How Does Harper Lee Use Social Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, was published in 1960. This novel is a realistic fiction book about a family who lives in Alabama during the Great Depression. This book has a real life plot centered around prejudice ideas that are very relatable to people who lived during the Great Depression era. Prejudice causes many social injustice issues in the novel. Many of them are based on the segregation of whites and blacks in the south during the Great Depression era. Aside from the main racial prejudice, there are two other types of prejudice, one being social class and the other gender. Prejudice is a frequent problem in the novel that really defines the plot and characters. The first and most prominent type of prejudice is racial prejudice. This prejudice is exemplified through white and black people. A main example of racial

There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes” (302). This statement clearly shows how much social class prejudice was around at this time. A ten year old is talking about social class prejudice and demeaning people that were not like him and his family. Social class prejudice was such a present theme during these times that it affected people of all ages. The third type of prejudice in this novel is gender prejudice. A clear example of gender prejudice in To Kill a Mockingbird is when Jem sees Calpurnia, the housekeeper, working in the kitchen. “She seemed glad to see me when I appeared in the kitchen, and by watching her I began to think there was some skill involved in being a girl” (154). This is a sexist remark because Jem is inferring that women actually do not have any skills. Sexism or gender prejudice is another type of prejudice that is affecting children in this