Atticus Finch Character Analysis Essay

The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel " To Kill a Mockingbird" has been banned and challenged in many schools in America over the 20th and 21st century, partly due to its vulgar language. Although to kill a mockingbird tries to educate about the historical importance of racism it should not be taught in American schools because the book gives a false picture of racism in 1930 and promotes white saviourism. W.E.B Dubois coined the phrase '' double consciousness``, in an 1897 issue of The Atlantic Monthly. It is a concept in social philosophy referring, originally, to a source of inward "twoness" experienced by African-Americans due to their racialized oppression and disvaluation in a white-dominated society. He argued that there are two competing identities as a black American, seeing oneself as an American and seeing oneself as a black person living in white-centric America. Dubois further points out, that black people always had to ''look at one's selves through the eyes of others''. This can be related to To Kill a Mockingbird, since the novel only gives voices to the collective, for example, Alexandra Hancock (née Finch) or Bob Ewel, both are only side-characters and had more appearances in the novel than Tomas Robinson, although To Kill Mockingbird focuses on his trial. In addition, it has to be considered that reading to kill amockingbird, which excessively uses the n-word, does not benefit black students who already experience racism in every aspect of their life. Therefore, novels like To Kill a Mockingbird cannot continue to be taught as if the whole classroom is filled with people who have never experienced racism in their lifetime.To Kill a Mocking Bird is downplaying racism while promoting the White Saviour Complex.TheWhite Saviour Complex is when white people want to self-manage in saving black people from an emergency or difficulty, it is insinuated that black people are unable to help themselves. This can be seen when every black person in the courtroom stood up for Atticus out of respect. Atticus Finch, the lawyer of Tom Robinson portrays the White Savior Complex.He is a well-educated man who tried to help an innocent black man named Tom Robinson. The character of Atticus Finch shows heroism and challenges the injustice that is prevalent throughout Maycomb, mainly by electing to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who was falsely accused of raping a white woman. He is seen by many Americans as a moral hero. This can be seen in a speech of former President Obama in the year 2017. In the speech, he quotes Atticus directly which followed by cheering of the audience and many posts on social media saying that Atticus is a hero.Nevertheless, Atticus often gets praised for doing the bare minimum such as not saying the n-word with the hard-er or just as simple as doing his job, by defending Tom Robinson. Although he did not exactly choose to represent Tom Robinson, considering he was appointed to do so. Additionally, he prohibited his children to use the N-word as it was "common" and therefore unfitting of their social class not because it was a racist slur against black people.

On the contrary, is Bob Ewell who is depicted as an aggressive alcoholic. He represents the lower-income class of the population. Bob Ewell was one of the only people who used derogatory language against black people, implying that racism in 1930 only existed from the lower-class. White Americans still had a better life than the minorities, even though the depression greatly affected them as well. While white people had to deal with the great depression, black people were additionally challenged with fighting for basic human rights. For example, while white kids could enjoy their time one Carnaval, black people would see a modified version of the game ''Hit the n*** Baby''. The purpose of the game was to hit a targetedblack person with one of three throws-and win a prize. In the following game ''Dunk The Africandips'' people could throw balls at a target which would release a black man in a dunk tank. This game was played until 1950. Black people are silenced in their daily life by phrases like ''it is not racist'' or ''slavery is over, there is no racism'', but also in literature, for example, by not putting any black literature in the school curriculum. If schools want to teach about racism, they should put books from people who are affected by racism and not just witness it. A good novel to teach about racism is "native son'' by Richard Wright's. The novel also plays in the 1930s and is about a 20-year-old African American. The novel shows what prejudices and hate can do withe a persons psychic, while also having a black person as the main character. When one considers the historical misinformation about racism in the 1930s it is clear that students should not read this novel. If To Kill a Mockingbird keeps getting taught, students will have a false image of racism, which results in thinking that racism was not a big problem and is not prominent today. Laura Maura Mae Lindo likewise emphasizes in her ted talk ''Why huggingout racism in education just won't cut it'', that '' America has tried far too long to make white people trying to believe that racism does not exist and far less time trying to make black, brown and indigenous students know that we think that racism is at crisis levels in our school ''This confirms that the novel ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' should not be taught at school as it is not showing the full extent of racism in 1930....