Jem and Scout stats to become aware that all this is caused by segregation. Since Atticus is defending Tom Robinson in court Mrs. Dubose starts to insult Atticus for ‘lawing for *******’ which infuriates both of his children. [Theme: The injustice of racism and segregation] 2. “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they treid. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white always wins.
A prejudiced society is usually ignorant of its flaws, many prejudiced people do not realise the extent of their hypocrisy. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (1960), Scout and Jem encounter prejudice in their little southern town of Maycomb, in which many social divisions exist. Maycomb County harbours many kinds of prejudices, and this lack of acceptance negatively affects many characters, which are stereotyped based on their race, economic status and level of education. Firstly, the 1930’s have large amounts of racial tension between strangers, neighbour, and even fellow family members. The white community feels that the black people are beneath them in the world.
This further proves that the prejudice in being a racist towards black do exist harshly, even the poor can accuse the black successfully without any evidence, just because they are white. Despite the fact that Atticus can give proofs like Tom is left-handed while
He was obviously (due to the evidence) innocent, but racist southerners of the jury ruled him guilty anyways. ii. Due to the support of Tom Robinson, the common person hated the finch family. 1. Both examples show how prejudiced the city in the South actually was.
Racism is one of the worst kinds of prejudice in any society, and it can and does ruin people’s lives. It was racism that led to the death of Tom’s Robinson’s. He was a victim of racism by being falsely accused and then found guilty of raping Mayella Ewall, a white woman. This statement is true, because the events of what happened as told by Mayella and her father, Bob Ewell, were accepted as proof by a prejudiced, all-white jury at the trial. Tom’s lawyer, Atticus Finch, does his very best to represent Tom and provide the facts and evidence of Tom’s innocence.
Or the very notion of his skin color makes him destined to have a negative impact on this world. It is impossible for him to define anything about himself, if everything that he does or attempts to do is under constant scrutiny and critiqued. He deals with critiques from the people who are supposed to love him the most regardless of what he does; his family, as well as the rest of the black community, White America, and all of society as a whole. “My Secret Life as a Black Man” is just a simple plea from Anthony Walton asking “Why can I not just be me?” and accepted for what I do. Growing up as a kid, black males learn and grow from the people who are around them the most which is their immediate family.
Though most of the people in Maycomb were racist in some way, many of those people knew Tom Robinson was innocent. Still, many people didn't feel comfortable with the idea of standing up for a black man, no matter how innocent he was. When Miss Maudie says, "Whether Maycomb knows it or not we're paying the highest tribute we can pay to a man. We trust him to do right it's just that simple" (Lee 236), she shows that the town treated Atticus as a leader. He showed the sheltered, little town that just because a person is colored, that does not mean they are guilty of whatever crime a white man had accused them of.
Yet a wise man such as Atticus does not fully understand how the citizens of Maycomb can be so irrational and unjust in their prejudiced views of others. This is shown in Part one of Harper Lee’s novel as Atticus tells his brother Jack, ‘Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro comes up, is something I will never truly understand.’ Atticus is a great influence on Scout through his actions and words, however he does not force her to act in this way. Atticus has the highest respect for everyone in Maycomb, regardless of gender, age or race. This is shown in his defence for Tom Robinson and his employment and loyalty to Calpurnia. He also demonstrates this when he explains Boo-Radley’s situation and reprimands Scout for treating a boy at her school badly because he was of lower class.
White people believed they were superior to the blacks and barely viewed them as human beings. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee writes accurate descriptions of how racism was ingrained in the daily lives of Americans such as Aunt Alexandra whose response to Scout as to why she cannot play with a black boy is "Because- he – is – trash, that’s why you can’t play with him". Alexandra is not giving Scout a real reason why because she has no reason other than she grew up with society telling her black and white children could not play together and was brainwashed into believing it. Another situation that shows the shocking segregation is when Cecil Jacobs asked a question about why the Jewish were persecuted in class "But that ain’t no cause to persecute ‘em. They’re white aren’t they?"
However, Uncle didn’t know the truth behind this brutal and aggressive accident where Scout, not Francis gets in trouble. This accident shows the way it was normal to say about black people because parents who were disrespectful for slaves, were showing racism to their children. However, Scout accepts this phrase as a horrible thing because she knows that Atticus is not like other people-he respects everybody and does not teach Scout and Jem to be racists because it