To Kill a Mockingbird, Social, Racial Prejudice and Fear of the Unknown

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In the book, To Kill a mockingbird written Harper Lee, there are prejudices expressed in this book, racial prejudice, Social prejudice and Fear of the unknown. These prejudices were expressed in the Town of Maycomb County in the eyes of Scout. Racial prejudice was expressed very carelessly in the book, a lot of people could go around calling African American people a ‘nigger’ and even more so, a ‘black’ or ‘coloured’ person. When Atticus knew he would be defending Tom Robinson, he knew he would be receiving negative comments and gossip, he also knew that his kids will also be getting negative comments from school or around the community. One example is when scout was at school and Cecil Jacobs approached scout and told her that “scouts daddy defends niggers”, when Scout told her father, he told scout to ignore any gossip because Atticus knew what he was doing was right. Atticus never treated the blacks rudely because he saw them as normal human beings and never judged them by the colour of their skin. Another example is when Mrs Dubose tells Jem and Scout, ‘not only a finch waiting on tables but on in the court house is lawing for niggers! Yes indeed, what has the world come to when a finch goes against his raising? I’ll tell you! Your fathers no better than the niggers and trash he works for!” When the kids had told Atticus, Atticus didn’t take it to heart because he knew Mrs Dubose was old. But the kids where really upset when they she had told them that and they thought she was a mean, cranky old lady. Social prejudice was expressed well in this book. It shows how a person’s wealth and background can affect their lives. This was shown when Aunt Alexandra found out when scout wanted to invite Walter Cunningham over for dinner and spend the day with the family, she then looked at Scout and told her, “the thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he

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