Concepts of To Kill A Mockingbird
Jackson Allen and Carson Brown
Prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird
Association, Connotation, and Denotation
Denotation: Prejudice is defined as a preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience.
Connotation: The word prejudice has a negative connotation that is critical due to the fact that it is usually used to put a label on someone/something before they can express themselves.
Association: Some words commonly associated with prejudice include racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and homophobic.
What Prejudice Means to Me
To me, the word “prejudice” means that you have an idea in your head about something, before you have a chance to meet them. This is commonly shown in the saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover”, which means that you don't know anything about a book until you've actually read it. I believe that it is a very big problem in our world today, because it sometimes makes people uncomfortable in situations where they have nothing to worry about.
Examples in To Kill A Mockingbird
Prejudice is seen throughout To Kill A Mockingbird in many contexts. Residents of Maycomb have preconceived opinions of almost all people in their town, including women, African Americans, and lower social classes. On Scout’s first day of school, she shows her thoughts on lower social classes, including the Cunninghams, who make less than most but still have honor in their trade, and the Ewells, who live like animals. She has these opinions about the kids not because she knows them, but because she has already established ideas about the family. When Miss Maudie says that Mr. Nathan Radley shot a Negro, it shows her prejudice towards African Americans, thinking that they are the type of people to break laws. Scout also has prejudiced ideas about women, thinking that all they do is sit around and drink tea, which is why she prefers to hang around boys.
Examples in Society
An Image Embodying Prejudice
We chose this picture because although it may be humorous, prejudice can offend some people. The picture shows a map of the world and has captions for some areas that describe that place. It represents prejudice because it shows how people view different places of the world just by what they have seen in the news, or what they have been involved with in the past.
It shows how people have prejudiced ideas that group many people together and describe them all similarly, without even knowing anything about the individual people.