To Kill A Mockingbird Uniformity Quotes

An unknown author once said, “Don’t be afraid of being different, be afraid of being the same as everyone else.” That author meant that uniformity is a disadvantage and can lead to consequences, and this idea was later expanded upon in Harper Lee’s book To Kill A Mockingbird. In the book, the town of Maycomb wants everyone to have similar ideas and ideals, and in doing so, forces people into single stories. Through the characterization of the town of Maycomb via the restrictions of individual identities, author Harper Lee suggests that humans constrict one another within a falsely unified community.

While everyone in Maycomb is a part of the community, Harper Lee uses the caste system of Maycomb to convey that the members have no control of

The “hain’t” of the Radley house will never get a chance to change his position in society; because of the gossip Maycomb spreads about him, he will always be seen as bad and will never be able to break out of that role. The fact that even the youngest members of the town of Maycomb commonly know the Radleys as villains shows that Maycomb has a way of confining people to a single story and keeping them on one level of importance. But the social standings of the town are not only based on genetics-they also depend on skin color. Black people in Maycomb are seen as unimportant. In the courtroom, Mr. Gilmer proves this to be true by confronting Tom Robinson, saying, “‘Had your eye on her a long time, hadn’t you, boy?’ ‘No suh, I never looked at her.’ ‘Then you were mighty polite to do all that chopping and hauling for her, weren’t you, boy?’ ‘I was tryin’ to help her out, suh.’ ‘That was mighty generous of you, you had chores at home after your regular work, didn’t you’” (Lee 263)? Even though Tom Robinson uses polite words such as “suh” (sir) and answers straight with no long explanations, he is still not believed because of who he is. Because Tom is black, he is the

In the town of Maycomb, we see senses of division and separation throughout. The text quotes, “‘Atticus, you must be wrong....’ ‘How's that?’ ‘Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong....’” (Lee 139). Already we get a subliminal sense that the townspeople are not equally appraised due to the separation of Atticus and his views against the rest of the communities. It seems to be that when there are outliers to be considered in Maycomb, they are simply pushed aside and left alone. Instead of the townsfolk bringing them all in to be treated equally, they are set aside because they are believed to be odd or do not properly fit in. They lack the conscience to attempt to bring together these outliers and present them as outcasts. Creating rumors, spreading deceit, being denied of recognition. This is what the townspeople of Maycomb do. Another example of this is with the Radley household. "There are just some kind of men who—who're so busy worrying about the next world they've never learned to live in this one, and you can look down the street and see the results." (Lee 60). This passage refers to Miss Maudie gossiping about Arthur “Boo” Radley and his father. This time in comparison to putting the neighborhood against the Finches, they set their sights upon the Radleys, as they had been for