Cultural Barriers In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

The world is an unfair place, high social standing is longed for by most. America in the 1930’s was not the place you wanted to be if you were not born a white, rich, man. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the author Harper Lee illustrates the inescapability of social class and the heartbreaking reality of cultural barriers. In the summer of her fifth year, Jean Louise Finch, or “Scout” for short, discovers the true colors of the world’s injustices for the first time accompanied by her ten year old brother Jeremy Atticus Finch, or “Jem,” and her neighbor’s seven year old nephew, Charles Baker Harris, or “Dill.” Together the three children come to see there are many deep layers to the residents in every town, even a small, quiet one like

Maycomb.
One of Scout’s first problems understanding the social ladder is on her first day of school when one of her classmates, Walter Cunningham, faces reprimand for forgetting his lunch, though he truly was too poor to have a lunch.

Scout speaks up for Walter, explaining simply that he is a Cunningham, implying that the teacher should know his social standing as a member of the poorest family in town. “...Walter Cunningham was sitting there lying his head off. He didn’t forget his lunch, he didn’t have any. He had none today nor would he have any tomorrow or the next day. He had probably never seen more than three quarters together at the same time in his life.” (26). The Cunninghams have a reputation as a generationally poor family in town that Walter cannot

escape.
Much like the Cunninghams, The Radley family also faced social injustice for not conforming to the average cookie cutter family. “The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not go to church… but worshipped at home… The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways.” (11). The youngest Radley son, Arthur, had gotten in with the wrong crowd as a teenager. The group did not do much, but one day they got in trouble. Instead of Arthur being sent to the state industrial school, like the other boys, Mr. Radley kept Arthur under house arrest. The Radley’s knew that if they left their house, they would face judgement from the town of Maycomb so they became shut ins.
Later on in the book, Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, whom is a lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson.

Tom Robinson had been accused of raping Mayella Ewell, the eldest child of the worst white trash family in Maycomb. In all actuality, Mayella had flirted with Tom and got caught by her father. Her father, Bob Ewell, had beat Mayella with his left hand, which proved Tom not guilty since he could not move his left arm. Atticus explains the motives in his final speech of the trial. “‘I say guilt, gentlemen, because it was guilt that motivated her. She committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst as unfit to live with. She is a victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white… She was white and tempted a negro. She did something that in our society is unthinkable: she kissed a black man… There is circumstantial evidence that to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left… Tom Robinson now sits before you… with the only good hand he possesses- his right hand.’” (272) Most people in this day and age would be easily swayed into Tom’s defense with the evidence provided by Atticus, but this is the 1930’s in the deep south of the United States, and a black man could never be innocent in a case as such. “Judge Taylor was polling the jury: ‘Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty...’” (282)

Despite the fact that most of the town did not even associate with the Ewell’s, they had something Tom Robinson did not have, white skin, and in those times, that unfortunately took precedence.
If one can climb the social ladder in their lifetime it is considered a great accomplishment, though it does not happen often. To Kill A Mockingbird is a prime example of the perpetual inescapability of social hierarchy. Everywhere you go this looming cloud of social class is suspended over the human race. Even the smallest towns, towns like Maycomb, have discrimination and social hierarchy conquering the minds of most. Scout, Jem, and Dill find this out during the course of their childhood. Together the three children come to see there are many deep layers to the residents in every town, even a small quiet one like Maycomb.