To Kill A Mockingbird -Discrimination
Have you ever encountered a situation that dealt with discrimination? Harper Lee's "To kill a Mockingbird", is an ideal example of the various prejudices occurring in society. Despite the fact that Boo Radley, and I are people who lived in a completely different society, something that made us in common was discrimination. Boo was discriminated by a result of rumors and I have discriminated someone from rumors around the environment I've lived in. There are many reasons that lead to groups of people choose to persecute each other and the same happens in the book, and this is all due to a lack of empathy and understanding between people.
Boo Radley, who was the most, misunderstood character that was discriminated by his own family and children of the Maycomb. To the children of Maycomb he was a monster, even though Boo Radley does no harm and is never anything but pleasant to others. No one really understands who Boo Radley is, instead they hears many opinions of the people in Maycomb. People in Maycomb choose to believe what they hear about Arthur, because people generally see what they look for, and hear what they listen for. There are many rumors about Boo Radley, for example some people said, "He went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows." (Page 9, To Kill A Mockingbird).
Another example will be, "Boo Radley was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time."(Page 13, To Kill A Mockingbird)
Stories about Boo are pasted around Maycomb quickly but the truths of injustice are kept quiet. Arthur's ...
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Another example will be, "Boo Radley was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained- if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time."(Page 13, To Kill A Mockingbird)
Stories about Boo are pasted around Maycomb quickly but the truths of injustice are kept quiet. Arthur's behavior suggests that the lack of tolerance and understanding was apparent to him. Due to these false accusations, Boo Radley is looked down upon in the society and is scared of and hated by the townsfolk even Though the children and the adults had never seen him before ,or seen him in years they still could envision this monster inside of their heads.
Discrimination that is caused by a result of rumor can affect the mind of a young child. I have experienced this when I first came to ISPP an international school, I discriminated one of the Japanese girl, which at the end became my best friend. When I was young, at around the same age as Scout, in the school I was taught to learn about Taiwanese and Chinese history. In the age of 6 or 7, my grandparents who lived during WWII, when there was invasion of Japanese, they can't help themselves but to hate Japanese, and I was influenced by what I heard around me. I heard about when Japanese invaded China, they committed terrible atrocities against the Chinese, when I heard about that, all I could understand at that time was, they are my enemy, and I will never forget what they've done to my country.
Children in China and Taiwan can be forgiven for thinking Japan is a nation of devils. When I first met my Japanese friend, even though I didn't know her, i disliked her from her appearance, a Japanese look. I remember when I was in elementary school; I learned how to read, write and the education in national humiliation. That taught me how Japanese bandit brutalized us, throughout the 1930s and would do so today if they were given half a chance. Before I came to Cambodia, I had this trip to the Anti- Japanese War Museum in Beijing to view grainy photos of war atrocities. In the museum I saw that woman were raped and disemboweled, and corpses of children stacked like cordwood. As a young girl at that time, all I could say at that time was "after seeing this, I hate Japanese more than ever." After I came to this international school, I've realized that it's not her who wanted be Japanese, and she wasn't even born at that time, so there is nothing to do with her. As I stayed with my friend more, I've started to think that not all I've heard was true, elder people in China and Taiwan meant to exaggerate from what they've known from their parents, because they were not involved in it, so they will never know what actually happened.
Discriminations sometimes take place since people are unfamiliar with the inside of the people, thus try judging them from what they notice from the others. It is also caused due to the diverse thoughts between people, their cultures and their social significance. Although, Boo Radley and I are people who lived in different centuries and society, discrimination shows that there is still a connection between two people from different centuries. Discriminations have been around for a long time and I believe that preventing it completely is difficult, however, characters and people like Atticus, will help us achieving the goal of diminishing discrimination all over the world.
