Examples Of Gender Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Scout Finch as “a tomboy most frequently clad in overalls, Scout spends much of her time with her older brother Jem and is constantly trying to prove herself his equal.” Throughout the novel, Scout is impacted by gender discrimination, along with other women in Maycomb. Aunt Alexandra tells Scout a few times that she could not hope to be a lady if she wore breeches. Aunt Alexandra also expects Scout to play with stoves, tea sets, and necklaces. Aunt Alexandra is not the only person who discriminates women. Even Atticus, who does not judge anyone, also discriminates against women. On page 221, Atticus tells Jem that women are not allowed to serve on juries in Alabama. Atticus even jokes that the court would never get a complete case tried with
women on the jury because women would interrupt to ask questions. Scout even agrees with Atticus on this. She says, “Perhaps our forefathers were wise.” Gender discrimination is not only directed at women, but to men and boys as well. An example is when Dill tells Scout “boys play baseball with other boys”. If a girl does something that is usually done by boys, such as baseball, she is usually frowned upon. In Maycomb, social status is also determined by wealth and background.
One large type of discrimination in the novel is socioeconomic discrimination. Jem even acknowledges this on page 226 by stating, “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” Aunt Alexandra also tells Scout about social status in Maycomb. She states, “The thing is, you can scrub Walter Cunningham till he shines, you can put him in shoes and a new suit, but he’ll never be like Jem”. She also says, “Finch women aren’t interested in that sort of people.” She even goes as far as to blatantly tell Scout that Walter Cunningham is trash. Scout gets angry with Aunt Alexandra for saying this because she believes the Cunninghams are not trash like the Ewells. Scout describes the Ewell house as a dirty, run down cabin behind the town garbage dump. The Ewells have the lowest social status among the white people in Maycomb. They are the poorest white family in Maycomb. The Cunninghams have higher social status than the Ewells because they attempt to keep clean and to be respectable people. However, the Ewells do not seem to care if they are filthy or if they are despised by the majority of Maycomb residents. It seems that in most cases, wealth and background are important factors in the social status in
Maycomb. The worst type of discrimination in the novel is most likely racial discrimination.
This type results in the death of a black man in the novel. Many people in the novel are affected by this type of discrimination, even the white people of Maycomb. On page 161, Jem explains to Scout what a “mixed child” is. Jem describes them as real sad children because colored people will not have them because they are half-white and white folks will not have them because they are colored, so they do not belong anywhere. When Dill gets sick from hearing Mr. Gilmer treat Tom Robinson madly at the court hearing, Scout tells Dill, “Well, Dill, after all he’s just a niger.” Just because of Tom’s skin color, Mr. Gilmer believes he can treat Tom badly. After Dill starts to feel sick, Scout and Dill leave the courtroom for a while. During their time outside, they learn that Dolphus Raymond, who is perceived by townsfolk as a drunkard, hardly drinks alcohol at all. Dolphus tells the children that he pretends to be drunk so the people of Maycomb can blame his living conditions on the effects of alcohol. He explains that the people could never understand that he lives with colored folks because he wants to live with them. Even after Scout hears this, she still considers Dolphus Raymond to be a sinful man for having mixed children, but she is fascinated with his act. Racial discrimination also cost Tom Robinson his life. Tom, a black man, was accused by Mayella Ewell of rape. In the court
hearing, it seems that Tom is innocent because the person who beat Mayella led primarily with their left hand, and Tom’s left hand is crippled. Even though there is no sufficient evidence that Tom tried to rape Mayella, the jury convicts Tom. The jury convicted Tom simply because it was his word against a white woman’s word. Tom was only convicted because Mayella broke a time-honored code, she tempted a niger. Tom was pronounced guilty, but he still had the chance of an appeal. Even with the chance of an appeal, Tom tried to escape prison. The guards yelled for him to stop, but he did not. The guards fired shots to stop him; they shot him 17 times, most likely, because he was a niger. If racial discrimination was not present, Dolphus Raymond would not have to act drunk, and Tom would not have gone to jail. All of these types of discrimination have been present among us for a while, and they will probably always be present. The novel is optimistic that someday, the world will change, and discrimination will be abandoned. Harper Lee talks about all these types of discrimination and many more in To Kill a Mockingbird. Many people in the novel want to change the ways of the people in Maycomb, but discrimination is a strong, hateful force that is hard to break free of.