Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper E. Lee

Before you judge someone, make sure you see it from their point of view. Those are the wise words of Atticus Finch, a white lawyer who is assigned to defend a black man who is accused of sexually assaulting a white woman. Atticus is a father of two and teaches his children how to be good people in their racist community. In Harper E. Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the author develops the theme of prejudice through gender roles, age, and ethnicity to show how prejudice can negatively impact the people in Maycomb by causing division in Scout, Jem, and the community. Harper E. Lee writes a lot about how Scout is discriminated against and made fun of because of her gender. Scout and Jem plot to steal some scissors and go cut up the riddles

Scout would have hung out with Jem, but Jem is getting older and thinks he is too good for Scout. Scout is then left to kick it with the cousin. “Jem felt his age and gravitated to the adults, leaving me to entertain our cousin” (Lee 80). When Jem left Scout all by herself with the cousins, it came as a shock to her. She is not quite at the age where she can be with the adults. Jem may not see it, but he is driving a wedge between him and Scout. Jem had just turned twelve, and Scout was starting to notice many different changes in his behavior. Jem is beginning to mature and leave Scout behind. This is very hard for Scout to accept because, for her whole life, she and Jem have been best friends, but now that is starting to change. “I just can’t help it if Mister Jem’s growin‘ up. He’s gonna want to be off to himself a lot now, doin’ whatever the boys do” (Lee 115). Calpurnia is giving Scout a very hard truth that she has to hear. Jem is quite a bit older than Scout and there is a point in time when he is going to start pulling away from Scout. As they both get older, they are going to find different things they are interested in and start making different