Discrimination In Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird

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Dating all the way back to the 17th century, the United States showcased its practice of discrimination and prejudice against others with the act of slavery. This hateful act basically took away their humanity as people. They took these innocent folks from their homes and enslaved them in bondage for the remainder of their lives, leaving them without an ounce of power to fight back. Fast forward in American history to the 20th century and we still see prejudice towards one another in society, instead of slavery though, there are the Jim Crow Laws. These laws separated people of different races from each other from common everyday objects like segregated restaurants and even bathrooms. Considering that white people always got treated better …show more content…

In the case of the black community, they were often discriminated against just because of the color of their skin, this showed the racism present during the time. Likewise, with Aunt Alexandra, when she called the Cunninghams trash because of their low place in the social hierarchy in the town. Both of these examples showed just how much prejudice there was during the 1930’s. Furthermore, there were the foolish rumors of Boo Radley circulating around the town, this symbolized the pettiness and the amount the town judged others based on their differences. Along with the fact that Atticus shot the infected Mad dog, Tim Johnson, which symbolized the death of the town’s madness. These symbols helped to show that the town’s overall innocence was intercepted with prejudice. Finally, Lee was able to utilize conflict between characters in order to show the social injustice in Maycomb with events like the attempted lynching of Tom. In today’s society, there’s obviously much less prejudice than back then in those times thanks to events like the civil rights movement and the end of jim crow laws. If there weren’t people who were brave enough to stand up and make a change to society then our community today might still be similar to the 1930’s society. Although, racism as a whole has gone down significantly compared to back then, there’s still no way to completely eradicate the thought of prejudice in people. Are we truly in the land of the free when in today’s society you’re judged more by your appearance than by your

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