Effects Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

Racism affects nearly all the characters named in the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, a book written by Harper Lee, following the main characters, Jean Louise Finch’s (a.k.a. Scout) life while her father defends a black man in the heavily prejudiced and racist town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. Throughout the book, white people are hardly ever the victims of racism as that is usually directed towards the coloured citizens of the town, but as the book goes on, readers become more aware of how nobody is truly safe. While mostly directed towards people of colour in Maycomb, racism is used as a weapon towards people of all present races. Three characters are affected by it more than any others; Scout Finch, who despite being white, is still

Outside of the First Purchase church, Lula confronts Calpurnia about bringing white children to a black church, and Calpurnia has to act differently around her so she could be taken seriously. The children grew up accustomed to Calpurnia using a certain tone, and when Lula confronts Calpurnia, she knows that the way she talks around the children will not demand respect from Lula and people like her so when Calpurnia responded, Scout could easily hear that Calpurnia talked “in tones [she] had never heard her use [...] [Scout] thought her voice strange: she was talking like the rest of them.” (158) Calpurnia, who sees the Finch children as her own and feels the need to protect them, and when Lula begins to act hostile towards them because of their race, Calpurnia needed to stop being the children’s mother in order to protect them, scout had “never” heard her use that voice because Calpurnia never wanted the children to see that side of her. Aunt Alexandra disapproves of Calpurnia because of her race and scares her enough to make Calpurnia treat her as if she deserves to be respected and shes treated better than Calpurnia’s god at church. At Aunt Alexandra’s tea party, Calpurnia can be seen wearing “her stiffest starched apron” (305) a sign of respect in the 1930’s as it kept one's clothes clean and wrinkle-free. Calpurnia wears her starchiest apron because she is scared of Aunt Alexandra. Alexandra states in previous chapters that she does not care for Calpurnia’s presence and that Atticus should get rid of her. Calpurnia is aware of Alexandra's true intentions and knows that she can never make her mad or she risks being fired. Calpurnia usually acts tough around the children