Department of English

Spring 2008 High School Edition

The Many Forms of Prejudice

Heather Covington
Formal (9th-10th)
Second Place
Canyon View High School
Teacher: Cody Christensen

To Kill a Mockingbird is about a single father, Atticus Finch, raising his children through the time when he defends Tom Robinson. It is also about Maycomb’s prejudice towards the blacks, and the Finch’s mysterious neighbor Boo Radley. Throughout this story there are many lessons, one of which is prejudice. Discrimination is wrought on all these characters because they are different. Prejudice is an unreasonable attitude towards something, and it is unreasonable for the town of Maycomb to dislike people just because of their differences.

Maycomb accepts Atticus Finch and his family until Atticus agrees to defend a black man, also known as Tom Robinson (102). Atticus and his family are taunted, threatened, and ridiculed just because of Maycomb’s racism towards black people. How is it that people can be so malicious towards somebody that takes a chance? A chance is what Atticus took when he agreed to defend Tom, he trusted himself enough to be able to bring his family into the spotlight and hope that nothing happened.

Tom Robinson is a Negro who was lusted after by Mayella Ewell. He never did anything wrong, but Mayella couldn’t let people know of her mistake (191-195). She took Tom to court where he was judged unfairly because the town’s prejudice made them take a white person’s word over a black man’s (211). Tom never did anything wrong, but he was born black. Therefore, nobody would be fair to him for fear of losing their social status. It is unfair to judge a person by the color of his skin rather than as a person in and of himself.

Boo Radley is the Finch’s neighbor he doesn’t come out of his house often. Because he never comes out, people assume the worst and spread nasty rumors about him proving their prejudice towards him. They say that he is insane and that he stabbed his father in the leg with scissors (9-11). All of these rumors are just that: rumors. Discrimination is unfair; it is an excuse for people to judge a person before they even know them. Boo turns out to be a really nice person and watches out for Jem and Scout. In the end, he even ends up saving them from Bob Ewell (263). Boo is the way he is because he knows of the cruelty of the world and doesn’t like it. That is no reason to label a person as unstable. This is racism in its own way because they don’t accept him because of his differences proving Boo’s reason for hiding. The world is a cruel place.

Prejudice is a major lesson taught in To Kill a Mockingbird. There are many forms of bigotry in this book all directed towards different people. Some people who suffer from the racism in this book are Atticus Finch and his two children, Jem and Scout, their infamous neighbor Boo Radley, and Mr. Dolphus Raymond. All of these people are innocent from a serious crime but are still sought after by the prejudices of the people in Maycomb.

Works Cited:

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Warner: New York, 1960.