Hidden Rule In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Racism always comes with many hidden rules about how you should act towards other races. This division is clearly seen in Maycomb since it's an extremely racist town towards Negroes but this racism doesn’t only affect negroes it also affects whites. At the beginning of the book Atticus is defending a Negro in a court case, Tom Robinson. During christmas Frances, Scouts cousin, says to Scout “Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run wild, but now he’s turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again. He’s ruinin’ the family, that's what he is doing” (92). Here Frances is insulting Atticus for being nice enough to defend a black man. Frances is judging Atticus because the white citizens associate black …show more content…

The hidden rule is that whites are not supposed to help and be friendly towards the black community because if they do they will immediately be seen and disrespected like how blacks are. We can see the hidden rule clearly when the white community starts to loose respect for Atticus and his children for defending a Negro. Even their own family starts to disrespect Atticus and his kids when he takes the case, they start calling Atticus a nigger-lover. The racism in the town is starting to impact Atticus, Jem and Scout. When Cal brings Jem and Scout to her church they feel unwanted by Lulu when she says “You ain’t got no business bringin white chillun here-they got their church, we got our’n. It;s our church, ain’t it, Miss Cal?” There is an invisible line between blacks and whites, and when someone crosses the line they are criticised by the rest`. This goes back to the point where the hidden rule is that blacks and whites should not interact. When Cal bring Scout and Jem to the church they feel uncomfortable and unwanted by the rest of the black community, or more specifically Lulu. This shows that not only blacks are affected by the

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