Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, presents a depiction of 1930s America, exploring several themes including the blatant racism which was considered normal in that time. Throughout the novel, racism and the corresponding inequality is a key concept that is developed. The novel was inspired by Lee's real life as the authors’ mother had bipolar disorder and rarely left the house, while her father, a lawyer, owned a share of the local newspaper. Lee would have grown up hearing about lynching’s and injustices surrounding the treatment of people who were not considered equal at the time, black people and mentally and physically disabled people like Lee’s mother. Lee successfully demonstrates how the system was corrupted by societal prejudices

Maycomb was a town divided by race and social status, for example the educated middle income Finch family of narrator Scout, the poor white family Mayella Ewell (accuser character) and poor black man Tom Robinson (the accused character). Lee uses this setting to highlight the ways societal prejudice are reinforced. Lee’s use of language devices such as symbolism and social justice metaphors. This emphasises the social and cultural divisions that exist within the town. “The handful of people in this town who say that fair play is not marked White Only; the handful of people who say a fair trial is for everybody, not just us; the handful of people with enough humility to think, when they look at a Negro, there but for the Lord’s kindness am I.” (Chapter 24, pp261). This statement is a powerful message of equality as at the time only Black Americans where automatically considered ‘bad’ solely on race and regardless of actual character. Considering the time and place expectations of 1930s southern America, this behaviour upholds the expectations of society. This is a direct result of Lee’s positioning to show that some people use choice to work around contextually appropriate values and

There is irony demonstrated in Lee’s development of Atticus’s character who would shoot a dog (personification of a helpless person) to put it out of its misery as Atticus did, but would defend the right of a man marked for death to live, as Atticus again did in taking the case of Tom Robinson. The symbolism in both these events are reflective of the overall symbolic theme in Lee’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. That’s why it’s a sin To Kill a Mockingbird.” (Chapter 10, pp100). Lee highlights Tom Robinson’s death through symbolism, the death of any innocent is a sin. The symbolism is reflected in the apt title with the destruction of innocence, due to racism, as the main theme of this