Theme of Discrimination in Literature Essay Example

Throughout history, discrimination has been a major issue. As of today, discrimination is a growing problem that affects a wide range of groups within society, focusing mainly on minority groups people of color, sexism, and other forms of oppression. There have been increasing numbers of persecutions, injustices, and wrongful imprisonments reported, which could be avoided if people learned to see beyond stereotypes and acquired empathy for the victims. 

There have been over 2000 wrongly convicted individuals as of July 2021. The government is currently offering $50,000 per year of incarceration, but it will not compensate for such long periods of suffering and trauma. Bryan Stevenson presents such a scenario in his book Just Mercy. Walter McMillan, an African American man who had been accused of murder with no evidence and with only ONE testimony to back up his culpability. Walter had spent 6 years on death row before he was released in March 1993. Due to the racial bias presented in the story, the case was even moved to Baldwin County, which had a much smaller population of African-Americans, leading to scapegoating. In Stevenson’s words, “Mercy is the most empowering, liberating and transformative when it’s directed at the undeserving.”(Stevenson 250) Having empathy and looking through stereotypes are the first steps towards solving these issues. 

This kind of discrimination can also be found in John Steinbeck’s novella Of Mice And Men, which takes place in the 1930s during the great depression. George and Lennie are workers that are traveling from far to the ranch in which our story takes place. In this book, the amount of discrimination against women and people with mental disabilities is one of the main focuses of the story. Having been born with a mental disability, Lennie is discriminated against and left alone, oftentimes being referred to as “nuts" and "crazy". ‘“You're nuts," said Crooks. "You're crazy as a wedge. What rabbits you talkin' about?"’(Steinbeck 70), by the end of this book, Lennie gets shot and killed. Lennie's death was the result of everyone’s intolerance towards his mental disability, he was never properly treated for it and everyone was always expecting so much from him, at the same time, in times like the ones presented in the story, there was no way that someone like Lennie could have had a comfortable life, no mental treatment was ever provided, and prejudices like this can be avoided by medical treatment. 

Discrimination is not always evident, sometimes it can be found in traditions that root from the beginnings of time, this is was presented in Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery, in this short story, we are presented with a different perspective of how discrimination can look instead of what we see in Just Mercy, this story takes place in a small town that runs a lottery every year, the prize of it? Death. This injustice is being passed from generation to generation and people just follow the crowd with no reason behind it. People fail to open their eyes and be unjust willfully to avoid a bigger reaction from the community, but by doing so, there’s a chance to prevent the injustices of the past to become the ones from the near or far future. 

Though efforts have been made to stop discrimination, people are still failing to have the most powerful source to help it, Mercy. People are always trying to scapegoat out of fear and don’t actually get in the shoes of the condemned. Many others are afraid of being left out, so they just follow the bigger crowd. Injustices will continue to happen, but that number can decrease if human beings open their eyes and see how discrimination affects everyone in a community.