the racism and inequality ingrained in our society shown through the study of jasper jones

Storytelling has been giving the reader questions to contemplate since its beginning, making us question the way society has been built and the values of which it is built upon - whether these rules should be followed so blindly and just how right they are. Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones was published in 2009 as a coming of age/gothic fiction novel. Jasper Jones has challenged my acceptance of these rules which are thought to keep us equal and in order, yet they have ingrained racism and inequality deep into our society. Following my in-depth study of Craig Silvey’s Jasper Jones and the era, it was set in (the 1960s). Known as the time Australia was becoming more progressive. I have realised that due to the way people think and act as a collective after being raised on bigoted views and ideologies. That these rules our society is built on have ingrained racism and inequality instead of trying to remove it. Scapegoating has been in our society for a long time, especially towards minorities this wrongful act is displayed in jasper jones. Craig Silvey positions the modern audience to interpret the racist remarks and scapegoating of Jasper Jones as an insight into the unrightful blame of minorities in our society today and the grandfathered-in ideology. Shows that Corrigan scapegoats Jasper Jones and allows it to happen because he is aboriginal and makes the audience think about how this happens in our modern society and about how we think as a collective. Using a semantic field while describing Jasper as “a Thief, a Liar, a Thug, a Truant. He’s lazy and unreliable. ” Silvey pushes the audience to understand that jasper is deeply hated. Although none of this is true it still happens because he's aboriginal and nobody cares what will happen to him. This reflects the inequality in our society where we will collectively blame people if it makes our lives easier. The ruthless scapegoating of this aboriginal child is a clear example of the way our society wrongfully blames minorities for their own actions. Old ideologies in our society that have been passed down have created deep-rooted racism and have not helped remove it. Silvey makes this clear to the reader by using the bullying of Jeffery Lu as an example. Jeffery despite being an exceptional cricket player is tormented by the team. They push him around and say a multitude of racist things like “fuck off cong” and go as far as to hit his ball away until eventually “it’s a lost ball” they hit his ball so far they lost it. All because Jeffery’s Vietnamese. Back in the 1960s when Jasper Jones was set, the Vietnam war was going on. This made every and any Vietnamese person an enemy in a lot of people's eyes, even a scrawny little 12-year-old boy. This collective hate for Vietnam in not only the 1960s but in our modern world has made a racist country and a racist society. The audience has had it spelled out that the reason all this is happening is Jeffery is Vietnamese. Even though the modern audience knows it's wrong and the people in Corrigan do too they do it anyway. Society lets them because long ago the Vietnamese used to be our enemies in a war. they will always be treated differently because of that. This urges the audience to think about how we treat minorities today and how unequal things still are. Through the use of the hate towards Vietnamese people in Jasper Jones, the purpose of this argument is to make the audience realise what our old ideologies have done to our society. To understand that just because we follow them, doesn't mean that they will stop things like racism. As a society, some discriminative actions and mindsets have become the norm due to being done repeatedly over the years. Overall society tolerates them because we all aspect someone else to deal with it. This negative collective way of thinking causes racism and inequality to stay in our society and examples of this are outlined in Jasper Jones. An Lu is beaten by a few men in the town being called “red rat” over and over and they eventually say “there are rats here and they’re breedin. ” An was spit on and beat to the ground because they like many others in our society saw Vietnamese people as less than human. Because society tolerates it these men didn't get any legal punishment, the cops don’t care if a Vietnamese man got beat up. Society displays this idea of people collectively tolerating things like racism and thinking someone else will handle it. That stands out to the audience when they read about An getting beat senseless and the men responsible had no punishment for it other than a few punches from An’s neighbours. It leaves the reader with a bitter taste in their mouth that we let this type of thing happen in our own world. Just because something bad doesn't directly affect us doesn't mean we can just let it happen. Society has been allowing racism and inequality to slide by because it's more convenient than dealing with it. Jasper Jones changed the way I think about society through the abuse of some of its characters and how the town reacted. I now understand that Australia did not really grow up in the 1960’s it did not become more progressive deep down in our society not much has changed people are still racist every day because they know there will be no punishment. We tolerate abuse and inequality and Jasper Jones has helped outline that fact.