Prejudice In To Kill A Mocking :: essays research papers

To Kill A Mockingbird   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird is a story of racial injustice, sexism, and many other types of prejudice. Perhaps the most obvious form of prejudice found in the novel is racism.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tom Robinson was a hardworking, charitable person, who always put the needs of others above his own, but because of his skin colour. He was chosen as a target of racial prejudice, by those too ignorant to recognize his kindness, and care for all those around him. The 35-year-old, husband of three would never hurt a soul.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Tom Robinson was found guilty and convicted by an all white jury for a crime he did not commit, the rape of Mayella Ewell, on the night of November the 21st . The trial, and death of Tom Robinson is just one instance of racial prejudice found in the novel, but maybe one of the strongest issues of racism which exists. Atticus Finch once said, “It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird (Lee 90).'; So why did death come to Tom Robinson, such a kind hearted loving person, whose only true sin was pity for a white woman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are many other instances in To Kill A Mockingbird where racism is clearly shown. When Aunt Alexandra makes her first appearance in the novel, she says to Calpurnia, “Put my bags in the front bedroom, Calpurnia (Lee 127).'; This shows the lack of respect and feeling of superiority that Aunt Alexandra has for Calpurnia, because of the colour of her skin.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The inhabitants of the small Southern town of Maycomb are so unaware of their words that racism and racial slander has become a ‘normal’ everyday thing, children grow seeing nothing wrong in being racist.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Racial slander is so commonly used that it is clearly seen that even the author of the novel does not realize the wrong in it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sexism is also shown throughout the novel. “Atticus,'; he said, “why don’t people like us and Miss Maudie ever sit on juries? You never see anybody from Maycomb on a jury-they all come from out in the woods.'; Atticus leaned back in his rocking chair. For some reason he looked pleased with Jem. “I was wondering when that’d occur to you,'; he said. “There are lots of reasons. For one thing, Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman.'; “You mean women in Alabama can’t-?'; I was indignant. “I do. I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s.

