Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

Throughout the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee the main conflict that arose most often was discrimination. Of course, there were others throughout the novel, but discrimination sticks out the most, especially through the use of characters. Two main characters Lee used to portray discrimination was through Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson. Both of these characters played an important role when discrimination was brought up, which will be further explained below.

The main conflict of the novel is discrimination and a character that experiences this throughout the novel is Atticus Finch. Atticus took part in the Tom Robinson trail as a lawyer, and plans on proving Tom innocent. From doing so Atticus was put under fire with multiple comments and was viewed poorly. This shows discrimination well. The discrimination behind this piece only occurred after news spread that Atticus was aiding Tom, a black male, which was

viewed unacceptable at the time. Another part in the novel that expresses the harsh discrimination in Maycomb occurred during the mad dog scene. Before the mad dog Atticus was viewed differently due to his lack of "fatherly" characteristics. This included having a gun and taking part in "manly" jobs. People in Maycomb viewed him as weak because of this, even his own children. Once, the mad dog came around Atticus was quick to shoot the beast this also revealed his shooting talent that most looked past and never imagined. This shows how quick Maycomb discriminated Atticus just because he acted a different way.

After dissecting Atticus and the discrimination towards him another character will be explained, Tom Robinson.

From being caught up in an unfair trail to being judged by skin color Tom has faced only discrimination throughout the novel. A prime example of this discrimination can be found throughout the trail when he was put against an unfair jury of all white men, and the color of his skin also was the main reason he was found guilty. The discrimination can be found within something Tom had no control over, which was his skin color. Maycomb made sure those who were not white were treated differently and treated poorly. Along with this example another also comes from the trail, the jury was not completely sure Tom was the only one that should be tried, but yet they failed to bring in other suspects because they found it easier to blame it on a black man. This is a red flag for discrimination because Tom had no chance to prove his innocence because the jury had no one else to testify. This shows how unfair black citizens were treated in

Maycomb.

Discrimination is often a very controversial topic today, but throughout the novel that is main problem. Atticus and Tom seem to take the biggest blows from it especially during the trail scene, this helped develop the theme and encourage character development. Lee made sure to include this factor to show the mindset characters have at the time. Even though discrimination affected both Tom and Atticus negatively it doesn't mean this book is unacceptable because it was the main thing that changed character's views of each other.