Examples Of Hypocrisy In To Kill A Mockingbird

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In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are several instances where hypocrisy is shown. By including hypocrisy Harper Lee is showing the complexity of ignorance in the 1930s. Many characters show hypocrisy throughout the novel, but some of the main ones are Miss.Gates, Lula, and Mrs.Merryweather.
Hypocrisy is shown in one way through Miss Gates when her class had the current events assignment. A student brought up the topic about Hitler and what he is doing to the Jews. Miss Gates opinion on the topic showed that she is very hypocritical as she states, “There are no better people in the world than Jews, and why Hitler doesn’t think so is a mystery to me.” pg.329 and proceeds to say “Persecution comes from people who are Prejudice.” pg.329. This a form of hypocrisy because earlier during Tom Robinson trial Scout remembers her saying , “.......it’s time somebody taught ‘em a lesson, they were gettin’ way above themselves, em’ the next thing they think they can do is marry us.” pg.331. Furthermore she fails to see that what she said during the trial is a form of prejudice just like Hitler and the Jews. …show more content…
This church is a all black church so Scout and Jem are looked at differently due to their skin color. No one thought it was wrong, however it’s different so no one knew what to do or say. Except for Lula, her views on churches are that it should be separated whites and blacks. As she says, “You ain’t got no business bringin white chillun here they got their church, we got our’n.”pg.313, what she is saying is that because Jem and Scout are white they should not be at a black church, but they should be at a white one. This is hypocrisy because she feels she is being attacked by prejudice, but she is actually being prejudice towards Scout and

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