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Why did it take so long for people to realize slavery/racism are wrong?
I recently read a story called To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The book is about Harper Lee's childhood. Many of the aspects in To Kill A Mockingbird match up with what her life was like growing up. It was published in 1960. The story takes place in the 1930's, right after the Great Depression ended. The main character is Scout Finch. The story follows her through her childhood with her older brother Jem and their neighbor Dill. They live in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb(made-up town). Many of the events that occurred in this book got me thinking about history class and what we were currently learning about in the Enlightenment unit
To Kill A Mockingbird is certainly an effective source. It is a very popular story worldwide and it even won awards including the Pulitzer Prize and an Oscar. The events that happened in it are true, and connect to what we are learning about in class. Harper Lee wrote a very great book and it is definitely an eligible source to use for connections.
In history class, we have been learning about the Enlightenment. It was a time period where new ideas developed and everything was supposedly improving. However, as things might seem all happy and great...they weren't. Indentured slaves were rebelling against their masters and this caused a huge problem. Who was supposed to do all the hard work for people? This is when slavery became a law. Anyone who wasn't catholic that came to America could become enslaved. Crazy right?
White people started thinking differently. Anyone who wasn't white was different or inferior. Colored people were the most common victims of slavery. People just saw them as animals and took control of them because the law allowed them to. Racism also started developing. People assigned meaning to how they looked. If you were white you were pure and normal but if you were black, you were looked down upon and people would enslave you.
How does this all connect with To Kill A Mockingbird? When I was reading about Tom Robinson's trial, I was really disturbed. Before he even stepped into the court room for the trial, he was guilty. Tom Robinson was guilty because he was black. The majority of people in the court room hated him because of his skin color without even knowing him. He was a good man who worked hard for his family and helped everyone. This was all taken from him because a white girl accused him of raping her. There was no evidence and the trials of Mayella and her father were absurd. They were obviously lying because they kept changing their stories. But none of that mattered because Mayella was white and Tom was black.
Racism is shown in this story through the case of Tom Robinson. If racism developed in the 1600's/1700's then why is it taking so long for people to realize it's wrong? To Kill A Mockingbird was in the 1930's so that means people were still racist then. In fact, today there are still racist people in the world. It is taking too long for racism to end. There is also still slavery in the world which is ridiculous because there are laws against it. Overall, To Kill A Mockingbird connects with what we learned about in history because the enlightenment includes slavery laws and racism which are a big part of Tom Robinson's trial.
Sources:
"To Kill A Mockingbird." 1960. Harper Lee.
"To Kill A Mockingbird cover." Photograph. Chamberfour.com http://chamberfour.com/
I thought this was a really well done post!! I liked how you made the title in bright red, because it totally caught my attention. I also liked how you compared history class to "To Kill A Mockingbird", a book that almost all of us have read and can relate with. Just like you, I think that it is ridiculous that people are still discriminated upon for their looks and skin color. It was sickening back in the 1700s, and its even worse that it still continues to this day.
ReplyDeleteI like how you connected something we all learned in history to something we all read in English so everyone would be able to relate to your feelings. I also liked how you pointed out the lasting effects race-born slavery in the 1700s continues to have even in the 1900s, two hundred years later. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI love how you compared your post to "To Kill A Mockingbird" a book everyone and their mother has probably read. So many people know what your talking about, and the way how you compare slavery and the book is done very well.
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