Prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Essay

During the 1930’s depression, there was a great divide between black and white America. There were many communities and groups who had been exposed to the same treatment and persecution as the Negroes in To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee has used a small town setting, such as that in To Kill a Mockingbird, to illustrate America’s views on white supremacy and the inferiority of the black race. The author has illustrated view that are expressed world-wide through her characters in Maycomb county.

“On the outskirts of town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills toward the west.”

The section begins with a description of the town, “After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust to the direst mud”(Capote 1). By including these details in the description of the town it shows that the town is a very old fashioned town that is behind the societies that are in more developed, larger cities in America. Capote goes on, “The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have be converted into apartments”(Capote 2). With the bank having been closed around the time of the depression it shows that the town no longer trusted the government after the banks failed them and they do all their business between themselves. The town is a very closed off from the national system and the only connection they have is through their post office. All these descriptions cause the town to be a perfect picture of a safe, rural community where nothing bad happens and people all depend on each other.

1. What descriptive details does the author use to make it clear that the setting of the story is a small town?

In addition to including the most boring of details, Capote uses a great deal of imagery to describe the town and its residents. Focusing mostly on visual appeal, he describes the "sulphur-colored paint" and "flaking gold" to reveal the town's appearance and has-been status. Portraying the area as one that has seen better days, Capote writes about the "old stucco structure" that no longer holds dances, the crumbling post office, and the bank that now fails to serve its original purpose.” Combining visual imagery with hints of desolation, Capote attempts to reveal the gray and boring nature of the town through its appearance. He does not, however, rely only on visual details; in describing the local accent as "barbed with a prairie twang," he uses both auditory and visual appeal to make one imagine a ranch-hand's tone of voice and pattern of speech as he describes the events of his farming days. The "hard blue skies and desert-clear air" contribute to a feeling of emptiness, an emotional vacancy that seems omnipresent in the small town. Finally, even "the steep and swollen grain elevators" that represent the town's prosperity are seen in a solemn and mysterious light, as Capote makes certain to mention that the townspeople camouflage this abundance without explaining why they choose to do so.

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, prejudice and racism are embedded in the regional psyche of Maycomb, a miniscule town in Alabama. The narrator interpolates injustice and racism in Alabama during the 1930s, largely through the eyes of Scout, who was a child during this time, however, the adult Scout occasionally interjects with some adult observations. Furthermore, the citizens of Maycomb are stereotyped pervasively throughout the book. In Harper Lee’s To Kill Mockingbird, examples of racism, sexism, and social class are used to demonstrate how prejudice can corrupt a community.

The buildings were described as having, “small-paned high windows in the peaks of their steep gables were like knowing eyes,” as to make the infrastructure have human features to look at the narrator and scene around it. When the narrator is with Mrs. Todd and her herbal remedies the humanity of the town grows with the mystical qualities of the herbs as the remedies themselves “whispered directions could be heard as customers passed the windows” and the wind blew by, ““adverse winds at sea might also find their proper remedies.” By personifying the town itself and making it not only the setting, but a character, Jewett deepens the meaning of her excerpt to have a mystical tone and maintain the

What really is prejudice? Prejudice is an opinion based only upon personal bias, and not any actual facts or evidence. Within the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there are a variety of situations where prejudice is taken into effect over facts and evidence. When Lee does this, he is not only just giving the characters some detail, but he is also showing what prejudice really means and how it can affect people. A few examples could be when scout is basing her opinion on no facts, Lila at the church getting her opinion from just the kids being white, Boo Radley being judged without facts by everyone, and Tom Robinson being black meaning is already guilty.

The prejudice seen in the fictional novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee corresponds with the real narrow-mindedness during this time period. A fair trial would be unlikely during this time period between a white and a black man. Tom Robinson was presumed guilty because of his race.

The characters in, To Kill a Mockingbird, a novel by Harper Lee, often use prejudice against people of controversial issues. Many of the townspeople of Maycomb use prejudice on the families who are on the less wealthy end of the spectrum. Issues are still displayed because of the racial prejudice used against African Americans and those of other races. Lastly, gender is a clear issue in Maycomb because of women’s and girl’s rights and lack of respect towards them because they are female. All of the types of prejudice show that Maycomb has many problems all throughout the town between other families and townspeople.

A small city nestled in the state of Alabama, Maycomb has got its faults, just like any other place in the world, but one of its main faults or (pg.88) “Maycomb's usual disease,” as Atticus calls it in the book is prejudice.

The author could have just said that the town was old; however, Lee continues on to describe the town in detail using words with timeworn connotations. This gives the reader an even deeper understanding on the town which seems lost in its own primordial time where the view from the street remains as unchanged as the view of the people themselves.

It is evident through the disrespectful talk of him throughout the town, the result of the trial, and the lack of empathy over his death. Throughout Maycomb, he is referred to as a “nigger” multiple times and during the trial he is called “boy”, as if he did not deserve the courtesy to be called “sir”. He is treated with disdain and even with less respect than the Ewells, that are considered the lowest of the town. He was also found guilty despite the lack of evidence and unreliable witnesses, which shows the character of those on the jury. They knowingly and willingly put an innocent man to death because they didn’t want to defy the racial stereotypes of the town.

The village has grown into a much bigger area. New houses occupy the places where the ones from his time stood. There is a new, fancy Yankee hotel in the spot where the Dutch Inn was located. Along with the town itself, all of the people have changed. They are no longer the calm townspeople

Now the ramshackle dwelling is a place people say seeps dread. A spot where the sun isn’t quite as bright, the dust oppressive, and the teeming, yellowed weeds that camouflage its former glorious gardens are ragged and