City of Maycomb is a cruel and harsh place to live, due to the environment that people are racist and thinks that the white people have more power than the black people. Not getting a full equal right is not fair. During the Tom Robinson’s trial, people only said that he was guilty because he was a black man; while Ewell was white. Many black people has thought that it was unfair to not get equal rights, the white people made something called “separate but equal”. Which is impossible to be.
To kill a mockingbird is a book that is filled with clearly visible prejudice. The effect of prejudice in Maycomb is one that creates classes in the community that people will stick to. The three forms of prejudice that are evident in The town of maycomb are racial prejudice, social prejudice and fear of the unknown. Racial prejudice is common in Maycomb and some examples are the black church, Tom Robinson case and Calpurnia.
Martin Luther King Jr exclaimed, “I have a dream that one day little black boys and girls will be holding hands with little white boys and girls.” In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, she uses the character of Scout as a narrator, to express the story of her father, Atticus Finch, who defended Tom Robinson in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s. During the course of the book, Scout and Jem, Scout’s brother, learn crucial lessons from her dad, such as understanding people’s point of view and innocence. Even though separation according to race is encountered in To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that race also shapes people’s language, their social relationships and social status, including their behavior between themselves.
Because the jury did not favor black men, Tom Robinson did not receive a fair trial, although Atticus made a great case. Segregation directly disobeys the fourteenth amendment, “No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States.” Maycomb Alabama is where the story, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. Tom Robinson’s trial out come was not based on factual evidence. Mayella was lying to the jury, while Tom was completely innocent.
Over the years, generations experienced racism and went through many transgressions, but unfortunately it still occurs in society today. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the character, Atticus, to address how the people of Maycomb should not discriminate people by their race and definitely should not bring it into the courtroom. He also tries to be a positive role model towards his children, Scout and Jem, so they can know how to treat people when they reach the reality of the world. In Dr. King’s speech, he also addresses how everyone should have equal rights and how African Americans should not have to suffer through the iniquities people enforce. Both of these speeches share similarities and differences but ultimately want the same goal: Equality for all.
The ignorance of humans has created prejudice and brooding hate in societies. This reoccuring theme has been examined by Harper Lee in the classic To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in the late 1920, the society of Maycomb evidently showcases racial, gender-biased and social class prejudice, due to their
Racial Issues and How it Affects the Everyday Life Racial issues are brought up constantly in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. One area that race issues affect is education, and those who are black have harder times in school due to a lot of different factors. In the article How the Stress of Racism Affects Learning, it talks about the life of a 15 year old Zion Agostoni. In his school and his neighborhood, there are cops everywhere and they follow him to school some days to “protect the city” and the cops acts affect his school work.
Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” Prejudice is a dark stain on our society. Just like the spider, it makes everywhere its home. Its specialty is creeping into a person’s mind and teaching them how to insult, criticize, and condemn. During the 1960s, in southern society, discrimination was stronger than ever.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird it shows the problems and occurrences of how human inequality and diversity is brought up in the world. Racial comments, prejudice remarks, and judgement are all mentioned in the book. Although, the book is fiction, it brings up real life events that are still happening in the present time. The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s in that time anyone and everyone were judged by their life choices, skin color, social class, appearance, etc. Human society then was diverse into large groups of stereotypes.
Atticus tries to explain to Jem that white men are overpowering black men. Atticus believes that the color of one’s skin gets into a white man’s mind and makes him go crazy. Atticus explains that they want to keep their heads and not judge one another by what is on the outside. Maycomb, Alabama is in the south, where there were a lot more occurrences of racism. A couple of years before 1934, during the 1910’s and 1920’s, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) formed.