“Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a Negro (sic) comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand.” A quote from Atticus Finch regarding African Americans in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Jem Finch undergoes a major change when Atticus is defending an African American man in court. Not only Jem, but many other characters as well, realize the obvious prejudice in Maycomb County towards African Americans and how they are looked upon. To Kill a Mockingbird shows that the way a person treats others is a reflection of character.
Mrs. Dubose treats Atticus and Jem Finch with disrespect regardless of the position they’re in. A majority of the days when Jem and Scout Finch are coming home from town a morphine addict, Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose, yells racist things to the children. Most of the comments are focused around what Atticus is doing for an African American man in court. When Atticus walks past the Dubose residence he waves to Mrs. Dubose and politely tells her the courthouse news. The way that Mrs. Dubose yells and rants at Atticus, Jem, and Scout effectively shows that she is an arrogant and disrespectful character in the novel.
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Mr. Ewell is known throughout Maycomb as an ignorant man who is almost always unemployed and is the father of many children. He beats and possibly rapes his oldest daughter, Mayella Ewell, but blames his those problems on an African American man named Tom Robinson. Relief checks, given to him by the government, are spent on whiskey to go on day-long drinking trips. When Bob Ewell spends money meant to feed his kids it is shown that he values his children as an unimportant burden. Overall, it is obvious that Bob Ewell is a very arrogant and egocentric