To Kill A Mockingbird Prejudice Quotes

“We see the town of Maycomb in its worst light, willing to execute an innocent man for a crime he did not commit rather than question their belief in black inferiority and their social taboos about interracial relationships” (Felty 299). This quote may seem extreme, but it is completely accurate in Scout’s hometown Maycomb, Alabama. In the town of Maycomb, prejudices and discriminations are a common idea in the life of its citizens. This is shown in various ways. For example, African Americans are treated as lower class citizens because they are discriminated by white people. Scout perceives these prejudices and discriminations in different ways throughout the book. Scout’s views on the prejudices and discriminations in her society evolve
For example, Scout shows some of the town’s prejudice in a child-like way when she viewed the Radleys with fear. The town discriminates the Radleys because of Arthur Radley’s disappearance when he was a child. Scout showed this prejudice by her fear of the Radleys for no reason other than the rumors she had heard. She goes so far as to describe Boo as “a malevolent phantom” (Lee 10) without ever once meeting him. Jem also claimed Boo “dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch” (Lee 16). Because of how easy it was for Scout and Jem to come up with a negative conclusion of Boo Radley, the reader can assume that the prejudice against the Radleys was a common element in Maycomb’s society. Scout, being a young child, most likely doesn’t understand the depth beyond the prejudices. When readers analyze the book, they recognize the prejudices because they are not a part of their common life. Scout notices the prejudices, but she doesn’t recognize them as prejudices yet. She instead thinks of them as a part of normal life. This aspect of not recognizing the prejudices proves that Scout is innocently unaware of the prejudices at work in the beginning of the book, but this changes as the book