To Kill A Mockingbird Stereotypes Analysis

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Looking at People but Seeing Stereotypes
To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel that reveals the hardship of growing up in the 1930s and the dangers of social injustice and segregation. Lee does this by taking the reader on a trek through a mountain built on stereotypes. The novel takes place in Maycomb, Alabama, a society that is blinded by the color of one’s skin and can’t see beneath the surface. Maycomb’s inability to see past stereotypes causes a split in Maycomb’s society between whites and negroes. People’s opinions are indoctrinated into the opinion society demands. The white community clumps towards the view that: “all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are not to be trusted around …show more content…
Maycomb’s society influences and constructs the way the court thinks and operates towards Negroes. During the Tom Robinson trial Lee makes it clear how biased the court is; Atticus Finch clearly lays out how Tom Robinson would not be capable of raping Mayella Ewell. Lee does this on purpose, it is her intention to layout (just like Atticus) all the evidence and facts towards how society manipulates the opinion of one to help control another. One person can influence the thoughts of another, but a massive group can change the works of hundreds. A growing group with the opinion that black should not be mixed with white has the power to take that opinion and integrate with society. Maycomb is an example of this indoctrination, but also reflects our society in the 1930s. Lee utilizes society’s animosity towards Negroes to change the course of the reader’s standpoint. So, when Atticus tells the jury that the court is no better than themselves Lee is just hinting at the fact the society influences the court’s decision. Maycomb’s society was not ready to make true to the statement that “all men are created equal” because in truth “[t]he Supreme Court has often reflected the changing nature of American society. In the mid-19th century, the court issued an infamous decision upholding the notion that African-American slaves were not …show more content…
Lee outlines how the discourse of society, judicial system, economy, and education affects the thoughts of stereotypes in Maycomb. Society is greatly impacted by the thoughts of one person, but is ultimately changed by the thoughts of a crowd. Lee displays the works of this through each family and event that happens in Maycomb. Throughout the novel Lee takes the reader on one heck of a trek and addresses the dangers of seeing a person as a stereotype. Harper Lee sets out to show that “you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them”
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