Examples Of Racial Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Although the children in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, may not have understood what it meant to be prejudiced until the end, Harper Lee uses this theme in the way of racism, social class, and sexism to show that before people judge each other, they need to look at the situation through the other person’s eyes.
Throughout To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee focuses on the theme of racial prejudice towards blacks in the town of Maycomb to show how they were being treated by the white majority. The second half of this book focuses on an African-American man named Tom Robinson who was put on trial for raping a white girl named Mayella Ewell. While he was on the stand telling his side of the story, he said he hadn’t done anything wrong but still ran
One day during school Scout is shoving a kid into the ground, Jem comes up to her, and he invites the kid to have lunch with them. The boy’s name was Walter Cunningham, and he came from a poor family who didn’t have much money. While they were eating, Scout starts making comments about how much food Walter is eating. After one comment she makes, Calpurnia pulls her in the kitchen and sets her straight by stating, “Yo Folks might be better’n the Cunninghams but it don’t count for nothin’ the way you descrasin em’...”(27). What Scout doesn’t understand is that Walter has probably never seen that much food in his life because of how poor his family is. This is a great example of how people should see the situation through others eyes before judging them. Another example of how the citizens of Maycomb judged people based on their social class was with Scout's teacher, Miss. Caroline. There was one kid with the last name of Ewell who everyone knew came from a bad family. One day Miss. Caroline said to him ““I think we’d better excuse you for the rest of the afternoon. I want you to go home and wash your hair.”(29) When Miss. Caroline was telling this to The Ewell boy, she did not realize that the Ewells were like the Cunningham family but worse. They were so poor they couldn’t keep up
At the beginning of the book, Scout is giving the readers some background information about Maycomb. In one paragraph she states: “Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” (6). This quote shows that in the time period of this book, women don’t really do much. They are too concerned with outward appearance. Another time Lee expresses the theme of sexism is after the trial of Tom Robinson. Scout asks Atticus why people like Miss. Maudie can’t sit on a jury, and his reply was “There are lots of reasons. For one thing, Miss. Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman”(252). This quote is a very good example of how women were seen in the 1930’s. Men believed that women were not fit to take on the roles of men, especially roles dealing with political issues.
These three themes of prejudice Harper Lee uses in To Kill a Mockingbird should really get people thinking about how they should treat people, whether it be looking at how someone sees a situation based on their race or social class, or even what gender they are. Whatever the reason is, they need to look at the situation through that person's eyes before they decide to judge