To Kill A Mocking Bird
Harper Lee's classic about "Growing up and human dignity..." is a perfect example of how our prejudice and hypocrisy may often affect our judgement. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the town of Maycomb flawlessly demonstrates these aspects in every way. Hypocritical views blinded many people in the town of Maycomb, and in turn, had an effect on different people during the course of this story. Tom Robinson, Dolphus Raymond, Boo Radley, and Atticus Finch were all victims of prejudice, hypocrisy, among other issues as well. Tom Robinson was probably persecuted the most of all people during this story. He was an innocent man accused of beating Bob Ewell's daughter. The town of Maycomb shared basically the same prejudice and hypocritical view of him throughout the whole story. They thought it was "Typical of a nigger to cut and run" (240) when they heard of Tom Robinson's death. There were many people in the town that showed these traits. Miss Gates, a teacher, held a discussion about Adolf Hitler, and how prejudiced he was. She explains to her class that "We are a democracy...persecution comes from people who are prejudiced." (245), when she herself, among others, were doing the exact same thing. The jury was another group of
people who could not overcome their hypocrisy and sent Tom to his grave because of it, despite the evidence that pointed towards Bob Ewell. Another victim of their prejudice is Dolphus Raymond. Dolphus lived with the black people because he "preferred the company of Negroes" (192). He also lived with the blacks because of the town's peoples' attitude towards him. Since he carried a brown bag with a bottle inside of it and everyone figured that he was an alcoholic. "I try to give'em a reason...It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason"(192) was his answer to Scout when she asked him why he lived the way he did. Maycomb needed some explanation of why he lived with them, so he "pretended" (192), just to make them happy. "I live like I do because that's the way I want to live" (193). Dolphus explains to the children that to see the real town and what it is like, "all you gotta do is step back inside the courthouse." (193) Between these four people, we realize the true feelings Maycomb has towards different people. The Black people, such as Tom Robinson, were looked down upon and thought of as worse than the Ewells', no matter how proper they were. Dolphus Raymond lived the way he did because he wanted to. He was so sick and tired of Maycombs' attitude that he decided to live among people he knew would hold the same beliefs as him.
Some common words found in the essay are:
Raymond Dolphus, Tom Robinson, Scout Jem, Jem Scout, Adolf Hitler, Boo Radley, Bob Ewell's, Kill Mockingbird, Kill MockingBird, Miss Maudie, tom robinson, town maycomb, dolphus raymond, boo radley, stories generated, kill mockingbird, prejudice hypocrisy, black people, people town,
Approximate Word count = 919
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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