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Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator. Lee contrasts the reality of 1930s, stained by racism, prejudice, and social inequality, to the innocent view of the narrator through various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Harper Lee skillfully crafts the victims of racism and social prejudice by the use of descriptive language devices. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of prejudice through strong adjectives. The appearance that children imagined Boo Radley was like an inhumane monster. The phrase, ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ incites a threatening and violent image of Boo Radley to the reader. The adjectives, ‘yellow and rotten’, also make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy. Although Jem, who created this monstrous image of Boo Radley, did not exactly know how Boo actually looks like, he believes that Boo is inferior to them. Thus, Jem even did not feel guilty of ridiculing Boo. This

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