To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Quotes

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, is an exceptional book portraying prejudice in the 1930’s. This book shares about the life of a kid named Scout and her adventures in Maycomb County. Throughout the book we see prejudice in the eyes of a child and how it affects Scout’s life. In the book a black man is accused of raping a white woman and Scout’s dad, Atticus, is appointed to defend the black man. Scout soon learns the public perception on this trial. Admittedly, there are some people on the side of justice, however others want a certain result because of their own prejudice. There are many themes in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, nonetheless, I feel that prejudice is shown the most. Prejudice is a long term problem that has been affecting

Tom Robinson is a middle aged black man that was married to his wife Helen. Mr. Robinson was doomed from the start because of his skin color. One of the main prejudices that happened in Maycomb was racial discrimination. The first way Mr. Robinson was affected by racial prejudices is when he was accused of rape even though he was innocent. This is proven when the jury states in his court case, “Guilty...guilty...guilty...guilty…” (282) This quote shows the worst part of the trial. The jury were so blinded by their own prejudices against colored people that they automatically found him guilty. Even though Mr. Ewell was not respected it was the fact that he was white that made the jury choose him over Tom Robinson. Another way that Tom Robinson was affected by prejudices is when grown men wanted to kill him just because of his skin color. Heck Tate warns, “...movin’ him to the county jail tomorrow. I don’t look for any trouble, but I can’t guarantee there won’t be any…” (194) These men were so disgusted with other people just because they were black, so they wanted to kill them. When Tom was accused of rape it gave these men a perfect reason to purge themselves clean from there hatred. Little did they know with killing one black man it will only lead to more being killed. It was because of this false accusation that Helen, Tom’s wife, was affected by prejudice. This relates to Tom because he wants his wife to have the necessities to survive and without money there is no way for her to eat. Reverend Sykes claims, “You all know what it’s for-Helen can’t leave those children to work while Tom’s in jail.” (162) Helen can’t leave her children at home which is part of the reason she can’t work. The other part is because no one will hire her because of what they accused Tom Robinson of. They are afraid of being judged for hiring a “rapist's” wife. Therefore, it is apparent that Tom Robinson faced a ton