To Kill A Mockingbird Essays: The Influence Of Racism

The Influence of Racism

In our world today, racism is still a big issue in our everyday lives. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, it is proven that racism in Macomb County influenced how the townsfolk acted and did things because of injustice, the discrediting of people who associated with colored people, and those who were trying to help them were discriminated.

In To Kill a Mockingbird, there was a lot of injustice in Maycomb Country. At the court, where the Tom Robinson trial was taking place, Dill ran out crying. He cried to Scout saying, “I was just him I couldn’t stand. That old Mr. Gilmer doin’ him that awa6, talking so hateful to him… It was the way he said it made me sick, plain sick.” Dill was upset because of the way Mr. Gilmer was talking to Tom. Mr. Gilmer treated Tom differently than the way

Atticus treated Mayella. He was being rude and disrespectful. This quote is relevant to the point because it shows how Tom Robinson’s skin color influenced the way people treated him at the trial. It shows injustice. During the trial, Atticus gave a speech involving Mayella. He spoke to everyone, in the courtroom, telling them, “She has committed no crime, she has merely broken a rigid and time-honored code of our society, a code so severe that whoever breaks it is hounded from our midst and unfit to live with. She is the victim of cruel poverty and ignorance, but I cannot pity her: she is white. She knee full well the enormity of her offense, but because her desires were stronger than the code she was breaking, she persisted in breaking it.” Mayella is also a victim of injustice. She was extremely poor, most likely raped, and beaten by her father, and wasn’t able to have a friendship with the one person who was ever helpful and kind to her and Atticus saw that. She had to lie to the judge, the jury, and everyone else who was in that room about what actually happened that night.
Many people in Maycomb were discredited when they were associated with black people. People looked at them like they were crazy for even considering hanging out with them. Mr. Raymond, the man who had kids with a colored woman, said at the trial to Dill and Scout, “Some folks don’t like the way I live. It helps folks if they can latch onto a reason… When I came into town… if I weave a little and drink out of a sack, folks can say… in the clutches of whiskey… He can’t help himself, that’s why he lived the way he does.” Mr. Raymond didn’t want anyone to know that if was not whiskey in the paper bag that he carried around. This gave people the opportunity to discredit him. Mr. Raymond should be able to live the way he wants to and not be frowned upon. People thought Mr. Raymond was crazy for being with a black woman. He also said, “Secretly Miss Finch, I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never,never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to live.” This quote shows that people think the words of someone when they do things with a colored individual. The influence of racism disrupts everyone’s thoughts of a person when they are found to be hanging around an african american. This is not fair to either person being discredited.
People trying to help black people were discriminated.

At the dinner party that was located at the finch Landing, Francis was disrespecting Atticus by telling scout, “My folks said your daddy was a disgrace an that nigger oughta hang from the water tank.” What Francis said shows that even good people -like Atticus- can have other people’s opinions changed in a negative way because of the influence society has on racism. Atticus was only trying to do his job by helping Tom in the trial. When Mrs. Dubose saw Scout and Jem walk by her house, she decided to taunt them. “ She yelled, “You father’s no go better than the niggers and trash he works for.” People around town were going behind Atticus’s back and calling him terrible names. If they were in his situation, I know they wouldn’t want to hear things like that be said about them.

In Maycomb County, racism influences the way people act and think in To Kill a Mockingbird. Many people were treated without justice, discriminated, and disrespected. Today, racism is still a huge factor in everyday life. We need to learn to cope with our differences with one another and treat everyone with

respect.