Exterminate the brutes Essay

â€Å"The Heart of Darkness† by Conrad is one of the great novels of English literature. This novel exposes the greed, malice and selfishness of the European men. They exploit the wealth of Africa in the name of civilizing the natives. They take away their ivory and in return gave them hunger, destitution, poverty, degradation and death. The English men of this novel lack morals and conscience. Conrad observed the hypocrisy of his countrymen and exposed it in a marvelous way in this short piece of art. In this novel he brings before us the nature of â€Å"western superiority† in primitive lands. Reading this story repeatedly, we know that the dark English coast before him recalls for Marlow the darkness of modern Africa, which is the natural darkness of the jungle but more than that the darkness of moral vacancy, leading to the atrocities he has beheld in Africa. This moral darkness of Africa, we learn later, is not the darkness of the ignorance of the natives, but of the Whitman who blinded themselves and corrupted the natives by their claim to be light-bearers. Walter Allen believes that, â€Å"The Heart of Darkness of the title is at once the heart of Africa, the heart of evil- everything that is nihilistic corrupt and malign – and perhaps the heart of man† According to Conrad himself, the story of â€Å"heart of darkness† is about the â€Å"criminality of inefficiency and pure selfishness when tackling the civilizing working Africa†. In the story Marlow makes much of the inefficiency and selfishness he sees everywhere along his journey in Africa. But it is the criminality of the civilizing work itself that receives the heaviest emphasis in the novel as a whole. J. W. Beach believes that Kurtz is the representative and dramatization of all that Conrad felt of futility and horror in what the Europeans in the Congo called â€Å"progress†, which meant the exploitation of the natives by the white men. Kurtz was to Marlow, penetrating this country, a name, constantly recurring in people’s talk, for cleverness and enterprise. But there were slight intimations, growing stronger as Marlow drew near to the heart of darkness, of traits and practices so abhorrent to all our notions of decency, honor and humanity that the enterprising trader gradually takes on the proportion of a ghastly and almost supernatural monster symbol for Marlow of the general spirit of this European undertaking On his journey up the Congo, Marlow comes across the forsaken railway truck, looking as dead as the carcass of some animal; the brick maker idling for a year with no bricks and no hope of materials for making them; the â€Å"wanton smashup† of drainage pipes abandoned in a ravine; burst, piled up cases of rivets at the outer station and no way of getting them to the damaged steam boat at the Central Station; the vast artificial hole somebody had been digging on the slope- all these and many more are the examples of the criminality of the inefficiency. Wilson Follet believed that in this novel, â€Å"the European is shown drained, diseased, a prey to madness and unutterable horror and death†¦Ã¢â‚¬  This proves that the white men over there, except the company’s accountant, are inefficient and selfish. They themselves do nothing, whereas on the other hand they exploit the natives to the maximum, they extract the maximum workout of them and pay them three nine –inch long brass-wire pieces a week, which are insufficient to buy them anything. As such most of the natives are starving and dying. This novel is a very faithful accord of the cruelties and atrocities perpetrated on the natives of Africa by their European masters. Talking of the roman conquest of England, Conrad says, it was â€Å"just robbery with violence, aggravated murder on a grand scale, and men going at it blind-as is very proper for those who tackle darkness†. What Romans had done in England, the English did in South Africa. Marlow admits that English conquests, like all others, â€Å"means the taking away it from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourselves,† though Kurtz went to the African jungle with an idea to civilize the natives; he saw his mission in Africa as that of torchbearer for white civilization. But very soon he starts extracting from the natives human sacrifices to himself as god. Finally, his hatred for the natives plunged to the depth out of which came his prescription of the only method for dealing with primitive people: â€Å"Exterminate the brutes! † The European Whitman in Africa is parasites; they are hollow; they have no personal moral vision of their inhumanity and folly. They are also collapsible, because their society’s institutions are incapable to hold them up. Ivory has become the idol of the foolish run of European pilgrims; and Kurtz is no exception. † all Europe contributed to the making of Kurtz. † Joseph Conrad is a modern artist. He uses impressionistic technique of novel writing in his novel, â€Å" The Heart of Darkness†. The appeal of a novel, Joseph Conrad wrote, â€Å"must be and impression conveyed through senses â€Å". This impression could not be conveyed through the most complete inventory of details; it is an intuitive whole and must be rendered so, instantaneously. † the meaning of an episode is not inside like a kernel but outside enveloping it,† his spokesman Marlow declared. He avoids generalized narrative. He tell us the story in vivid impressions something like Virginia wolf. E. M. Forster in his seminal novel â€Å" A Passage To India’ too discuss some what â€Å"the Heart of Darkness† like situation. This novel discusses in detail the severe clash between the two fundamentally different cultures, those of East and West. The administration and their families residing there represent the westerners. Although these western people wish to maintain good relations with the easterners whom they govern, they have no desire to understand India or Indians. The Westerners rule the natives with an iron hand without caring for justice and fair play.

Women Of The Medieval And Early Modern Period - 1287 Words

Compared to men, women had limited agency and mobility in many parts of the medieval and early modern period. Moreover, there is evidence that women faced obstacles when they tried to enact their agency. Nevertheless, there are many examples where women were able to affect societal structures and navigate around conflicts. For example, women could manifest their agency through the medieval justice system, by being directly involved in societal movements such as Catharism, or through the use of Gossip. The question is than, to what extent did women have agency in the context of historical documents. First, there are a few historical documents which can be used to establish some of the limitations and obstacles in attaining agency. One example is the story of a nameless widow from the medieval city of Ghent. Her story is mentioned in the pardon letter given to her kidnappers. Based on the evidence in the letter, she was kidnapped against her will and forced to be married and live away from her home for months. Her kidnapper’s agency was such that they were able to thwart people â€Å"who tried to protect the widow.† The widow in this situation had limited recourse. The widow in this story was eventually able to file a legal complaint against her kidnappers, and thus enact her agency, but this important use of agency will be discussed latter. 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