TKAM

Racism plagues our world and even though it isn’t as out spoken and public as it was before it still lingers in our society. Not greed, nor abandonment, nor selfishness, nor ignorance affects people such as racism does. It makes people feel inferior over something they can’t really control before their birth; they didn’t have a choice about their race, or religion, or wealth, or location. Then to make someone feel unwanted or unequal based upon those qualities is appalling. Racism can destroy, severely alter, and even end people’s lives as shown in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee with Tom Robinson, Scout Finch, and Bob Ewell. As needless as it is harmful, racism throws people into a world of despair for the victims and realization for the witnesses.

To begin with, one of the many people affected by racism in this book was Tom Robinson and he was undoubtedly the one that was affected most. Tom Robinson was wrongfully accused of the assault and rape of a young, white woman named Mayella Ewell. He was wrongfully accused by her and her father Bob Ewell. When tried in court Tom Robinson was defended by Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch isn’t prejudice and knows that Tom is innocent and he feels like it’s his duty to do everything he can to prove that. Atticus says prior to the trial that “…when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee 295). Small, southern town Maycomb, Alabama in the 30’s was quite prejudice and most whites felt that all blacks were less than whites and thus they couldn’t be trusted. This is why in court a black man could almost never win. Atticus knows that and he doesn’t believe that they will win, but he plans to do everything to make the jury think and question themselves. At...

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... were coming home from a Halloween pageant. Thankfully for the children Boo Radley was watching from his house and came to the aid of the children. In the commotion Boo stabs Bob, killing him. To conclude, racism affected Bob Ewell in an opposite way from which it did say Tom Robinson but it still was the flaw that led to his death.

As can be seen, in To Kill a Mockingbird racism affects many people’s lives such as making them seem like cruel heartless criminals who take advantage of young women, or by revealing the unfair and unjust side of the world, or even by consuming a man, leading to his own death. Racism’s affects are felt strongly by the victim and by any person witnessing it in their own life. Even though it is less displayed in our society today as it was in the past, its impacts are still felt and it is still as harmful and needless as it has ever been.