Calpurnia's Discrimination Quotes

Maya Angelou once said, “Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.” It is something that gets in the way of one doing the right thing and prevents people from making fair decisions. In Harper Lee’s esteemed novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the citizens of Maycomb, where discrimination is quite prominent, explore this issue in a variety of situations. Scout and Jem initially view Boo Radley as a scary neighbour due to his reclusiveness and mysteriousness. However, Boo ends up saving the children’s lives at the end of the book and the bias that they have against him is lifted. Meanwhile, Atticus Finch, their father, undergoes hatred from the white community for defending Tom Robinson,

This is proven when he retaliates Aunt Alexandra who wants to fire Calpurnia: “You may think otherwise, but I couldn’t have got along without her all these years. She’s a faithful member of this family and you’ll simply have to accept things the way they are” (Lee 137). Calpurnia is a black woman, someone with a gender and race possibly considered the least worthy of anything in an inequitable society like Maycomb. Despite this, Atticus defends her against his sister and says that she should be able to stay and work in the Finch house as she desires. He is not affected by the many biases that could be imposed upon her. In addition, a majority of the white population in this novel may believe that black people do not have a proper way of life and that their behaviours are inadequate for their standards. However, Atticus allows Calpurnia to essentially raise his children, which shows that he knows she is capable of doing a good job even though she is a different race. He overcomes several possible prejudices and treats her as a part of his family, rather than as an outsider. He behaves ethically by treating her as an equal and appreciating all of the things that she has done to help Scout, Jem, and their home. Another prevalent situation in which the theme is reflected is when he explains to Jem and Scout, “As you grow older, you'll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don't you forget it—whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash.” (Lee 220). Although Atticus is a white man, he does not hold the same negative preconceptions about black people that many other white people do. This is especially significant because he lives in Maycomb, a very segregated neighbourhood, and he is a lawyer, a job in which discriminatory views are