ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

To Kill A Mockingbird 12 Jim Crow, Part 2 83 Views


Share It!


Description:

Were black people portrayed as stereotypes in To Kill A Mockingbird? Was Harper Lee trying to draw attention to the problems with stereotypes, or did she believe them? Hit play to find out. 

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:00

Thank you We sneak in To kill a mockingbird jim

00:07

crow part two eyelash one of the main questions that

00:12

people have about to kill a mockingbird as as much

00:15

as it's clearly anti racism that's thing now today everyone's

00:19

anti racism but it's clearly anti racism But does it

00:23

still portray these stereotypes of black people And yes it

00:26

does Critics of the novel will tell you that this

00:31

is the story of how a white man came in

00:33

and saved the black man which by the way he

00:35

didn't actually save him But it's this story of you

00:39

know black people need white people to protect everyone all

00:42

these my people need an atticus in their life He's

00:45

essentially a stereotype of white person on and he comes

00:48

in swoops in and says you know i'm going to

00:50

take a stand against this And so while black people

00:54

in the novel are portrayed as you know loving kind

00:58

good people they're also portrayed a simpleton sze they are

01:04

you know not as educated so no and so instead

01:07

we get characters like calpurnia who is you know the

01:12

stern black kind of essentially nanny slash housekeeper for a

01:16

scout jem and what she turns into is the stereotype

01:20

of the wise old black woman harper lee could have

01:23

chosen to make her more complex character and critics of

01:28

the book will say you know because she didn't it's

01:30

showing that you know she didn't understand all the complexities

01:33

and she treated black stereotypes But it's possible what harper

01:36

lee was doing was kind of calling other people out

01:38

for doing that and kind of showing this is what

01:40

people thought of black people It was there's a wise

01:43

old black woman and there's you know the crippled victim

01:46

and and none of these characters really have a lot

01:49

of agency in the book but they didn't really have

01:52

a lot of agency soon kind of go either way

01:55

on on whether it's harper lee looking at it to

01:57

simply or if she's actually trying to to a specific

02:00

point we have to remember our bellies not writing this

02:02

in the thirty she's writing in the sixties so she's

02:05

coming at it from a different time period and then

02:08

we're reading it in a different time period So we

02:09

have a story set in the thirties britain in the

02:12

sixties so it's really all about perspective and how you

02:15

think about it No Where black people portrayed as stereotypes

02:21

in the novel was harper lee trying to draw attention

02:24

to the problems with stereotypes Or did she believe them

Related Videos

The Importance of Being Earnest Summary
123040 Views

They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...

The Giver Summary
105893 Views

Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...

Invisible Man (Ellison)
1818 Views

Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
1257 Views

Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...

Quotes: A fool's paradise
296 Views

Find out the meaning behind "a fool's paradise."