Theme Of Enmity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Sources of Enmity in To Kill a Mockingbird To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is a timeless, touching novel that examines stereotyping and its consequences. The novel follows Atticus Finch, a small-town lawyer, as he defends a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman in Maycomb, Alabama. The novel also shows how the lives of Atticus' children, Scout and Jem, are affected and how what they experience influences the way they grow up. It allows us to see characters like Boo Radley and Bob Ewell as they add to the theme of racism and prejudice as well. To Kill a Mockingbird deals most obviously with racial prejudice but the greater lesson has to do with class differences and how a person's inherited social status unfairly

Characters such as Atticus' sister Alexandra tend to believe that because of her family and social status she is better than others. She mentions in the novel that she thinks of Walter Cunningham as trash and Scout shouldn't associate with him. Despite the fact that Scout and Jem are young they do have a slight understanding of the clear social differences in their town. Jem mentions "There's four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, the Cunninghams, the Ewells, and the negroes"(Lee chapter 23). While Jem has a good idea of social class Scout doesn't understand it completely. When Mr. Cunningham had to pay Atticus with hickory nuts Scout didn't realize that they didn't have money to pay Atticus. He explains to Scout that they aren't as poor as the Cunninghams because the Great Depression hit farmers harder than others. In conclusion, To Kill a Mockingbird follows the hardships and troubles of Atticus and his family as they deal with the trial of Tom Robinson. The novel clearly deals with the tension caused by racial prejudice and social differences. We see that characters such as Boo Radley and the Cunninghams are mistreated and mistrusted because of their social status. Tom Robinson however is mistreated because of his race. Throughout the entire novel a clear picture is given of how racism and prejudice affect everyone surrounded by it and how it causes others to be unfairly