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Theme Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

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To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a book about the racial tensions and segregation that arose in the 1930’s. The general storyline is about the main characters, Scout and Jem. At the start of the story, Jem and Scout were always discriminating against other characters, especially Boo Radley. The town was split in half due to racial segregation and Atticus Finch, their father, was a lawyer who doesn’t care who he’s representing because he’s a man of integrity and decency. Scout and Jem eventually mature and start to understand the dangers of discrimination after they see that Boo Radley is just a human and not the person that they all made him into. One major event that takes place is when Atticus goes to court protecting an African American named Tom Robinson and more than half the town doesn’t …show more content…

He doesn 't care if he’s protecting someone of color or anyone else’s opinions because in the story he was protecting Tom Robinson an African American man. “ ‘The main one is, if I didn 't I couldn 't hold up my head in town, I couldn 't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn 't even tell you or Jem not to do something again. […] “ (9.16-21). Mayella Ewell said that Tom had raped her, even though Atticus knew he had little chance of winning the trial he still continued with it. Mayella’s dad was mad at some of the events that happened during the trial because Atticus had chosen to represent Tom and certain questions that he had asked Mayella. Her father confronted Atticus in town, spit on him, and told him that he was going to kill him. Atticus did not care what was being said to him and chose to walk away. Even when Scout tells Atticus that kids have been bullying her because their dad is protecting people of color he tells them to ignore them because it should not matter what they are saying. He teaches his kids to have a strong sense of justice, to be open minded, and always do what is

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