How prejudices in 1930s America are reflected in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example For Students

How prejudices in 1930s America are reflected in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird Essay In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, we see many types of prejudice, the first example that we meet comes in chapter one when Scout tell us her family history. In England Simon was irritated by the persecution of those who called themselves Methodists at the hands of their more liberal brethren. This quotation shows how the English people were prejudice against the Methodists. There is more evidence of religious intolerance later in the book when Miss Maudy scorns the foot-washing Baptists. Apart from religious intolerance, the two other main types of prejudice that we encouter throughout the book, are racism and prejudice against different classes. These types of prejudice strongly reflect the situation in the Southern states of America in the 1930s. Scout, is six years old at the beginning of this novel, and her brother Jem, is ten. Even though she is so young, Scout manages to portray the sense that Maycomb feels bitter and isolated after the Civil War, over fifty years earlier. The isolation, and how the town feels, reflects the way many places in the Southern states felt at that time. This quote tells us how the residents of Maycomb feel. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. The people from these isolated places gradually became prejudice towards outsiders. In the book this becomes clear in the way the children react to new school teacher. This says I am Miss Caroline Fisher. I am from North Alabama, from Winston County. The class murmured apprehensively should she prove to harbour her share of peculiarities indigenous to that region. All of these prejudices seem to stem from ignorance and fear of other societies. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the settings reflect and contradict 1930s American society in many ways, the most obvious contradiction is the way that nearly all of the blacks are betrayed as being perfect. The exception to this is Lula. When Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to First Purchase African M. E. Church, Lula is the first to greet with, what you up to, Miss Cal? This shows how she respects Calpurnia, but does not like the fact that she brought two white children to a Negro church. This contradicts society at the time, as not all black people were perfect, they did have their faults like Lula. Harper Lee portrays the blacks as intelligent people, where as at the time, they were thought of as ignorant, immoral and lazy. The Negroes, in comparison to the white Ewells who live on the dump, and have never done an honest days work in their lives, are really as the author portrays them and the Ewells are the ignorant, immoral and lazy ones. More evidence of this comes during Toms trial and Scout, Jem and Dill are in the black balcony. Reverend Sykes came puffing behind us, and steered us gently through the black people in the balcony. Four Negroes rose and gave us their front row seats. The black people respect their Vicar and the white children that are accompanying him, unlike the Ewells who respect no one. The racism that the white people show towards the blacks, makes even the children feel that it is bad for whites to like Negroes. An early example of this is at Christmas, at Finchs Landing when Scout, Jem, Atticus and Uncle Jack are visiting Francis, Aunt Alexandra and Uncle Jimmy. Francis and Scout are talking and Francis says, I guess it aint your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover Grandma says its bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now hes turned out a nigger-lover well never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. Even at her age, Scout is able to tell that this is not a good name to be called. Not all of the racism that the children encounter in the book comes from the other children, some of it is from the teachers at school, an example of this is when Scout is in the third grade and her teacher is Miss Gates, in class she describes Hitlers persecution of the Jews as wrong but is racist herself. This quotation comes from Scout when she is talking to Jem about Miss Gates. Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an then turn around and be ugly about folks right at home- Not all of the characters of this novel are racist, those who are not include Judge Taylor, Miss Maudy, and Atticus. The Chrysanthemums EssayI fixed it. You tell him Im proud to get it. Atticus was deliberately asked to take on Toms case as the Judge felt that Tom Robinson was innocent and he knew that Atticus would fight his hardest to prove that he was. Judge Taylor knows that even if Atticus knows that he is going to loose, he will do his best anyway. He talks about having courage as, its when you know your licked before you begin and you begin anyway. After managing to keep the jury out for so long and the verdict of guilty, a reader of Harper Lees novel would have thought that Bob Ewell would have had his share of attention, but unfortunately not. The day after the trial, he sees Atticus in town and spits in his face, the three children do not know of this until they see Miss Stephanie in their street. It was Miss Stephanies pleasure to tell us: this morning Mr Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him hed get him if it took the rest of his life. Again proving the hazards of trying to be impartial in a town like Maycomb. Atticus is not the only non-racist person in the town, but the others do not do anything about it, though they respect and appreciate what he does. One of these people is the Finchs neighbour, Miss Maudy, who, just after the trial of Tom Robinson, is talking to Jem and Scout about the racism in their town, and how Atticus has changed it. I waited and waited to see you come down the sidewalk, and as I waited I thought, Atticus Finch wont win, he cant win, but hes the only one in these parts that can keep a jury out for so long in a case like that. And I thought to myself, well, were making a step- its just a baby step, but its a step. In the course of history, not just in America, there has been much racism, Atticus, though a fictional character does his bit to try and prevent it, there are other people that were real that did this to. Most of these people were blacks, fighting for their own rights, such as Martin Luther King, but there were a few white men, like Atticus, fighting for Negroes rights. Donald Woods, lived in South Africa with his family, and supported the black populations, he wrote columns supporting blacks in local newspapers and eventually had to flee South Africa to neighbouring Lesotho. He did this after receiving many threats, and also a t-shirt with Steve Biko written on that burned his five year old daughter when she put it on, as it was treated with acid. Steve Biko was the leader of the black people in South Africa who died whilst in the hands of the government. This shows that through history there were other people like the fictional character of Atticus Finch who supported blacks. In this novel and in life in the 1930s Southern States of America, racism and prejudice faced people all of the time, but some tried to change this, in To Kill a Mockingbird, the character that does this is Atticus. He is trys to bring equality to the town of Maycomb. Miss Maudy is right when she says that Atticus has made a tiny step, he proved Tom Robinson innocent enough to keep the jury out for a long time. But there is one quote that sums up societyat the time, and it comes from Jem. You know something, Scout? Ive got it all figured out, now. Ive thought about it a lot lately and Ive got it figured out. Theres four kinds of folk in the world. Theres the ordinary people like us and the neighbours, theres the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, theres the kind like the Ewells don at the dump and the Negoes.