Segregation In To Kill A Mockingbird

Today, we were seeing on the news important topics about colored skin marches like “black lives matter. “ Cops are supposedly killing colored men for “no reason.” Could this be history repeating itself like the 1930- 60’s? To Kill a Mockingbird is a tale of the twists and turns of social norms told from the point of view of a woman looking back at her childhood where she was oblivious to this discrimination. This book created a lot of controversy because it tackled the whole structure of southern society. But what types of segregation were being tackled to cause this much discussion about the book? In To Kill a Mockingbird there are three main instances that are frequently portrayed including social, gender, and most importantly, racial segregation.

In the time frame that this story is told, the south is an inhospitable home for millions of black people who wanted equal rights and freedoms of their white peers. Maycomb County doesn’t deviate from this problematic condition. Like most rural southern towns, black people are not treated appropriately. Almost every white character in the novel has a prejudice toward black people and have a view that they are inferior. This is especially depicted in the trial scene. The court case is clearly going in favor of Tom Robinson, however, because of the intolerant nature of the people in the courtroom and on the jury, it appears that there is no possible way for Tom to receive justice. Jill May writes about this and conveys, “ No one, save Jem and his youthful converts, expects Atticus to win. The black minister who has befriended the children warns, ‘I ain’t ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man’”(304). The concept of southern justice is illustrated here because even the faithful and lively black onlookers recognize and anticipate that the court will rule in favor of Bob Ewell, yet they watch in sorrow at the unfair cruelty of the horrible injustice. Only Jem, Scout and Dill fail to realize the reality of the somber situation. This is a showing of the twisted mindsets sketched into the children’s