Prejudice In 'To Kill A Mockingbird And Marigolds'

Society in the 1930’s was very different compared to ours now, for the great depression had taken away jobs and had people suffer by putting them into lower classes, making them poorer. The books To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and the short story “Marigolds” all take place in the great depression. They each explain completely different stories, yet the same theme, that individuals suffer when they are put into a lower society. Racism and prejudice are huge when discussing the themes of these stories. To Kill a Mockingbird has a lot of racism involving Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The lawyer Atticus is judged tremendously for taking up Tom’s case, for at that time period white and blacks were never known

to be together. Mayella Ewell was “raped” by Tom, but really had used her advantage of being white to send him to jail. She didn’t have anything better to do with her life because she is an outcast from society, this is similar to Crooks situation in Of Mice and Men. He is the only black man on the farm, so he gets his own room away from everybody else. Racial differences make him segregated from the white men, making him feel alone. This loneliness runs all throughout the short story Marigolds. Mrs.Lottie has no one in her life, the only happiness is her marigolds. Once they got destroyed that ray of hope is destroyed and so she becomes more of an outcast to society. All of these characters fit perfectly in the poor section of society, who are outcasts, are lonely, and have no real happiness.
Racial discrimination was never an issue during the great depression, To Kill a Mockingbird represents that perfectly with Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell.

Mayella Ewell had never really lived, not literally of course, she just had no friends, was beaten by her father, and did not have a good education. She was in the lowest class there could be if you were white. The only class lower would have to be the african american people. That is the class where Tom Robinson stood, so Mayella felt as though for the first time she had control over someone. After the incident the reader definitely knew that Mayella had tried to get Tom to be with her, and then blame him for rape after. During the trial Tom Robinson says, “Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her…” (p.197)This brings an uproar in the crowd for saying your sorry usually mean that person is worse off than you. The classes in society show that Tom is below her and shall never say he’s sorry for a white woman. From this scene you can imagine how lonely and how much of an outcast Mayella is because Tom had the courage to say that in front of everybody.
In the book Of Mice of Men, in my opinion Crooks is a very different character from the rest. He is pushed away to his own section with not many things for entertainment. None of the men are mean to him, he just feels as though he isn’t really truly living. An example of Crooks loneliness is how he couldn’t play horseshoe with the white men all because he was black. Racial discrimination

comes up in this story also, relating to Tom Robison and how he is seen as the lowest level class of them all. Yet Crooks only partially relates to the racism aspect, he more relates to Mayella Ewell and how they’re both outcasts.
Now Mrs.

Lottie doesn’t have anything wrong with her on the outside for she isn’t in a very low class citizen. She isn't rich, but shes ok. Her son is mentally retarded so that bond between them is lost because of his condition. Her source of happiness is planting marigold flowers because they represent hope and happiness. They grow for her and look beautiful, they are so lively that people notice. Then there’s Lizabeth, a young teen living the life of a poor, depressed, and underestimated child. She can’t handle her life anymore, so she rages uncontrollably towards the marigolds in Miss Lottie's yard. Before that incident which made her more mature, Lizabeth explained to us, “Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture.. Certainly didn't fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard.”(p.79) This gives the reader a visual on how those flowers were perhaps the only good thing physically around Lizabeth and Miss Lottie. Lizabeth's motive was to make everything else feel the same sad way she felt, but her end result was more regretful. Miss Lottie was already sad, she was already depressed, and those marigolds being destroyed put her farther back in her life. Her loneliness was more noticeable than ever, making her relate to Mayella and Crooks

perfectly.
In three novels all taken place in the great depression, we compare the characters Mayella Ewell, Crooks, and Miss Lottie who all are outcasts in society. They all take up an attribute of loneliness and sadness because of where they stand in the social classes. For the great depression has made for some heartbreaking novels, and those sad characters we have seen in each story. We have so much more in our modern day lives that combates the old depressing way of living, like food banks or shelters. Around the world there is definitely still poverty, in fact the US for a long time has had the largest gap and inequality between rich and poor civilians or places. Issues like that in society are still among us but have settled down when you compare the great depression to modern day society. I never knew the all time low people had during this time, it opened up my eyes to history itself, which personally really makes me enjoy learning or comparing each character from each book.