Examples Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

In Maycomb County, many adults living there have racist views. An example of somebody like this is Mr. Bob Ewell, who abuses his children and lied about a black man raping his daughter. Bob Ewell lives behind the dump in a run-down house, and has no regard for other people. He is the very, very lowest of people, yet his word is taken over Tom Robinson’s, simply because Tom is black. The outcome of this case clearly shows how the town has adopted racist beliefs, and sees skin color over who a person truly is. Jem, especially, is crushed after Tom Robinson is convicted. Jem assumed that Tom would be set free, because nobody would ever trust somebody as awful as Bob Ewell, and it was clear that the Ewells were lying. The value of a child’s perspective is shown here, specifically Jem’s, although Scout

Harper Lee’s message about a child’s perspective here is that children see people differently than adults do, not based on their race, but on their personalities and actions toward others. This is partially because Atticus always taught Jem that race has no value towards whether a person is inherently “good” or “bad”. Many of the adults in Maycomb are very different from Atticus, clearly. Jem believes Tom Robinson, not because of his race, but because he knows Tom is a good person and truthful. Also, Tom physically could not do the things Mayella said he did to her, due to his useless left arm. Atticus says to the kids after the trial, “‘I don’t know, but they did it. They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it- seems that only children weep...’” (243). Atticus is saying that only children seem to find it unjust, and cry, when racism leads to extremely unfair treatment of people that are completely innocent. A child’s perspective has so much value; everybody in Maycomb can learn from