To Kill A Mocking Bird - Prejudice
Harper Lee's novel "To Kill A Mocking Bird" is set in the thirties in the Deep South of America. It is about a young girl named Scout Finch, who explores the events that has happened in her community through the past years. In the novel she recalls of when her father Atticus Finch (a lawyer) defends a black person who struggles for justice. During the time of defence, Scout discovers the prejudice that people she knows has towards certain situations. In the novel prejudice is the main theme and is portrayed through Atticus, Aunt Alexandra, Boo Radley and the children. Harper Lee uses these characters to show what they do and say to portray the views of prejudice that exist in the society that we live in. The author also shows in the novel how these prejudices can be solved by either discovering the truth and by stepping into the person's skin.Atticus Finch (the main character of the novel) is a lawyer from the white community. His views on prejudice are different from the people in his community. Whilst other white people despise the black people, Atticus does not think black people are evil. To express how Atticus feels about prejudice, Atticus defends Tom Robinson who belongs to the black community.
When the children describe Boo as a "monster" they do not know they are being prejudice and think it is funny to describe someone as a monster. Here at this tea party Aunt Alexandra agrees to the opinions that the ladies at the tea party make about the black people. Overall, the author has been able to portray how prejudice exists between us when coming to meet someone who looks different and in a different rank. " This suggests that Atticus trusts Calpurnia as he trusts to anybody else. However the prejudices soon disappear when the children learn more about society and are rescued away from Bob Ewell who tries to stab them. This is demonstrated in the novel when the children learn that Boo Radley is a normal human being who has a life just like them. It has been able to show how our views of prejudice to people exist in our everyday lives and the consequences that prejudice could lead to. Aunt Alexandra is Atticus's sister and like any person from the white community she despises the blacks. This reveals that the children have very childish attitudes, which suggest when portraying the picture of a human, they exaggerate. Her views of them are exposed when arrives at the Finch's house and immediately orders Calpurnia "to put my bags away" Harper Lee shows that Aunt Alexandra treats Calpurnia as a slave just like a long time ago when black people were employed to do work for the white people. Boo Radley has not been seen for many years which allows the children to think that "Boo was about six and a half feet tall who dined on raw materials" The children's imagination of Boo suggest that they think of him as a monster who eats raw animals instead of a normal human being. To show that we shouldn't judge people who look different Atticus suggests " you never really understand a person until you climb into their skin and walk around it" Atticus solution of solving prejudice is that we should not really judge a person of what they are like physically but should judge them by trying to see from their perspective. As the novel develops, the children put dares on each other to go to the Boo's house which leads to even more prejudice about Boo. To portray further prejudice, the children in the novel (Scout, Jem and Dill) have prejudice on Boo Radley. For the first time, Scout sees that her predictions of Boo was wrong and how Boo was just an ordinary white man.
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