“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it,” said Atticus Finch In To Kill A Mockingbird. This is a story that tells about Scout Finch, his brother Jem, and his father Atticus. The author, Harper Lee’s purpose when writing this book was to show racism and prejudice in the south in the 1930s. One of the focuses of this book is the court case of Tom Robinson, which ended up with an innocent man dying because he was black. People in the book also use racist language, and are sexist too.
In the story, one of the main plot points is the court case against Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping and beating up Mayella Ewell. In the courtroom, he was shown to be obviously innocent by Atticus. For example, Mayella’s right side of her face was beat up (left from the outside), and Tom had his left hand made unusable in an accident as a child. According to the story “His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand, and as far away from the balcony, I could see that it was no use to him.” There was further evidence when she stopped answering questions once they showed that her story didn’t add up. However, the court convicted Tom, the black man, to death. This was predicted by one character who said “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man.” She added this to show people would even put other people to death, than rule in favor of a black person over a white person. This shows prejudice, because even though the character was clearly innocent, they ruled against him due to him being black. Another way …show more content…
For example, she likes to romp around during the summer with her friend Dill and Jem, along with sneaking into the Radley yard, even though they were afraid of Boo Radley. She also wears pants when girls were supposed to wear dresses. However, not everyone was okay with this. Although Atticus let Scout act unladylike, Scout says that “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches, when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to do things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra's vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father's life.” This shows that rather than express themself and act how they liked, people tried to force her into being a normal woman. Alexandra also forced Scout to converse with other women about gossip, and other topics Scout wasn’t interested in. This shows prejudice because women were expected to act a certain way, and they were forced into it. The author added this to show how if you were a woman in this time period, you had to act like it, or you would get called out on it by others. This shouldn’t happen as people should be allowed to be whoever they want, and this is much more possible in modern
In the story, one of the main plot points is the court case against Tom Robinson. Tom Robinson, a black man, was accused of raping and beating up Mayella Ewell. In the courtroom, he was shown to be obviously innocent by Atticus. For example, Mayella’s right side of her face was beat up (left from the outside), and Tom had his left hand made unusable in an accident as a child. According to the story “His left arm was fully twelve inches shorter than his right, and hung dead at his side. It ended in a small shriveled hand, and as far away from the balcony, I could see that it was no use to him.” There was further evidence when she stopped answering questions once they showed that her story didn’t add up. However, the court convicted Tom, the black man, to death. This was predicted by one character who said “I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man.” She added this to show people would even put other people to death, than rule in favor of a black person over a white person. This shows prejudice, because even though the character was clearly innocent, they ruled against him due to him being black. Another way …show more content…
For example, she likes to romp around during the summer with her friend Dill and Jem, along with sneaking into the Radley yard, even though they were afraid of Boo Radley. She also wears pants when girls were supposed to wear dresses. However, not everyone was okay with this. Although Atticus let Scout act unladylike, Scout says that “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches, when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn't supposed to do things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra's vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace she gave me when I was born; furthermore, I should be a ray of sunshine in my father's life.” This shows that rather than express themself and act how they liked, people tried to force her into being a normal woman. Alexandra also forced Scout to converse with other women about gossip, and other topics Scout wasn’t interested in. This shows prejudice because women were expected to act a certain way, and they were forced into it. The author added this to show how if you were a woman in this time period, you had to act like it, or you would get called out on it by others. This shouldn’t happen as people should be allowed to be whoever they want, and this is much more possible in modern