Theme Of Prejudice In Inherit The Wind And To Kill A Mocking Bird
Prejudice is bias against someone or thing without influence from personal experience. Racism, sexism, and classism are all examples of prejudice. Both Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird exhibit this bias. In the time period in which they were written (1950-1960), prejudice was starting to be recognized and fought more. Although both works experience and overcome prejudice, Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee’s Inherit the Wind focuses on discrimination against free thought and faith, whereas Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird condemns victims through racism along with ageism.
Both Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird show themes of experiencing prejudice because of small-mindedness. In Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit the Wind, Drummond …show more content…
In Inherit the Wind, Drummond addresses the courtroom viewers to tell them that Cates’ teachings of evolution should be completely legal. He says, “’For it is my intent to show that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring afternoon in the Hillsboro High School is no crime! It is incontrovertible as geometry in every enlightened community of minds!’” (Lawrence and Lee 106). Drummond argues that new ideas are just one step towards the future. If no one ever came up with anything new, there would be no progress. He states that evolution cannot be argued against. People are reluctant to accept things that lead to change, so they automatically reject new ideas and restrict what is allowed to be taught in schools. On the other hand, To Kill a Mockingbird shows a trial against race. When Atticus addresses his audience, he states that Tom Robinson should not be condemned because of his race, saying that “’some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women…But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men’” (Lee 273). He pleads that the jury does not find Robinson guilty just because he is black. This shows that the outcome of the trial will be influenced by race, and that the trial itself is about race. The jury would not condemn a white man given the evidence of this trial. Both lawyers give sufficient evidence to prove their clients are innocent, but both are found guilty because of
Both Inherit the Wind and To Kill a Mockingbird show themes of experiencing prejudice because of small-mindedness. In Lawrence and Lee’s Inherit the Wind, Drummond …show more content…
In Inherit the Wind, Drummond addresses the courtroom viewers to tell them that Cates’ teachings of evolution should be completely legal. He says, “’For it is my intent to show that what Bertram Cates spoke quietly one spring afternoon in the Hillsboro High School is no crime! It is incontrovertible as geometry in every enlightened community of minds!’” (Lawrence and Lee 106). Drummond argues that new ideas are just one step towards the future. If no one ever came up with anything new, there would be no progress. He states that evolution cannot be argued against. People are reluctant to accept things that lead to change, so they automatically reject new ideas and restrict what is allowed to be taught in schools. On the other hand, To Kill a Mockingbird shows a trial against race. When Atticus addresses his audience, he states that Tom Robinson should not be condemned because of his race, saying that “’some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women…But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men’” (Lee 273). He pleads that the jury does not find Robinson guilty just because he is black. This shows that the outcome of the trial will be influenced by race, and that the trial itself is about race. The jury would not condemn a white man given the evidence of this trial. Both lawyers give sufficient evidence to prove their clients are innocent, but both are found guilty because of