Representasi Rasisme dalam Novel To Kill a Mockingbird Karya Harper Lee: Analisis Teori Ras Kritis = The Representation of Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: A Critical Race Theory Analysis

AULIA NURUL ADIYAH. The Representation of Racism in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird: A Critical Race Theory Analysis (supervised by Burhanuddin Arafah and Herawaty Abbas). Racism refers to a set of beliefs or attitudes through which individuals are evaluated, treated unequally, or positioned within hierarchies of superiority and inferiority on the basis of race, ethnicity, or skin color. This study aims to represent racism in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird and examine the white saver ideology which is constructed through Atticus Finch, one of the main characters in the novel by using Delgado and Stefancic’s Critical Race Theory. The data for this study were obtained through an extensive reading process, including the primary literary text, relevant theories, appropriate critical approaches, and scholarly materials related to the analysis of racism and white savior ideology. Therefore, the type of research used in this study is best described as a qualitative, descriptive, library-based, and critical literary research. Furthermore, it examines how Atticus Finch is positioned as a moral authority whose role in confronting racial injustice simultaneously critiques overt racism while reinforcing a white-centered moral framework. The result of this study exposes racism as systemic, normalized, and institutionally reinforced, yet ultimately relies on white moral authority and liberal humanist values that fail to produce structural change. This tension constitutes the central ideological contradiction of the text. While the novel remains significant for its condemnation of overt racism and its call for ethical responsibility, this study concludes that its portrayal of racial justice is limited by the marginalization of Black agency and the reliance on white savior narratives. Keyword— Racism, White Savior Ideology, Critical Race Theory