the black race. They are treated differently than the white people because of false and prejudice judgement and opinions of others. “A white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man always wins.”(Lee, 243) This quote is a significant piece of evidence that represents the injustice and biased treatment against black people in Maycomb. This can also demonstrate the fact of how Maycomb tends to be bias towards characteristics of people or families that are out of their control such as age, gender, wealth, race or even your family. Everything the people in Maycomb are is based upon these factors that are out of their control. Atticus…
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In Harper Lee’s novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” racism is a common thread in the community and is never more apparent than in this chapter. Tom Robinson is subjected to an unfair disadvantage throughout this novel, from the mob that comes after him at the Maycomb county jail to the results of his trial. Atticus states in chapter 10, “it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,” this comes back into play as Tom’s innocence is constantly ignored because of his skin color. Tom Robinson may be the minority but it should not make him any less innocent than any white man on the witness stand. It is a distinct aura throughout Tom’s trial that he is not innocent until proven guilty, solely because of he is black. Across the plot Atticus is constantly…
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C. I believe Atticus is a good parent because he acts like he knows what heʼs…
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“To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place in 1930’s Alabama, where racism and segregation were accepted as social norms. Lawyer Atticus Finch defended “Negro” Tom Robinson in court, whom Mr. Ewell accused of raping his daughter. People considered defending a black man in court against a white man as a disgrace to the lawyer, his family and community. While Atticus talked to his brother Jack, he mentioned that “The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells‘. The evidence boils down to you-did—I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells”. (Lee, 116-117) Atticus tells Jack that they don’t have enough data to prove Tom’s innocence in the case. The Ewells were not as respectable people as Tom Robinson, but according to the social hierarchy, dishonorable white people were above…
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Prejudice and intolerance towards people because they are of a different race has been notorious in America since the early 1900’s. In Harper Lee’s “ To Kill a Mockingbird”, in a town called Maycomb, intolerance is superabundant against black people and any affiliation with them. In the story Tom Robinson is being indicted of rape and Atticus Finch steps up to defend him. With this situation lingering in Maycomb,of course the town’s people express the intolerance they have towards an innocent black man and a white man helping him. Of course, when it’s revealed that Atticus is going to defend Tom for the rape of Mayella Ewell, the townspeople become infuriated.…
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d. When reading the novel, I believed that it's theme dealt with courage and bravery.…
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In the United States and all over the world there use to be racism. You would see racism everywhere form the buses, water fountains, bathrooms to the restaurants and even in the court room. In Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, she demonstrated racism in many ways but the main way she demonstrated it was in the case of Tom Robinson. Tom Robison is a kind and gentle black man who lives on the outskirts on Maycomb county. Tom was accused of rapping and abusing Mayella Ewell, the daughter of Bob Ewell, and then is unfairly thrown is prison for a crime he did not commit.…
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In To Kill A Mocking Bird, Harper Lee portrays racial bias from low class whites to maintain their position above blacks in the social hierarchy. After Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a mob of white men goes to the Maycomb jail to lynch Tom Robinson. “ You know what we want,’ Another man said. ‘Get aside from the door Mr. Finch.” Tom Robinson has been accused of rape, but he has not been put on trail, but these men decide to take it into their own hands and kill him just because he is black. These men do not personally know Tom Robinson, but if he were to win this case then these men would be at the bottom of the social hierarchy because of their socioeconomic status and respect in the community so they have want to lynch Tom Robinson to show their superiority over blacks. People like the Ewells are terrible people, and a disgrace to the community and the only thing keeping them from the bottom of the social hierarchy is the fact that their white. “Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status people like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well in the depths of a depression.” The Ewells are a disgrace to the community, and live off of everyone else but they still have a slightly higher status than the whites only because of the color of their skin. The blacks in Maycomb are a hard working people and should have more respect than the Ewells in the community so people like the Ewells try so hard to put the blacks down to keep from the bottom. In Maycomb the Blacks are better harder working than many of the whites, but the whites have more respect just because of the color of their skin.…
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Racism in To Kill A Mockingbird was very common, and it is an important part of the story. Racism is shown by the Caucasians in Maycomb against the African-Americans in many different ways. The only reason Tom was killed was because he was colored and he didn't have the freedom the caucasian have. The white society was racist against Africans-Americans call them by a different word. The judge was very racist even after Atticus giving so many proofs that Tom was not the one who did it, the judge already made his mind because the jury was black he had done it. They have not trusted blacks in jails or any other job. In the end, the one main focus of the author was how racism affected black lives, and how it was present at all…
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Speaking of racism, the Scottsboro Trials and other racist behaviors displayed by Caucasians in the South have many parallels to what happened in To Kill a Mockingbird. For the most part, the Scottsboro Trials were a series of trials for a group of African American teens who apparently raped two white women who were in a train car with them riding from Tennessee to Alabama (Johnson). Eventually, the juries convicted the men despite substantial amounts of evidence to the contrary (Anderson). Specifically, there were witness accounts that showed that the men were not even in the same train car as the women, medical evidence which showed that there were no indicators of rape on the women, and reports that the women were in fact known prostitutes, which means they faced charges for crossing state lines for immoral purposes…
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“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.…
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Racism is present throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Racism has been around for many years and will probably never go away. There is many examples of racism throughout the entire book of To Kill a Mockingbird. After knowing all the examples it teaches the reader about many things that occurred throughout the 1900's. Racism is not only rude, it also affects people's lives and how people live.…
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“The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rule is a person’s conscience”(Harper Lee). In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee shows many great examples of themes. A lot of life lessons can be taken from the novel. In the 1960s in the south much discrimination against race was happening. Throughout time things have gotten progressively better. In To Kill a Mockingbird relationships for family, the perspective, and racism are all immense themes being portrayed in the novel.…
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Martin Luther King once declared, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. “ This widely known quote shows that the color of a person should not limit the from doing anything. The topic of racism is frequently visited in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel that takes place during the Great Depression. It focuses on the life of Scout Finch, her brother and the neighborhood she has grown up in, Maycomb County. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses racism in the trial scene to show that some people are treated unjustly due to their status. This theme is used to represent characters in the novel to show how race creates tension between the people of Maycomb. The treatment of Tom Robinson during the trial scene reveals that people of the…
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In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, the main theme is that it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. This metaphor of not killing mockingbird is clearly portrayed throughout the course of this novel. This theme is so important to the plot of this novel that the author decided to entitle the book after this very metaphor. Mockingbirds are birds that do not do anything wrong and they just give us music. Atticus is the main character in the novel that really stressed why it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. Mockingbirds are just a simple metaphor for the characters in this book who are killed, such as Mr. Raymond and Tom Robinson.…
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