Preview

Caged Bird Essay

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
404 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Caged Bird Essay
Alexandra Coronado
Mr.Rivas
IB English 11 Period 1
16 October 2014 Caged Bird Response Essay Prose exposes numerous straw man arguments with To Kill a Mockingbird. Prose critiques the novel in a confident, yet slightly harsh manner. She believes that the novel could’ve been different if there was just a bit more detail. Prose interprets To Kill a Mockingbird in a way that focuses on prejudice and racism. The way that Prose exposes straw man arguments is by talking about how “it is freighted with tons of sociopolitical ballast” and quoting the goal of the novel “To understand problems relating to discrimination and prejudice that exist in our present day society. To understand and apply these principles to our own lives” to prove her theory of how the novel is focused only on prejudice and racism. This is considered straw man because she is over exaggerating the thought of racism and prejudice being the main focus of the novel. What Prose hasn’t realized is that she is making the novel overly prejudice because she wants students to understand how to approach this certain topic so that they won’t feel paranoid while talking about it. Prose shouldn’t have used straw man on To Kill a Mocking Bird for that reason because if students and teachers need to approach the topic in a certain manner, then they just need to discuss the issue amongst themselves. Prose also emphasizes her misinterpretations “and who defends a black man falsely accused of the rape by a poor white woman” to accuse the characters in a negative way to prove her point. Straw man was never necessary to be mentioned by Prose for the reason being how students approach such a topic. Although, Prose didn’t just use straw man for To Kill a Mocking Bird, but also quoted Maya Angelou often in I Know Why the Caged Bird Cannot Read. I can evaluate that Prose did use the straw man fallacy often in her argument. I feel that her over exaggerations on those particular topics don’t have to be approach

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, continues to be taught today and should continue, as the characterization of the story, although fictional, has a high resemblance to real life cases and issues of the time. It captures critical lessons and teachings that are imperative to modern-day schools and present-day society. To Kill A Mockingbird depicts the inequality between blacks and whites in the 1930s by telling a captivating story including the issues of rape and racism. Although the fictional novel To Kill A Mockingbird was set in the 1930s, it references Civil Rights cases involving discrimination, racism, and segregation that were part of the Civil Rights movement throughout the whole century.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    like to be home, all of a loved one is now shown to have an impact. As seen…

    • 1201 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Birdhouse Research Paper

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Introduction: Building a birdhouse is an enjoyable and easy activity to do and may take only as only as an hour to complete. No previous skills are required to build a birdhouse but adult supervision is required. You may build a birdhouse in your parking space, garage, or back yard.…

    • 650 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the story, I Know Why the Caged Bird sings, the character Marguerite is Maya when she was a little girl, whose childhood made her strong. She is a very smart girl who deals with new problems that she learns from and others she would try to understand what had happened. Maya lived with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas because her parents sent her along with her older brother Bailey and at age 6 and seven they both questioned why their parents sent them. She was sexually assaulted and later was muted by guilt. She finally met both of her parents, but they weren't what she had expected. Maya's life opened her eyes and made her realize what is really in front of her the whole time, although that is true, what still stays the same is that…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ conveys an underlying journey of Scout and Jem discovering the prejudice of Maycomb using the childrens’ innocent views on racism and prejudice to contrast the society around them. Including childish games and play to remind the reader they are…

    • 882 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    As of today, we still have problem with prejudice and racism towards blacks. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel illustrating the struggles of a racist town in Alabama. Characters are at a struggle to comprehend the way people act. Knowing this, they have to learn what is right and act accordingly. Throughout Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, characters discover and begin to emphasize each other’s lives in large portions and in doing so, many characters develop and mature to understand the world they live in.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee conveys injustice and racism through the eyes of a young curious girl is trying to understand the world. The narrator Scout gets caught in many situations and also witnesses the trial of Tom Robinson which changes the way she thinks. While Richard Wright’s “Eight Men” shares eight short stories in one book about different African American men who each face a problem with the white society. Each of these men is open to a realization about themselves or their society at the end of each story. “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Eight Men” both demonstrate similar themes throughout each book. The books express prejudice, innocence, and coming of age. These three themes communicate with the reader by sending messages about life.…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Webster’s Dictionary definition of prejudice is “an unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without knowledge, thought, or reason.” Prejudice can create fallacious bias towards a subject or person. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee creates Jem and Scout to support her opinion on the topic of prejudice and bias. Lee portrays Jem and Scout and their relationships with other characters in the novel to demonstrate how prejudice is created through initial impressions and is over come by first hand experiences with the issue.…

    • 866 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In literature throughout history, authors have used literary devices to depict characters exhibiting prejudice to a certain person or people group. Harper Lee shows that those who are affected by prejudice can decide to accept or stand against it. The character who best represents this in To Kill A Mockingbird is Tom Robinson, he is accused of rape and beating a white woman. This yet alone does not stop him from standing up against the fact that he is innocent. Also, due to many of the children being raised, that they are above black people; causes them to execute many things that are unjust and prejudice. However, the life that Tom Robinson has lived and the oppression because of his color, causes the reader to believe that he is innocent. So, Throughout Harper Lee’s, To Kill A Mockingbird, the use of symbolism furthers the theme that prejudice actions generate the chastisement of the innocent.…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    The objective of this thesis paper is to delve into the work of Harper Lee and examine her uses of prejudice. This research defines the different uses of prejudice the novel and in the world. The research reflects upon the racism, sexism, and social classing of the 1930s through the primary sources of articles and books. Throughout the research, it has been found that the prejudices mentioned in Lee’s book have extensive histories that date back hundreds of years. Through showing the history of prejudice, this research pinpoints the political and social aspects of Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird.…

    • 1240 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Social injustices in literature are often used as a plot device, by which authors utilize in an attempt to convey a deeper message to the reader. By detailing forms of discrimination - against race, against gender - through characters and incidents that develop throughout a story, authors are able to speak volumes about times of societal unrest and injustice. Specifically, the motif of racism during the Great Depression era is portrayed through works of literature, such as Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird, in order to depict the oppression and discrimination that African Americans faced during that era. Through the characters of Tom Robinson and Crooks, authors Harper Lee and John Steinbeck are able to provide an in-depth perspective…

    • 1378 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The central idea Harper Lee expresses for curing racism, bigotry, and class warfare in To Kill A Mockingbird is in order to is to walk around in other people's’ shoes in order to understand their…

    • 1211 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    All of the characters in this book played a pivotal role in developing the themes of the book: justice, racism, prejudice, and sexism. The use of rhetorical devices allows for the author’s ideas to surface and enable the readers to encapsulate the concept of the text. Harper Lee used…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    (Characters show racism) In order to represent different aspects of society and to contrast different views, the author uses different characters in order to expose society’s general prejudice. In the novel,…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To Kill a Mockingbird

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages

    “She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that our society is unspeakable: She kissed a black man.” (272) this quote from chapter 20 just shows how racist and prejudiced the town Maycomb was. The society just cannot accept that a white woman likes a black man. The words illustrate a major theme in the novel that of the existence of social inequality. In my written evaluation I plan to discuss a main character and at least one of the novels central themes.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays