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Joel Peguero Ms. Peterson English 1 3 December 2013 Does Prejudice Affect You?

In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, author Haper Lee wants readers to walk away with a better understanding of prejudice leading to injustice. Of the many themes relevant to todays modern life, this is the primary of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Lately, this would be relevant to what George Zimerman did. The fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimerman because of his misconception ties very well to the plot of To Kill A Mockingbird. Lee clearly underlines and emphasizes this theme as the most critical when Atticus said that you never know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them, when a white mans word is against blacks man word the white man always wins, and when Dill said that he hates when grown folks look at him. Lees most prevalent example of fighting prejudice is when Atticus said that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. You can see this when it says, Atticus was right, one time he said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them(285). You dont want to start judging someone just because of his or hers looks, race, ethnic group, or religion. When readers encounter this statement, they are able to connect to Lees message because of all the injustice happening to black men and woman because of their different looks.

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Another prominent example of prejudice is when in courts, a white man always wins. You can see this when it says, In our courts when its a white mans word against a black mans, the white man all ways wins. Theyre ugly but these are the facts of life (226). This is what would actually happen back then. This is so unfair and unethical that just because a person has a different skin color than yours, youre better than they are. Perhaps Lee chose to include this affair in the plot to show readers that prejudice even went all the way down to the courts and they allowed it. One last critical example of prejudice thats in To Kill A Mockingbird is when Dill says that he hates grown folks looking at him because it makes him uncomfortable. You can see this when it says, I hate grown folks looking at you, said dill. Makes you feel like youve done something (287). I totally agree with Dill. When in school, I hate when an adult looks at me like I did something wrong and gets me in trouble. Before you start pointing finger, you should get all the facts first. Lee wrote this to us to really think about how we treat people in our daily lives. Some may argue that prejudice is the secondary to the theme To Kill A Mockingbird, but I would like to disagree. I would like to go back to the beginning when I brought out that Atticus said you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around on them. We do not want to let other peoples stereotypes affect our thinking when it comes to matters like this. We have to get to know a persons personality first. To Kill A Mockingbird helps us to see that we cannot let prejudice affect us as a person and lead us to injustice. So think about this, if prejudice wasnt the main theme of this novel, you would have never thought about how prejudice might have affected you in your life and others back then.

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Work Sited: Handschuh, Judith. "Harper Lee." Teen Reads. N.p., 2003. Web. 1 Dec. 2013.