Prejudice in The Son's Veto by Thomas Hardy and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

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Explore the theme of prejudice in The Son's Veto by Thomas Hardy and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird", is set in Maycomb County in southern North America. The story is written about the prejudices people experienced in the 1930's. Atticus, a lawyer and one of only a few good honest men in the story, battles to save a black man accused of raping a poor white woman. Atticus lives with his two children and a black maid. The children get involved with an intriguing character named "Boo", a lonely and ostracised man. "Boo" ends up saving the children, sacrificing the life of a prejudice driven man. In Thomas Hardy's "The Son's Veto", a disabled middle-class woman lives alone with her public school boy son. The boy despises his mother's manors and way of living. He is much too upper class for her. She marries a middle class vicar away from the community much to the pleasure of her son. The two move to London to escape the prejudice. She becomes a widow after her husband's death. She meets a man named Sam, she wishes to marry this man but her son will not allow it. They meet in secret but the marriage cannot be. Sophy dies after losing the will to live, mainly caused by her son's controlling ways. Sophy, a lower classed ex-parlour maid, a middle-class man, Mr. Twycott. For this the two would have been the victims of direct prejudice. There would also be prejudice towards an upper class man marrying a disabled woman. People would have looked down upon Mr. Twycott for marrying a lower class disabled woman. It was unacceptable in the community for two different classes to marry "There was a marriage-service at the community-rails, which hardly a soul knew of", the two had to marry in secret so they did not have to cope with the speculation and criticism of the community. They had no friends, as they did not want anyone to find out about their romance. Everyone in society was made to think that inter-class marriages were morally wrong. The two would also suffer prejudice because he was a religious man and she was someone who would usually be on her hands and knees working for him. The two had to move away from the small-minded community of the small village to dusty London, "the couple removed thither, abandoning their pretty home, with trees and shrubs and glebe, for a narrow, dusty house in a long, straight, and their fine peal of bells for the wretchedest one-tongued clangour that ever tortured mortal ears".

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