How Is Tom Robinson Persecuted

Tom Robinson is persecuted for being black in To Kill A Mockingbird. It was normal for people to do this in the time period. In particular, Tom is singled out an object of transgression by Bob Ewell as well as a mob of people who try to lynch him. Not only are people hated because of their race in the text, but some are also judged based on gender roles and social class. The inherent close mindedness in all of these acts boils down to simple prejudice, and these people’s refusal to try to understand Tom. As mentioned previously, Bob Ewell is prejudiced against Tom, although he is not completely without reason to hate him. Bob saw Mayella embracing Tom. As Tom is a black person, Bob Ewell did not think that this was acceptable, beat Mayella,

By the end, he is shown to just be misunderstood, and unable to handle interaction with other people. Here, Boo is prejudiced to be evil, but no one tries to understand what he has been through, and only judge him with an outside perspective. These actions make clear the faults in prejudice and being prejudiced in opinions and actions. In the book, Miss Gates talks to her third grade class about Adolf Hitler. On Hitler’s persecution of the Jews she says this, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced”(Lee 282). This quote reveals Miss Gate’s blindness to her town’s and her own prejudices against blacks. This hypocrisy echoes the hypocrisy of the time period in which most of the nation was prejudiced against blacks. Racial prejudice was not the only prejudice of the time. There was also gender prejudice and expectations of women. Scout is told by Alexandra what is expected of southern women. Furthermore, Jem says to Scout “you’re gettin’ more like a girl every day”(Lee 58). Jem judges girls like they are annoying and pesky, even though Scout, who only this once was similar to this effect, is also a girl. Aunt Alexandra and her group represent what Scout so desperately goes against. Alexandra constantly pesters Scout about becoming more like what is expected of her as a southern woman. Speaking of Aunt Alexandra, She