Examples Of Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird has a recurring theme of prejudice. Throughout the novel the narrator Scout Finch, Arthur “Boo” Radley and colored people are faced with prejudice. Prejudice is an assumption about someone based solely on what they believe is true or on what they were told or taught. Scout experiences prejudice because of her age, Boo because he is seldom seen and colored people because of the color of their skin. Scout experiences prejudice many times because of her age, but the most prominent times are when her brother Jem, assumes she will make a fool of him, her teacher presumes her father taught her how to read and her father supposes she needs protection. Jem believes that if Scout approaches him at school, she will

He was going around the corner. He was carrying Jem. Jem’s arm was dangling crazily in front of him” (Lee 263).
Hearing the commotion, Boo came to the rescue, fought of Bob Ewell and carried injured Jem home to his father. Despite people’s stories of his supposed maliciousness, he was a gentle soul who patched Jem’s pants, gave Scout a blanket when she was cold and saved their lives from a drunk man. Black people are judged because of the color of their skin, it is believed black people are not literate, and half-black and half-white people don’t belong to either race and Negroes are not to be trusted. Calpurnia, the Finch’s maid, taught her son Zeebo how to read, as she was taught by Miss. Buford. ““Yeah, Mister Jem. There wasn’t a school even when he was a boy. I made him learn, though”” (Lee 125). There were no schools for coloured kids at that time, only a handful of Negroes were taught to read and write by their owners. Children who were the product of a white person and a black person coming together, were shunned by both races. “They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere…” (Lee 161). Even if the person didn’t appear to be colored, they would still be judged because of their parents and would not be accepted by either society. The word of a white person carries more weight than that of their black counterparts, so when both come against each other, the white man will always come out on