There are many different levels of the caste system in Maycomb County. Factors like your job, the color of your skin, and other people’s opinion of you goes into putting you into a class. Children are put into the same class as their parents, and they often never change. People also do not usually interact with people outside of their social class. This, in most cases, is very frowned upon. Although, some levels are very similar.
The Finch family is of the highest social standing in Maycomb County. They are white, which back then, was a very important factor in what social class you belonged in. Atticus Finch, is also a lawyer, and a very good one at that. This makes him very respected in the community. The Finch’s, Atticus especially, have a lot of friends in their community. They are very well educated, loved, and respected by most of their neighbors, and they do not have many enemies. They are also very kind to the black community. Although, you do not have to be kind to the Negroes to be in the highest class. In fact, most were not kind to them. People like Aunt Alexandra were “the perfect example of what a southern lady should act like.” In other words, they despised blacks. They wanted nothing to do with them.
The Cunningham
…show more content…
They are white, which makes them more superior to the black community, but not by much. They are terribly poor. Bob Ewell, the father, does not work or make any money for his family. He is a horrible drunk who could not care less about spending money he does earn on anything else besides alcohol. The family lives behind a dumpster, almost never eating. The Ewell children also do not go to school. They think it is pointless. They go on the first day, just to get the truant officer off their back, but then they do not show up again until the next year. The residents of Maycomb County are not fond of the Ewells at all. They are disrespectful, rude, and just plain
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch is a kind and brave man who treats everyone with respect. Throughout his life, Atticus Finch continually represents the values of respect, courage, and justice. In Maycomb, County Atticus lives with his two kids, Scout and Jem, and their housekeeper Calpurnia. He is a defense lawyer who believes segregation is wrong. First, Atticus shows respect by how he treats others. He Answers his children's questions truthfully, even if they're embarrassing. He does this because he thinks it is wrong to lie to a child. Also, he respects the Cunningham family. Atticus Treats Walter, Jr., as an honored guest at his dinner table. One time he even assisted Mr. Cunningham with an important legal problem.
For the Finch family they had Calpurnia, a paid, black maid that was respected greatly around the house. Atticus trusted her to babysit the kids while he went to work in the summer. The kids respected Calpurnia enough to mind her commands and to receive advice from her. The Finches’ where some of the few families that had some respect for the black community in Maycomb. This wasn’t true for the rest of the commity.
Maycomb County is a white peoples town; the black community live on the outskirts of the town. Racism is so rampant that people do not even realise it happening. The blacks are deprived basic rights; they are not allowed proper jobs and are separated from the whites in every occasion. The blacks are even
Atticus Finch is a man of principles who is consistent in his views and deeds throughout the novel. Although he is criticized and mocked by many characters in the novel for his tolerant attitude towards the ‘Negros’, people of Maycomb still respect him and keep re-electing him to be their representative in the State Legislator. According to Miss Maudie Atkinson words to Scout, Atticus is a man who does for other people the unpleasant things they have to do. He is a defender of justice and he fights for it even if he is sure that he will be beaten at the end. He also tries throughout the novel to pass these values onto his children.
The Finch household develops scout’s sense of justice most in the novel. From the teachings of Calpurnia and atticus, Scout’s view of racial justice and morality are shaped through their conversations. Atticus, a man of virtue, educates his children that the color of someone’s skin shouldn’t determine how you treat them and his teachings are reflected in the way scout treats African-American people like Calpurnia. Atticus, an attorney, and Scout’s father defends Tom Robinson; a black man who’s accused of raping a white women, is facing insultments from the people of Maycomb. Even though he’s getting judge for defending somebody who’s different from jim, it doesn't stop him.
In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee it discusses Atticus Finch and his two children Jem and Scout Finch. They are taught by there father to not invade people's privacy, and also the importance of tolerance. Mr. Finch lives in Maycomb with his two children. Atticus is a lawyer and he is currently about to do something he is not delighted about doing, nor pleased to do he has to defend a black man Tom Robinson, who was accused of raping Mayella Ewell. In that period of time there was extreme discrimination and Tom was hated by all citizens there. But this doesn't change the way Mr. Finch treats Tom or his attitude about him. He does not care about the skin color you have and he really tries to instill this to Jem and Scout. Atticus seeks to instill moral values in his children, Scout and Jem, through the lessons he teaches them directly and those he teaches by his example.
