""Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home-- I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day!"" (Lee, 58) As Jem is describing his plan to Scout about leaving a letter for Boo Radley. We see in these last few chapters especially the blatant sexism within this society. It seems to stem conflict between Scout and her brother, and in the grand scheme, her father. I imagine that in the future her gender and how she presents herself could be a driving conflict in her relationship with her family and the world. This story is set in the past and as we know, sexism and the mistreatment of woman was a large factor in the function of societies, and it's apparent in this book that this is still normalized. This type of discrimination is individual/interpersonal and institutional/systemic.
In chapter 7, Jem and scout stay home from school due to it snowing. So they thought it would be fun to make snowmen. But due to the lack of snow Jem's snowmen hand a lot of dirt and sticks in it making it a darker tone. Scout made the comment ".... I ain't never heard of a ****** Snowman" (Lee pg 75). Witch is an example of cultural discrimination.
How does this connect to the discussion of conflict you had in your first response?
" Jem, I ain't ever heard of a ****** snowman." (Lee 75) This quote shows exactly what discrimination is because of the word choice, the way that Scout says it to Jem and the fact that she was trying to make a joke out of it by throwing dirt on the snowman to make it seem like its a darker skin tone. That is a perfect example of cultural discrimination because they are making fun of people who have different skin tones. It helps me understand that in this book people are very racist and dont really care or think about what they say and how it could be offensive.
“Mr. Radley shot at a Negro in his collard patch...Shot in the air. Scared him pale, though. Says if anybody sees a white n****r around, that’s the one." (PDF Lee 49) This is individual discrimination because he is targetting one person and using offensive language. People in Scout's town display racism a lot throughout these chapters and it's usually built of some type of angry or irritation. They almost never use these racial slurs in a casual sentence it's always when they have some sort of excitement.
""I'm simply defending a N**** his name's Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump""(Lee 86). Everyone in town that Atticus is defending a black man. This is the first real time where we hear the town using this kind of language. The Finch's were none as nice people and now with Atticus defending someone the town doesn't like he is making the name seem worse.
"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a n***** snowman." (pg. 75 Lee) This is cultural discrimination. This part takes place when Jem starts to make a snowman out of the dirt. I feel Scout doesn't really understand that this isn't a thing you should say because most everyone she knows and that is around her says stuff like this and no one has really said that it's wrong.
"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a n***** snowman." (Lee 75). This quote is a very good example of cultural discrimination. Scout is saying this to Jem when Jem was trying to build a snowman out of the dirt. They had never experienced snow before, so Jem was not sure what to do.
"'... That keeps 'em from wrapping around you-' 'Don't believe a word he says, Dill,' I said. 'Calpurnia says that's nigger-talk.'" In this quote, interpersonal and internalized discrimination is used. Scout uses the phrase "nigger-talk" in a derogatory way, saying that they shouldn't talk about Hot Steam because it is related to things that black people talked about, but Scout didn't teach herself it, Calpernia did. This is where you can see a form of internalized discrimination is used, as Calpurnia is talking about her own race's culture as if it were bad. This doesn't really support the conflict I described in the first RR because in that I talked about how the conflict might have to do with the economic divide in the town but this quote shows a different conflict having to do with racial discrimination.
There are several incidences of discrimination in the book, but one that stands out to me is when Mr. Radley shot at Jem while Dill, Jem, and Scout were spying on him to get a better view of what he looked like. “Mr. Radley shot at a black in his collard patch.” They didn’t know whether it was a white or black person, so they assumed it was a black person right away. They even use the n-word to describe the black person who was allegedly in the collard patch.
Jem and Scout were in the Radleys house and when they saw a figure looking at them then ran and while under the fence crawling Jem gets his pants stuck on the fence when the figure shot a gun "Shot in the air scared him pale though says if anybody sees an N-Word around that's the one says he got the other Barrel waiting for the next sound he hears in that patch." This is racial discrimination as to where Mr. Radley assumes its blacks and not just some hooligans
"'Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home-I declare to the lord you're gettin' more like a girl every day!'"(Lee 58) This is an example of individual discrimination. What lead up to it was she was saying it wasn't a good idea to bother boo Radley but the boys didn't care so they told her to shut up. This changes my prediction of the conflict in the begging because this is more located around scout and boo radley than the teacher.
“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with.”
This is Individual discrimination
Scout began to imagine things and talking to Jem about them causing Jem to call Scout a girl
"Shot in the air. Scared him pale, though. Says if anybody sees a white n***** around, thats the one." (Lee 61) This an example of cultural discrimination because of the word he uses. He used this word because he saw someone creeping around in his back yard and shot at them. This shows that Scout, Dill and Jem shouldn't trespass again or else bad things will happen again.
In my first prediction I said that scout would learn more about how the community in Maycomb is and she is learning more about it in this instance. She is learning that the community doesn't mind if their neighbor uses this word and how they respond to trespassers.
"I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that's why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with." (Lee 45) This is a great example of sex and gender discrimination. DIll had asked Jem if they could play anymore.
"Don't you believe a word he says, Dill," I said. "Calpurnia says that's n*****-talk." (Lee 41). This quote shows cultural discrimination. Scout was having a conversation to dill about "Hot steam" into that conversation scout says that the other race is always inferior and wrong, and you shouldn't believe them. This helps show how racially discriminated black people were in that time, scout who was a little girl, s saying racial slurs without a consequense.
It doesn't relate to my prediction because I said there would be a conflict about the cunninghams losing money, but it doesn't relate to a conflict in the story in which this town and this time period is very racist and I feel that something involving racism will come to play in the book.
"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a n***** snowman."(Lee75) This is an example of discrimination because they had never really had snow before so he was trying to build a snowman out of the dirt and Scout doesn't really know that that isn't really a thing and he didn't understand why he shouldn't do it
Connect this back to your prediction in RR#1 and explain what type (of the four types we've been studying) of discrimination.
This is cultural discrimination because they were building a snowman out of the dirt and Scout didn't know that it wasn't normal and they had never experienced snow before.
"'Mr. Radley shot at a Negro in his collard patch'" (Lee 61). This quote shows discrimination because Mr. Radley automatically assumed it was a black person. I believe this is individualized discrimination because it is one person assuming only a black would do that. What led up to this was the kids looking into the window and Mr. Radley seeing them. This impacts the conflict because it shows that they have no respect for black people, and will just go shooting at them
"Jem, I ain't ever heard of an (n-word) snowman." (Lee 75) This is an example of cultural discrimination because of the history of the word, said because Jem started their snowman with dirt instead of snow. Because Scout is so young she doesn't understand that the word is harmful to use and uses it semi-frequently throughout the book, which shows that children don't fully understand racism even if they are surrounded it.
"Jem, I ain't ever heard of a ****** snowman." (Lee, 75). This is cultural discrimination. They were building snowmen and they put dirt on him and said this. Scout said this not knowing this is bad and it was used so often that they didn't even know not to say it.
This shows that Jem and Scout aren't told that using the N-word is not okay. Showing their education isn't good
"'Sometimes it's better to bend the law a little in special cases. In your case, the law remains rigid.'" Atticus says this to Scout when she says that because the Ewells don't go to school, she doesn't. There could be some discrimination here that suggests that the Ewells are allowed to bend the law, but Scout may not understand this at the time.
Determine which type of discrimination this is and then connect it back to your prediction from RR#1
This is Internalized discrimination, because some white people are exempt from some of the others, by not following some laws.
