To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Quotes

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the symbol of the mockingbird to show that prejudice can affect even the most selfless people. The mockingbird symbol is seen through three specific characters which include: Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and, Atticus Finch. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Boo Radley is one of the first characters to be seen as a mockingbird. He is an outcast and he is judged by all the gossip that speaks differently of him, he is a mockingbird in the midst of evil. Boo is not harmful and it would be wrong to harm him; as Scout would say, ¨Well, it’d sort of be like shootin’ a mockingbird, wouldn’t it?¨ (276). Scout realized that sheriff could not let people know that Boo Radley was the individual who killed

He is a respectable man who is torn down because of the prejudice towards his race. Tom is an innocent mockingbird who does nothing but go out of the way to help others. In the book, Tom is accused of raping a white woman, when he was only helping her with some of her chores. During Tom’s trial he was asked many questions as to why he helped Mayella Ewell in the first place, he responded “Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em -” (197). Tom was only doing a service for Miss. Mayella because he noticed that she worked hard for the children and for her father who abused her because he was often drunk. Tom gave his strength and time to help out Mayella and Tom pitied her because she seemed lonely. Tom only wanted to also help Mayella manage the property she lived on. Tom was a well mannered gentleman who loved his family and helped others “he would not have dared strike a white woman under any circumstances and expect to live long, so he took the first opportunity to run—a sure sign of guilt” (195). Tom tried to avoid the circumstance that he was put into but he became a wounded mockingbird who had less hope of healing. Because Tom was a black man, society looked down on him. Even the Ewell’s, who were the lowest out of all the white