To Kill a Mockingbird
“Racism is a grown-up disease, and we must stop our children from spreading it.”- Ruby Bridges. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel written through children’s eyes to show readers what the problems in a racist time period can do to a community. One of the major themes of Harper Lee’s novel is that racism is a disease with far and deep reaching roots. The fact that feeling hatred toward a person of a different race or color is a disease that can spread from person to person. The disease reaches far into our history as a country and as people. It affects the world in terms of tearing apart towns, states, or even countries. It shows us that racism is everywhere and whether we like it or not, it’s not going to go away. Harper Lee conveys the theme that racism is a disease with deep and far reaching roots through Miss Maudie and the nut grass in her yard, Uncle Jack and
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“Why can’t you just pull it up?’ I asked after witnessing a prolonged campaign against a blade not three inches high. ‘Pull it up, child, pull it up?’ She picked up the limp sprout and squeezed her thumb up it’s tiny stalk. Microscopic grains oozed out. ‘Why, one sprig of nut grass can ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes fall, this dries up and the wind blows it all over Maycomb county.” (pg. 56). The “nut grass” symbolizes racism in Maycomb county that need to be killed at it’s roots. The “whole yard” is Maycomb county in general, infected by the disease of racism and prejudice. The nut grass problem conveys the theme that racism is a disease with deep and far reaching roots. Miss Maudie believes that racism is like the nut grass, and needs to be killed at the roots, where children are picking it up from the adults around them. She believes that this is the only way to stop racism from spreading and affecting the next