Essay On Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

Stereotypes are labels put on people that are often harmful and almost always based on a trait that person has that they can’t control, usually relating to appearance. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The three biggest stereotypes that characters face are the stereotype of women, poor white families, and of course, people of color, particularly males. In the past, having a complete list of what a female should look like and act like was common. Women and even little girls were expected to behave in a certain way, and show their femininity and properness in whatever they did. The main character and narrator of To Kill a Mockingbird is a girl named Scout. Scout is very different from other girls because she’s a total tomboy. She likes
to play roughly with boys, wear simple shirts and overalls, and beat up Dill. However, her personality and disregard for what women were supposed to do wasn’t appreciated, especially by her aunt Alexandra, Mrs. Dubose, and the other upper-class, white women of Maycomb County, Georgia. Scout and Aunt Alexandra have a sour relationship (at least in the beginning). Aunt Alexandra argues with Atticus about Scout’s behavior and outfits and questions his parenting tactics which greatly annoys Scout and makes her wonder whether this fussy women is even related to her easy-going father. Also, Scout’s uncle Jack once looked at her overalls and made the disapproving comment, “But don’t you want to grow up to be a lady someday?” Scout simply answered, “Not particularly.” Scout has an interesting and unique style that would now be accepted but was shunned in the time period this book took place. However, Scout doesn’t seem to mind that she’s different even when a lot of people pressure her to conform to society.
The most discriminated and stereotyped ‘group’ is African-Americans. Especially in the past, black people were known to be prejudiced against and forthrightly looked down upon. Since To Kill a Mockingbird‘s setting is in the olden days and takes place in a particularly racist state, this book shows a lot of examples where white people treated ‘people of color’ as lower class. A large part of what people typically take out of this story is the trial scene. What happens during this specific part, shows a lot about how black people were treated and expected to be horrible. Tom Robinson is convicted of the death penalty even though there is a myriad amount of evidence pointing to the fact that he was innocent. A memorable quote that Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer, said was “The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption- the evil assumption- that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around our women, an assumption one associates with
minds of their caliber.” Atticus is obviously angry at the injustice that happened in the courtroom and expresses it through those sentences. Another notable statement that came out of the same man’s mouth was the following: “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson's skin, a lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.” which is another slam towards the racist court. In addition, Scout and Jem have an experience that is looked down upon; they attend church with Calpurnia which Scout really enjoys and even asks Calpurnia if she can visit her house for the first time after it. Calpurnia says yes but thanks to Aunt Alexandra finding out and being strongly opposed to it, the visit never happens. A third example shows that people expected white men to only be romantically interested in white women and vice versa. Scout and Dill meet Mr. Raymond, a white man who is married to a black woman and has mixed children. They talk for quite a while and Mr. Raymond reveals that he is not actually an alcoholic, he just carries a paper bag with a bottle of Coca-Cola inside around town so that Maycomb County citizens won’t question him choosing to marry a black woman. The fact that he does this is really sad because he isn’t really free to marry who he wants but also pretty insulting to his wife because he’s ashamed to be with her.