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To Kill A Mockingbird Social Snobbery Analysis

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Social snobbery can negatively impact a society by creating divisions, hostility, and inequality between groups of people. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Aunt Alexandra is the aunt of the protagonist, Scout, and her brother, Jem. Also being Atticus’ sister, she is very much the stereotypical lady of Maycomb. The Ewells, white trash, accuse Tom Robinson, an honest black man, of raping Mayella, one of the Ewell children. The Cunningham family is similar to the Ewells as they are poor but the Cunninghams have morals and manners. Aunt Alexandra considers Tom Robinson as unequal to the rest of Maycomb because of his skin colour and thinks he does not deserve a fair trial. She believes her family is superior to other families because of their status. Aunt Alexandra confirms her social snobbery when she does not allow Scout to invite one of the Cunninghams for dinner, saying they are all trash. Lee displays social snobbery through the character of Aunt Alexandra through her views on the Tom Robinson case, her family, and the Cunninghams. Aunt Alexandra shows social snobbery because she believes Tom should not receive a proper court hearing and tells Francis that she does not want Atticus defending Tom and that Atticus would be disgracing the family by doing so. She believes Tom does not deserve a fair trial because he is a black man. ‘“I can’t say I approve of everything he does, Maudie, but he’s my brother”’ (Lee 269).

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