How Does Aunt Alexandra Use Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

The events you hear about racism around the world has gotten to the point where the controversies have gone to a further extent. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, racism has show up upon the trial of Tom Robinson when he was convicted of an act of violence that never happened. Characters in the book like Aunt Alexandra followed the racism tradition in her town but soon believes that blacks are just as equal as whites. Even though Aunt Alexandra is initially a racist person, once she hears about the gruesome death of Tom Robinson, she begins to realize the graciousness of the blacks in Maycomb County, and becomes more benevolent towards those who are persecuted.

Initially Aunt Alexandra is a racist person because she follows the tradition

of Maycomb. Scout and her family are at the Finch’s Landing for christmas. Scout and her cousin Francis are having and argument about how Atticus is letting the kids walk around stray dogs yet Aunt Alexandra is not happy with him letting them do that. She refers to him as a nigger lover and doesn’t want them walking around the streets because of it. “...Like Grandma says it's bad enough he lets you all run around wild, but he has turned out a nigger-lover we’ll never be able to walk the streets of Maycomb again... but I'm here to tell you it does mortify the rest of the family” (110). Despite the referral to a nigger lover, Atticus is a lawyer is he wants the best result during a trial so Atticus will help anyone he would want to help. But still, now part of the family is mortified to walk around black people shows how disgracive it is to the blacks and how no one would want to be around the because they are different from the rest of the people in Maycomb. Within a few months of Aunt Alexandra moving in with the Finch’s, she already has her own thoughts about Calpurnia. Furthermore, Aunt Alexandra now wants Calpurnia out of the house, "... you’ve got to do something about her,... You’ve let things go on too long, Atticus, too long,” (182). WHen she states to atticus that he has gone too far with having a black maid in the house is a little too harsh for her to say that. Atticus and the kids have accepted her into the house and it shows that Atticus has some respect for blacks by letting Calpurnia in to their house. On the other hand, Aunt Alexandra disagrees with Atticus and his ways by having her in the house but now she will just have to accept having Calpurnia in the house or she will just have to leave the house. It is not until Aunt Alexandra hears about the gruesome death of Tom Robinson.

Once Aunt Alexandra begins to see the effects of racism to her and her family, she reevaluates her thoughts about blacks.

Calpurnia had been serving some coffee to Aunt Alexandra when Atticus walked in and how he said Braxton Underwood despised Negroes right in front of her. “Anything fit to say at the table’s fit to say in front of Calpurnia. She knows what she means to this family,”(209). Aunt Alexandra realizes how important Calpurnia is to the family and she realizes she is a good person and she doesn't need to keep anything secretive things from her because no one should keep secrets from someone even if it is about them. By having Aunt Alexandra wait until Calpurnia came into the kitchen shows that there is no need to tell everyone else but her or even at a different time. Aunt Alexandra wanted to wait for her because she now accepts that she is part of the family and how everyone treats her the ways she would want to be treated. The school year is going to start soon for the kids and Scout is already talking about how she and Walter were going to spend time together walking to and from school and just hanging out after school too. “But I want to play with Walter, Aunty, why can’t I?” She took off her glasses and stared at me. “I’ll tell you why,” she said, “Because- he – is – trash, that’s why you can’t play with him” (301) Aunt Alexandra is not only racist towards the blacks but even poor whites like the Cunningham’s. Walter Cunningham is one of Scout’s classmates

and one day he got her in trouble for not being able to afford for his own lunch but that didn’t affect their relationship because Scout even wanted to have him over for dinner some days. On the other hand, Aunt Alexandra had her own thoughts about him and family by saying, “he’s trash”. Even though he is not black, his family is poor but she starts to realize how Scout does care about Walter and his family and not by how poor he is. She notices it from when Scout began to cry after she had made the statement to her and how she reacted to it.

Once Aunt Alexandra understands the ways blacks , she ultimately believes blacks are just as equal as the whites in the community.

Furthermore, it has now come to the point where Aunt Alexandra has now heard about Tom Robinson’s death.

““Didn’t they try to stop him? Didn’t they give him any warning... Aunt Alexandra sat down in Calpurnia’s chair and put her hands to her face,”(315). After hearing the news about Tom’s death, Aunt Alexandra is now somber and doesn’t want to think about anything but Tom and his family. After all the hurtful things she has said about the blacks and their community, she is now sorrowful for what she has done and accepts to sit in Calpurnia’s chair and not her just her own or someone else’s in the family. This has also shown that she with going to be with the Robinson’s in their time of grieving to make them feel accepted in the community and to show how the whites are being appreciative of them being

their.

Having to look away from her past thoughts about racism, Aunt Alexandra went from judging blacks on the way they look to now realizing that they are just as equal as whites. From the beginning, she had followed the racist tradition that goes around in Maycomb County, but when she heard about the gruesome death of Tom Robinson, she began to change her thoughts about the black community. Just as Aunt Alexandra begins to rethink her thoughts about racism, individuals around the world also begin to change and accept blacks and other minorities as the way they are and not by the way they look or act. Many people have changed in the last 50 years from others who have influenced them to rethink their thoughts on blacks.