Prejudice. Stereotypes. Discrimination.
Racism. These standards are four of many injustices that fuel the world today. They play a major role in much of America’s history and even more so in its literature. A historically significant event that demonstrates these characteristics is the integration of the Little Rock Nine in 1957 at Little Rock, Arkansas. The Little Rock Nine were the first nine African-American students to be integrated into a public school, and were subject to a whole country worth of hatred and cruelty while attending.
Aspects of this event in history are similar those in the book, To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee for they share some of the same ideas. In the first half of the novel Harper Lee portrays the small town Maycomb, Alabama, as the quintessential warm and sweet Southern town. Lee then proceeds to challenge her portrayal of this town during the second half of the book when she ruins the innocent picture to reveal a rotten other side filled with social lies, prejudice, and ignorance. This is revealed after the trial of an African American man, Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping a white woman.To Kill A Mocking Bird and the Little Rock Nine are similar in a way that they both demonstrate the brutality that the world holds for people drowning under the sea of inequality.
Both the Little Rock Nine and To Kill A Mockingbird took place during a time of segregation. African-Americans were consistently separated from the rest of the population, and even worse they were endlessly harassed. At the beginning of the school year in Little Rock, mobs of angry citizens lined up and down the street to verbally and emotionally abuse the nine students walking to school.One woman in particular, Hazel Bryan, harassed Elizabeth Eckford more than any of the students.
Numerous photos were taken of Hazel practically stalking Elizabeth, and the look on her face in each of those photos was proof enough of how much she hated those kids. Much like Hazel Bryan, Bob Ewell from To Kill A Mockingbird was also a stalker toward African-Americans in his community. After Tom Robinson’s trial was closed and Tom was found guilty, Ewell found that it was easy to pursue those involved with Tom. Lee describes Ewell’s actions toward Tom’s wife when she tated “she had to walk nearly a mile out of her way to avoid the Ewell's house, who, according to Helen, ‘chunked at her’ the first time she tried to use the public road…she heard a soft voice behind her crooning foul words the entire way” (333, 334). Mr.
Ewell’s actions are almost identical to those of Hazel Bryan for both people felt like someone took something important from them- Hazel her family’s safety and Bob his daughter. Therefore, in both situations they both found it easy to pursue people they felt had wronged them simply because they felt like those people were below them.Theme is the most important component of a piece of writing; it expresses the main idea or lesson to the reader directly or indirectly. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, three main themes were present: prejudice, bravery, and the importance of education written or unwritten. Scout’s father, Atticus Finch, taught these lessons not only to his children but also to the reader.
Atticus, knowing that defending a black man would ruin his reputation, proved that bravery is not only shown on the outside but on the inside as well.Despite his race, Atticus defended Tom Robinson regardless of what the town thought about Tom because of his race because he knew it was the morally right thing to do. Similar to Atticus’ actions, the nine students from Little Rock showed their own kind of bravery when they found the courage to get up out of their safe beds and walk into a place where no one treated them with respect. In both stories bravery comes from the inside, not from how much charisma you have on the outside. Another comparable theme between the two is prejudice, and how much the community affects public opinion.In the south, people grew up discriminating against African-American’s because it was their way of life.
In To Kill A Mockingbird there was a man, Dolphus Raymond, who was shunned from the white community because he had connections with the black community. Showing how much he cared for both societies, Dolphus taught the main characters a lesson about how people are not always what they seem from appearance. This particular lesson could have been used in Little Rock because everyone in the town saw the students as menaces instead of the innocent kids they were.The Little Rock Nine wanted a proper education ust like everyone else because education written or unwritten is very important because it gives a perspective of looking at the morals and building opinions on things in life.
Colored people grew up always one step behind the white folks, so being prejudice towards them just fueled their beliefs of discrimination more. Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout learns many lessons about what the real world holds, and that you show respect to everyone despite their appearance. The reader sees how she progressively matures during the book when she is taught these lessons.In both Little Rock and Maycomb, all of the children learned the real meaning of bravery, how to fight prejudice, and why education in any form is vital to growing up in the real world.
Life in the mid 1900’s was completely separated between African-Americans and Caucasians. Jim Crow laws were passed which made it legal to keep African-Americans from having the same rights as the white population. The nine colored students from Little Rock stood up and made a difference for other colored students all across the nation and ended segregation in public schools through the court case Brown vs.Board of Education.
The Supreme Court stripped away any constitutional sanctions for segregation by race, and made equal opportunity for education the law of the land in America. However, some laws weren’t always written. According to the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, “ The end of the Civil War had promised racial equality, but by 1900 new laws and old customs created a segregated society that condemned Americans of color to second-class citizenship. ” (Staff of the National Museum of American History, Behring Center).Put in simplest terms, African-Americans grew up in the shadow of the whites cleaning up the mess behind them as they always have because there were new laws mixed with old customs that made it morally right to discriminate against the black population. On the contrary, in To Kill A Mockingbird, a sort of ‘reverse discrimination’ occurred when the main characters accompanied their colored caretaker to her church and a member of the black congregation told them, "You ain't got no business bringin' white chillum here- they got their church, we got our'n" (Lee 119).
The children were intimidated by this repulsion and wished to go home, but soon realized this was what African Americans went through every day: the feeling of not belonging and hatred. The reader got a different look at the other types of prejudice that occurred in the mist of the entire 1900’s, whether it was in reality or in fiction. To Kill A Mocking Bird and the Little Rock Nine are alike in the way that they both prove how the cruelty of the world throws itself upon people in a life of inequality. In the south, life for African’s was hard because they were constantly being harassed for standing up for their rights.
However, during both stories their similar themes proved how bravery doesn’t just have to come from showing off, but it can come from the inside as well. African Americans stood up to the prejudice of their communities and overcame the public opinion. Segregation split the country in half, but then again how could the world overcome the standards that have ruled it for so many ages? Injustices fuel the world to make is seem like it is still spinning on. It couldn’t be any different with out all of the stereotypes.
The discrimination. The racism. The prejudice.
