Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a small town in Alabama called Maycomb. There is a rape trial going on and the defendant, Tom Robinson, has Atticus Finch as his lawyer. This caused people to be extremely against and rude over the fact that Atticus aims to defend him. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that prejudice often causes ill-mannered behaviors, segregation, and condescending demeanors. One event in Maycomb that shows prejudice often causes ill-mannered behaviors, segregation, and condescending demeanors is how people treated Atticus, Jem, and Scout after Atticus got hired to defend Tom Robinson. Atticus is truly trying to defend Tom, a black man, which is causing the anger and even

Mayella got beaten up and supposedly raped and Bob Ewell is accusing Tom, a man of color, of the crime. Tom was polite and respectful and unfortunately was in a really bad situation because of his skin color, “Tom Robinson’s manners were as good as Atticus’s. Until my father explained it to me later, i did not understand the subtlety of predicament: he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run- a sure sign of guilt”(Lee 260). The case had no evidence incriminating Tom Robinson, yet they still come back with a guilty verdict. The majority of citizens did not care if Tom robinson was innocent, they only wanted to see him in jail and maybe even his lynching, “It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right’ he muttered”(Lee 284). Tom Robinson’s trial showed how prejudice can invoke ill-mannered behaviors, segregation, and condescending demeanors. It shows how people make bad judgements and how it could end up with an innocent behind bars just because of the color of their