To Kill A Mockingbird Class Discrimination Analysis

Merriam-Webster defines discrimination as: a prejudiced or prejudicial outlook, action, or treatment, racial discrimination, or the act, practice, or an instance of discriminating categorically rather than individually. When looking at discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird, we cannot make the mistake of lumping all discrimination into the category of “racial.” In order to understand the true role of discrimination in Harper Lee 's novel we need to first understand the time period and setting, the mood of that setting, and the conflict itself. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the 1930 's during the Great Depression, in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama. It was a time when southerners still felt deep pride, even though life was difficult.

In Chapter 23, Jem says, '”You know something, Scout? I’ve got it all figured out, now. I’ve thought about it a lot lately and I’ve got it figured out. There’s four kinds of folks in the world. 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.” This quote gives us Jem 's view about people. We know he believes they are separated by their social class, behavior and economics: middle class as they were; poor people with good behavior like the Cunninghams; poor people with bad behavior like the Ewells; and poor people, but black, the Negroes. Everything depended on the status of your family and your wealth. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Aunt Alexandra is a good example of prejudice among the classes. In Chapter 23 when Aunt Alexandra forbids Scout from inviting Walter Cunningham to dinner, she says “”that it is not because they aren 't 'good folks ' or “because you can 't clean Walter up and put him in nice clothes but that even if you do, he won 't be like Jem." She forbids Scout and Jem from playing with Walter Cunningham because he is beneath their social status and fine family history. At one point when Scout is questioning why she can 't play with Walter Cunningham and asks, “But I want to play with Walter, Aunty, why can 't I?” She took off her glasses

We know there was extreme racial prejudice. We know that women were looked upon as something less than men. And we know for sure there was a distinct impression about the social classes. This was the 1930 's. The conflict in the values of the changing South causes us all to question. It forces us to take a hard look at how people relate to one another today and to ask ourselves if we have made the progress we need to make toward being a just, fair and tolerant society. The phrase that is part of the novel 's sub-titling provides us with that question. Have we yet reached a point where “Human Dignity Unites Us