Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

All blondes are dumb. All Americans are fat. All men are slobs. Right? All women are ladylike. All men are masculine. Correct? According to the media, social networking, and society, all signs point to yes. Today, living in a world centered off of stereotypes so harshly, judgments create barriers. Stereotypes are a form of discrimination that put people into categories that could be based on gender, race, religion, and what people know (or sometimes don’t know) about people. Getting past these barriers focuses people for what they are made out of. Not their gender nor the color of their skin, yet, for who they are as a person.

To learn from mistakes, often people need to hear from others in an example of how to better themselves.In To Kill …show more content…
One summer day, Dill, a neighborhood friend of Scout and her family, and Jem, Scout's brother, went outside together. Dill, years older than Jem and Scout, naturally assumes the leader of the group. Scout and Dill get into a small argument while being in each other's presence. Dill was getting tired of Scout’s nagging, and so he attempted to end the sprawl with an insult that would leave Scout speechless, “you're gettin’ more like a girl every day!” (69). Jem and Dill are familiar with Scout’s tomboy manners, and so he knew that calling her a girl would be considered extremely offensive to Scout. Scout being called a girl is a fact. But, this can be taken as an insult to her because of the way Dill means it. The way he implies it was that being a girl always will be a bad thing. People shouldn’t get picked on for things that they can’t help, let alone gender. Gender, something to should be proud of, not something to shame. In Scout’s case, the people in her life surrounding her do shame her for being a girl. Everyone should be free to express themselves in any way they please without being insulted for being yourself. …show more content…
Over one of the summers, Atticus defends an African American in court. Maycomb is, for the most part, a very racist town. It seems, for the most part, everyone is against black people and everything, in the people’s eyes, that they stand for. The townspeople are upset with Atticus for defending a man of color, so they act out against his decision to help Tom Robinson (The African American Atticus defends). “Men got out of cars. Shadows became substance as lights revealed solid shapes moving toward the jail door.” (202). Tom Robinson was being held in jail until the case, and this was the townspeople’s attempt at getting Tom and killing him even before the chance to testify in court. In Maycomb, if a person is African American, they automatically are labeled and have a bad reputation. Because of the color of his skin, the people of Maycomb aren’t even willing to give him a fair chance at justice in his trial. People shouldn’t be accused automatically and threatened just because of someone's race. During the trial, Atticus’s children feel the lash of negativity from the people of Maycomb just as much as Atticus does. When visiting Mrs. Dubose she makes a snarky remark to the Finch children, “‘Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!’” (135). Mrs. Dubose refers to the work that their dad does, defending a black man. She does her best to make them feel ashamed of Atticus’s work. Mrs.

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