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In the realistic fiction, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, written by Harper Lee. In this story prejudice is a reoccurring theme and is presented by social and racial categories. Prejudice in “To Kill a Mockingbird” occurs frequently throughout the story. Many times someone is being prejudice toward someone else. They use the phrase to be more Insulting or intimidating, usually because that’s how they were brought up. Francis, Scout and Gem’s cousin, yells, “He’s nothing’ but a Niger-lover”‘ Referring to Attic’s, while he was sprinting down the hall to his kitchen.
Believing what he Is saying is correct, Francis says, it certainly does mortify the rest of the family” Tater listening to his grandma he Is convinced that Gem and scout don’t know any better” (83). Mrs.. Meriwether said later in the book that “there’s nothing more distracting’ than a sulky dark just ruins your day to have one of them In your kitchen. ” (232) Mrs.. Meriwether didn’t mean that statement to be prejudice, but that’s how l, as the reader, read it and perceived it. Racial prejudice is extremely abundant in this novel.
Tom Robinson is a great example of prejudice later in the book, Tom was convicted for raping a white woman because he was black, and Attic’s, believing Tom and going against what the rest of Macomb believed, was Tom’s layover_ “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything Involving a Negro comes up, Is something don’t pretend to understand” (88). Tom ended up being proved guilty even though he was innocent, and the idea that crept over Attic’s mind was that Mr.. Lowell raped his daughter and needed a scapegoat to blame It on, and decided on Tom (chap. 7). California, he Finch’s black housemaid, is a prime example of prejudice in Mayflies. At home she “[doesn’t] talk Like the rest of me’ [… L Cal but [she] talk[s] Like them In church” (176). California explained how she needs to talk different in front of whites because it gives a different mood and idea that the whites think about her, but at church a more accustomed voice is well accepted. In general the people thought that blacks were less powerful and influential and more easily persecuted for something they didn’t do, just because they were raised that way.
Cecil Jacobs said, while cussing the Jews persecution in class one day, “Anti no cause to persecute them, they’re white aren’t they? ” (245) even though the Jews have been Persecuted many times in the past. Another type AT prejudice well Illustrated In tens novel was social prejudice. People would categorize groups of people or families based on their social status, color, race, or religion. The Cunningham are poor, and people sometimes treat them that way, even if the people are not aware that they are.
Scout asked Walter Cunningham over for dinner because she felt bad for him. California noticed Scout talking about how Walter ate and told him that most folks don’t eat as well as they do and Scout replied unknowingly, “He anti company Cal, he’s Just a Cunningham” (24). This single statement shows how Scout is not knowledgeable about what she says that’s prejudice. People also classify the Lowell family as bad and evil. “Every town like Macomb has a family like the Ells” (170). Even the Raddled are seen as an odd family. L know what we are going to play Boo Raddled. ” (38). People sometimes categorize entire families such as these because they feel that if your related to omen who may be poor, or weird, or mean that automatically makes you poor, weird or mean. People in Macomb even categorized people like Attic’s, because he defends black people. They even tell Scout when she’s at school that, “My folks said your daddy is a disgrace” (76). The prejudice in this story is all tied into the title of the story “To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee was explaining how numerous characters in the story are “mockingbirds” because of Attic’s statement about how it is a sin to kill a mockingbird. With this analogy he thinks that persecuting someone of color, of a foreign religious decent, or Ewing a woman is wrong because in their own minds they did nothing wrong. He believes that everyone is “certainly entitled to think that, and they’re entitled to full respect for their opinions. ” (108), referring to the people calling Attic’s a Niger- lover.
Even though he tries to love everyone, he still believes in Justice. “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a Jury box. As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, UT let me tell you something and don’t you forget it – whenever a white man does that too black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash. (220). To Conclude; Prejudice, the main theme of this novel, was expressed racially, and socially. To Kill a Mockingbird refers not only to the scene where Attic’s explains that killing a mockingbird is a sin, but also to the characters in the story, who were persecuted for being racially, sexually, or ethnically different from everyone else, who could be referred to as mockingbirds.