Prejudice Issues In To Kill A Essay

, Research Paper

Prejudice Issues in To Kill a Mockingbird

The novel, To Kill a Mockingbird contains many aspects of modern day prejudice. Although the book contains many forms of prejudice I believe that three played the largest role in this story. The main prejudice is the act of racism, which was very common in the time that the book takes place. There is prejudice of religion and of gender.

The prejudice of blacks and whites classified who you are and how you are treated as an individual by your skin color. In this novel there are many cases of this type of prejudice. In the trial of the rape of Mayella Ewell a white woman, against the defendant Tom Robinson a black man. He was clearly not guilty of the crime that he was accused of; however being a man of color he was found guilty of this crime. To Kill a Mockingbird also showed a prejudice of race by the number of times the word nigger was used through out the novel.

The matter of religion also caused a great deal of prejudice toward people. In Maycomb county there were churches for the blacks and different churches for the whites. The blacks go to the First Purchase African M.E. Church and the whites go to the Methodist or Baptist church on Sundays. Foot-washing Baptists have a prejudice against anyone who does something for pleasure, because they believe that it is a sin. One Saturday Miss Maude was sitting on her porch when a Foot-washing Baptist passed by and told her that, She and her flowers are going to hell.

Through out this novel everyone treats Scout different because she is a girl. She is raised with her father and brother so to fit in she has to act like a boy. Jem has a prejudice against Scout because she is a girl and she needs to act like girls did at that time. Jem often called Scout a metamorphadite because she is a girl that wants to fit in with the boys. When Jem and Dill went to taunt Arthur Radley, Scout was told to go home because she was afraid of going to Authur s. She soon relented when they teased her that she was starting to act like a girl.

Many of these aspects of prejudice still go on to this day. Whether it is a prejudice against race, religion, gender, or just ordinary differences I feel that it makes us open our eyes to the many differences of human nature, all being different but genuine.