Examples Of Discrimination In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird is a very popular book. In this book, discrimination is common in many forms and is shown in many environments including school, town, even in neighborhoods. So, these are the types I will be bringing attention to: racial discrimination and socioeconomic discrimination. I will also be pointing out how the author of the book, Harper Lee, shows the effect discrimination has on Maycomb. This book is powerful because of the way discrimination is shown and conveyed through the people and their actions. Racial discrimination, the main type of discrimination in To Kill a Mockingbird. This type of discrimination is most obvious through Tom Robinson and the Ewells. From the beginning of the trial, most of the whites already

She even goes as far as to ask if he is making fun of her, possibly indicating she has no friends. Mayella is the eldest of the Ewell children, 19 years old, and has no friends in all of maycomb due to her family’s social standing. “‘Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt Jem came by and told me to stop”, (Lee 30). In this quote, Scout gets mad at Walter Cunningham because she got in trouble defending him. For this reason she turns on him again because his family is poor and he is too weak to defend himself. Scout does not mean to discriminate but she does on accident. “He was the filthiest human I’d ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep into the quick”, (Lee 35). In that same chapter Scout also notices the Ewell child, Burris who is looked down on because of his filth and family. Burris could have been a good kid if it weren’t for his terrible family and he even calls Miss Caroline “Ma’am” but because he is an Ewell he is not treated