Examples Of Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird was a novel written by Harper Lee in a time when racism against black people is huge. Harper Lee shows the influences of racism and social inequality through the relationships of her characters such as Tom Robinson, the Ewells, the Cunningham, Boo Radley. In the novel, many different forms of inequality are captured. Firstly, there is racism against all the blacks in Maycomb society by white people, no matter rich or poor. The culture portrayed in the novel is full filled with prejudice against black people and people even referred the kind, gentleman Tom Robinson to the word ‘nigger’. Tom Robinson has never done anything wrong but persecuted simply because he is a black. Further, the children who are not yet racist says

In the book, Even Bob Ewell, an uneducated widower is a racist towards all blacks, he believes that the whole black community have no rights to compare to whites. This can be seen in the trial which he says:”I seen that black nigger Youder ruttin ' on my Mayella". He uses the word “ruttin”, which is pretty much assigning Tom Robinson as an animal, which has no rights to speak. Harper Lee uses the charactor Bob Ewell because Ewells are descirbed as “White Trash” in the novel, and even they feel much better than blacks. However, it’s not the only time Harper Lee trying to present this idea. There is also a really tense scene taken place in Chapter 15, a group of white racist folks try to break in the jail and lynch Tom Robinson because he was suspected of raping Mayella Ewell, a white women. In the folks’ words “You know what we want. Get aside from the door.”The men didn’t use racist words, however, their presence and the demand to Atticus to leave already presents how strong the racism is in Maycomb. So, Tom Robinson’s later being killed in the novel doesn’t seem surprising for readers since the deciptions of racism is so