“...there was no ‘race problem’ for me because I had simply never thought about it”(Conine, “How a Southerner Licked Intolerance”). Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird creates a similar situation by demonstrating that prejudice is a dangerous force that can change an individual’s sense of right and wrong without him or her even knowing. To Kill a Mockingbird features two siblings named Scout and Jem Finch, who are growing up in the racially-biased town of Maycomb. A black man named Tom Robinson is on trial for raping Mayella Ewell, and it seems that he is innocent. Nonetheless, a guilty verdict is delivered due to the entire jury being white men. Additionally, Scout and Jem spend much of their time tormenting a poor, misunderstood Boo Radley simply because of the stories they heard about him. Harper Lee, through the characterization of Boo Radley and Tom Robinson, asserts that prejudice creates a blind spot in one’s moral righteousness.
At first, Boo Radley is presented as a horrible and
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An eavesdropping Scout hears Atticus Finch, her father as well as the lawyer on the case, say to her uncle, “It couldn’t be worse, Jack. The only thing we’ve got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’”(117). Atticus is perfectly aware of the racial bias that the jury will have towards Tom Robinson, but Scout is bewildered. Scout was raised by an unbiased Atticus, so she is shocked that something as trivial as race could determine the value of a man’s word. Moreover, Atticus informs Jem that the jury will likely be out and back very quickly, and Jem asks, “You think they’ll acquit him that fast?”(277). Jem is another child that is free of racial bias, and does not understand the possibility that Tom Robinson will be found guilty without evidence. He cannot comprehend that those men would allow their own prejudices and biases to cloud their judgement of what is