Consequences Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible” (Maya Angelou). The famous American author and civil rights activist Maya Angelou tells the world that prejudice prevents people from treating each other as equals. Angelou’s words hold true in the Pre-Civil Rights South, where people are heavily prejudiced towards black people. Harper Lee’s literary classic To Kill a Mockingbird illustrates the grave consequences of prejudice, and its effect on the relationships between the residents of Maycomb, Alabama. In the Pre-Civil Rights South, relationships are structured based on a social hierarchy that is skewed in favor of whites, illustrating that one’s prejudice leads to intolerance of others.

Scout, Atticus’s daughter recalls, “She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. ‘Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works for!’” (135; ch. 11). Imagery is shown through “a long silver thread of saliva” showing how furious Mrs. Dubose is at Atticus for defending a black man in court. “Niggers and trash” illustrates the evident prejudice in Mrs. Dubose’s harsh words. The prejudice in Mrs. Dubose’s claims demonstrate the effect of a skewed social hierarchy, resulting in whites treating blacks unfairly. Atticus, the father of Jem and Scout, tells Jem about Mrs. Dubose’s, and many others’ racist behavior in the Pre-Civil Rights South, and how it affected the outcome of the trial of Tom Robinson, the black man Atticus was representing. Atticus explains, “‘There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads--they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man’s always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life’” (295; ch. 23). Parallel structure