Prejudice Affecting Our Societies
Prejudices Affecting Our Society
In our society, we are able to witness how our prejudices can affect the way people live. At times, there are people who come forward and confront the injustice in our lives and try helping the victims. However, there are numerous occasions were we fail to confront the prejudice, and take no notice of the consequences that may result; this is evident in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird where the numerous prejudices and injustices heaped upon various characters brings the society itself to moral conflict. We witness first hand how failing to confront various types of prejudices may result large repercussions.
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we take notice of three mockingbirds that are victims of different types of prejudice. The main prejudice is discrimination against the coloured people, and how it resulted in an innocent man being killed. In this novel, there is a white man, Atticus, who is in the highest social echelon in the town of Maycomb. He is a knowledgeable, caring, and an understanding man, who decides to do the unspeakable. He chooses to defend a black man who is charged with raping a white woman. When he made his decision to defend a black man, he went against the ways that the town of Maycomb functions by. When his daughter, Scout, asked him why he chose to defend a black, he said, "If I didn't (defend him) I couldn't holy up my head in town, I couldn't represent this country in legislature. I couldn't even tell you and Jem not do something anymore" (pg. 75). This meant that he couldn't live with the guilt of not trying to help an innocent man. Later on, Scout asks him if they are going to win it, and why defend him if we are not, and Atticus answers, "No honey, simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason not to try to w in."(pg. 76) Atticus knew there was little hope of winning a case where a white man's word meant more than a black man's word, but he was the only one that
In our society, we are able to witness how our prejudices can affect the way people live. At times, there are people who come forward and confront the injustice in our lives and try helping the victims. However, there are numerous occasions were we fail to confront the prejudice, and take no notice of the consequences that may result; this is evident in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird where the numerous prejudices and injustices heaped upon various characters brings the society itself to moral conflict. We witness first hand how failing to confront various types of prejudices may result large repercussions.
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we take notice of three mockingbirds that are victims of different types of prejudice. The main prejudice is discrimination against the coloured people, and how it resulted in an innocent man being killed. In this novel, there is a white man, Atticus, who is in the highest social echelon in the town of Maycomb. He is a knowledgeable, caring, and an understanding man, who decides to do the unspeakable. He chooses to defend a black man who is charged with raping a white woman. When he made his decision to defend a black man, he went against the ways that the town of Maycomb functions by. When his daughter, Scout, asked him why he chose to defend a black, he said, "If I didn't (defend him) I couldn't holy up my head in town, I couldn't represent this country in legislature. I couldn't even tell you and Jem not do something anymore" (pg. 75). This meant that he couldn't live with the guilt of not trying to help an innocent man. Later on, Scout asks him if they are going to win it, and why defend him if we are not, and Atticus answers, "No honey, simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason not to try to w in."(pg. 76) Atticus knew there was little hope of winning a case where a white man's word meant more than a black man's word, but he was the only one that