How Does Harper Lee Use Racial Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

According to Oxford English Dictionary racism is “Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one's own race is superior”. However, discrimination hasn’t always to do with race; color, homeland. Racism is also about characteristics, personality, behavior, living style, social status, sex, the past, beliefs etc. In the book “To Kill a mockingbird” by Harper Lee, discrimination, and more specifically racism, is the most outstanding phenomenon. Racism is a major theme in the novel, while discrimination is really widespread in Maycomb in the 1930s. Maycomb’s residents are extremely possessed by discrimination. Judging, marginalizing and even machinating are really rife in the city.

The most obvious one is racial discrimination. The black community suffers a lot in Maycomb. Black people are thought to be inferior to the whites and are usually treated disrespectfully and humiliating. They are the easy target. A representative from the black community is Tom Robinson. Tom was a quiet man who worked hard to provide his family with the essentials. He was a kind man who many times offered to help Mayella Ewell, his neighbor’s daughter. However, Mr. Ewell who used to abuse his children saw him as the easy way to restore his reputation as a graceful father and accused him of raping his daughter. This trial is the main focus of the novel. “To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white” (pg. 224) Tom Robinson’s trial was a clear example of the fact that justice in the 30s wasn’t guided by fairness, but by color. Tom might be innocent but just his color was enough to render him guilty. As if the white color could wash all the sins away. As expected, Tom was convicted with the absence of credible