The Theme Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Racism is the belief in which ethnic groups account for differences in human character that a particular race is superior to others. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the topic of racism is emphasized in the small town of Maycomb, where African Americans are misjudged. Although, this novel was published in the 1960’s when the American civil rights movement was underway, it was set during the period of the 1930’s. In the 1930’s in the small county of Maycomb, the mentality of most southern people were racist and discriminatory, and in this novel, these ideas are explored through a young girl, Scout. Throughout, To Kill a Mockingbird there was a theme of race. The central narrative tension of the theme of racism was during the trial
If Atticus were defending a white man, then people would act differently and would possibly be on Atticus’s side. When analyzing this theme of this novel many theorists argue that: “ Gender and sexuality heavily influence and shape our conceptions of race” (Rape, Incest, and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, p745).
What this quotation from my critical source is telling readers is that someones race and how you treat them is determined by their gender and sexuality, which is greatly exemplified in this novel. I think the main point is to exemplify how Harper Lee incorporated African Americans into the current times when Brown vs Board of Education was underway in 1954 and demonstrated the reality of the South’s race problem. I think that this is interesting because it shows you how Harper Lee introduced it into her novel while it was a very big problem and is still a current topic of issue in the world today. In another quotation that was spoken from Atticus Finch to
In most cases, African Americans were not even acknowledged, they were treated like animals with no regard for their feelings. In To Kill a Mockingbird if you were colored like Tom Robinson it didn't matter how innocent he was, his crippled arm and the evidence against him, the jury, because they are racist thought that Tom Robinson raped Mayella Ewell because he was a Negro. During this period of time, African American’s were still highly subjugated members of society. They were not permitted to commingle with whites in public settings, as exemplified in the courthouse physical separation of races and in the clearly distinct black and white areas of