Atticus is an important character throughout the novel, he has a large influence of the community of Maycomb County that he is strongly valued in. He is revealed to us through his words and actions as a courageous and unprejudiced man with good values and morals. At the beginning of the novel Atticus Finch takes Tom Robinson’s court case, Tom Robinson is a black member of the Maycomb town who has been accused of rape of Mayella Ewell. In the 1930’s this was a very controversial case for Atticus to be supporting as throughout the community and the Unites States there was a problem of racial inequality. Blacks were not seen to have equal rights as whites and were seen as the lower class and “trash”. Atticus says that “When it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins”. This shows that although he is exposing himself and his family to the anger of the white community, he would rather stand by his moral values than join the rallying community of racially
Maycomb was in a phase of diversity. In the beginning the story, readers learn about the state of Maycomb. One of the main things that are apparent is the economic classes of Maycomb. In the story, Jem tells the reader about social class when he explains it to his sister Scout, “‘There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes’” (page 226). Maycomb may have been divided because of the trial, but economic class also had to do with it. To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee, the story taking place in the 1930s. The economy in the story wasn’t the greatest. This was at the time of the Great Depression. That takes a huge toll on how the story is laid
The fourth and lowest class in Maycomb was best described as a "caste" because it was impossible to escape from it. All blacks were included in this group. Prejudice ran deep in Maycomb County. Although many classes existed within the black community, one of colour must always be in the lowest class.
In Maycomb County, Atticus Finch is not protected from social and legal codes, the town of Maycomb and close family of Atticus treat him with poor respect because of his choice to defend a black man. Atticus is thought for bringing disgrace to his family by the other white residents of Maycomb for protecting and supporting Tom Robinson. Sheriff Tate warns Atticus that there were men who were angry about Atticus representing Tom. To extend, Scout experiences a lynch mob ( a band of people who want to
In Maycomb County, the residents live in a world of racism and injustice, so much so that even young children are affected by the results. Through standing with Atticus and his decisions, Scout undergoes constant indirect racism when her cousin says, “I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family-” (Lee, pg. 94). Even with family, Scout begins to understand that not everyone shares her close family’s views, and that she may even be discriminated against for protecting her and her father’s beliefs. To add, Atticus always stands his ground, though the things and the people he defends cannot always win, such as when his only evidence is “a black man’s word against the Ewells’” (Lee, pg. 100 ). Atticus can believe in someone regardless of their skin color, yet the majority of his town is filled with racists who won’t believe him, even with
In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, one of the major themes that author Harper Lee highlights are the divisions and inequality in society. The story is set in the 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama when class, gender, and racial discrimination were highly prevalent. In this time Jim Crow laws were in effect. Jim Crow laws mandated the segregation between black and whites. Consequences of questioning Jim Crow laws were violent and people were rejected from society and their family. The 1930’s is also the time during which the great depression was taking place. Many families were hit hard by the great depression. Maycomb was not a poorer, small, Southern, town. Also in this time, women were not given equal rights and they were expected to fulfill
“The Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. They were people, but they lived like animals.” Although the Cunninghams were close to it, neither families were considered to be part of “the common folk”. Atticus says that Scout is part of the common people, whereas the Ewells are part of their own society, consisting only of themselves. They were allowed to do most of what they wanted and whenever they wanted because everyone has given up on trying to “force people like the Ewells into a new environment.” The Finches are part of the common folk so the Finches are above the Cunninghams and Ewells on the social class hierarchy. Atticus think the Ewells are like animals because he has seen the way they lived. They hunted out of season, which was illegal, skipped school, and wasted money. Mr. Ewell spent their relief checks on green whiskey while his children cried in pain from hunger. Atticus’ opinion of the Cunninghams is better because they are kind people. They always repay for services and never take anything they can’t give back. They are trustworthy. “The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back.” When Mr. Cunningham was one of Atticus’ clients, he made sure he paid him plenty. He sent crops after each harvest until Atticus received more than enough. The finches have no reason to disrespect them only because of their
It is very evident that Maycomb is a small town in which there is much racism, and social status greatly determines what kind of life you will lead. The different types of social inequality are an important theme in the novel, and Harper Lee
In the novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee the Finch family are known in Maycomb County by everyone, whether through their eyes it’s for a good reason or bad reason. The Finches are very important to the novel as they have a lot to do with the issues bought up during the novel. Mr Atticus Finch is an individual in the