Sexism In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, is a novel based during the Great Depression era. Things were a lot different back then, especially when it comes to how people judged others. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows prejudice through sexism, racism, and social class to portray how people judge anyone that they believe is less than them. One of the ways Harper Lee shows prejudice is through sexism. Throughout the novel, the women of Maycomb are looked down upon because the men in this story believed that they were better than the women. Jem states that “I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things” (Lee 41). Sexism is shown because Jem is saying that because Scout is a

Tom Robinson was a colored character in To Kill a Mockingbird who was accused of rape and was sent to trial in Maycomb, a town where everyone has their mind made up already that he is guilty. One of the people in Maycomb said “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an‘ that nigger oughta hang from the water-tank!” (Lee 76). This quote is saying that Atticus is a disgrace because he defended a black man that committed this crime. Almost every white person in Maycomb feels this way, however, the black people praise Atticus because of his beliefs. He believes that skin color does not matter, and that everybody deserves a fair chance and a day in court to prove innocence. This shows racism because if Tom would have been white, everyone would not have jumped to conclusions. However, because he is a black man, he must have done it since a white man supposedly would never do anything like that. Another way Racism is shown is when Lula, a black woman, says “I wants to know why you bringin‘ white chillun to nigger church”(Lee 119). This quote is saying that this women does not want any white people in their church because it is the black church and the whites have there own church. This shows racism from a different angle. This time, it is a black women being racist against white children, but the way it shows racism is because there is segregated churches, meaning the whites and the blacks have their own designated