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Examples Of Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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This summer I read your book To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the main themes I discovered while reading the book was social and racial inequality. Differences in social status that constantly baffle the children are explored through the social hierarchy of Maycomb County, Alabama. The financially well-off Finches are at the top of Maycomb’s social hierarchy with most of the townspeople beneath them. Country farmers like the Cunninghams lie below the regular townspeople, and the Ewells are below the people like Cunninghams. The black community in Maycomb is an exception, despite its bounty of good qualities, they’re below even the lowest of the white community, the Ewells. This empowers Bob Ewell to make up for his own lack of importance by persecuting Tom Robinson. These social divides that make up much of the adult world are revealed in the book to be very irrational and destructive, through the eyes of the children. For example, Scout cannot understand why Aunt Alexandra refuses to let her befriend young Walter Cunningham. In the book you use the children’s confusion to point out the injustices and prejudice in Maycomb’s society based on race and financial status. …show more content…

For example, in chapter 23 Atticus says “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads- they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white always wins. They’re ugly, but these are the facts of life” (Lee 295) This quote is after the trial and Jem asks Atticus how they could be so biased against Tom Robinson even though it's a jury in a court of law. Atticus explains that it's been like this since the beginning of time. The only people that seem to find a problem with this kind of racism are children. For example, Jem, unlike the adults feels that Tom did not get a fair

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