Racial Discrimination in Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing and Harper Lee's to Kill a Mockingbird: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Racial discrimination is one of the public problems that emerges in multicultural countries. The aim of the current research is to study racial discrimination in Doris Lessing's The Grass Is Singing and Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. The process of analysis is confined to the analysis of the racial practices exercised by white people against black people in both novels. The research method is descriptive, analytical, and quantitative using a content analysis approach. The findings show that there is a similarity between the two established systems of racism: the system of racism in Africa, and the racial system in America. Some established rules and principles are to be respected in order to keep the white supremacy hegemonic. On the other hand, in The Grass Is Singing, Lessing portrays black people as criminals and rapists, who have to be punished for their crimes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee describes black people as victims of crimes they have never committed. Moreover, the offensive racial words in To Kill a Mockingbird outnumber the offensive racial words in The Grass Is Singing. It can be said that the blacks are seen as victims of racial discrimination and racial stereotypes in both novels.