Theme Of Hypocrisy In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, is about a young girl named Scout, who is growing up in Maycomb County, Alabama during times of segregation. Through the eyes of this 9 year old, we get to see how different families lived and how people of different races were treated. We watch as Scout grows up and matures and how her opinions and the way she sees the community changes. In the story, there are three main themes being displayed, hypocrisy, injustice, and prejudice. According to The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary , hypocrisy means the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not confirm. Also, according to The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, injustice means an unjust act or occurrence. According to The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, prejudice is a preconceived opinion that is not based on

While Water is not the worst character in the story, he displays hypocrisy in his daily life. Everyday Walter lives a moral, polite, and upright life, but when he has to be nice to a black man, he refuses. He is nice to everyone he sees because he was raised a polite man, but when he sees someone with a different skin tone, segregation has retaught him and now he is rude and mean to black people. "I'll tell him you said hey, little lady," he said. Then he straightened up and waved a big paw. "Let's clear out," he called. "Let's get goin, boys." (enotes “What are some quotes by Walter Cunningham in To Kill a Mockingbird?”). Everyone has to be treated equally, which means that you cannot just be nice to a white man and then incredibly rude to a black man just because of his skin tone. Hypocrisy means the practice of claiming to have moral standards or beliefs to which one's own behavior does not confirm. This is exactly what Walter Cunningham and the rest of his mob do to Atticus when he defends his client even though he is