To Kill A Mockingbird

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Recommended: Problems with racism in literature

The Effects of Racism inTo Kill A Mockingbird
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible”. Maya Angelou spoke this quote because she is an African-American woman who grew up with prejudice. She knows how it feels to be looked at or treated differently because of the color of her skin. In “To Kill A Mockingbird” the author, Harper Lee, shows the effects of Racism in many ways throughout three years of her childhood journey in Maycomb county. When a black man in Maycomb is accused of rape, the town thinks he is guilty; there is no physical evidence that a rape ever occurred, but Tom is still sent to jail to wait for his trial. Racism towards Tom Robinson in Maycomb county causes disputes on his case, and causes talk to go around about the man who is defending him, Atticus Finch.
To begin with, Jem and Scout’s father, Atticus, was Tom Robinson’s lawyer. Since Atticus was white and defending a black man, some of Atticus’s friends and neighbors turned against him and his family. Jem and Scout were treated with disrespect by Maycomb citizens everywhere they went because of their father’s decision to defend Tom. When Jem and Scout were on their way to town one afternoon, Mrs.Dubose, a neighbor, shouted at them, “‘Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers!’’’(Lee 135). Mrs.Dubose doesn’t agree with Atticus’s decision to defend Tom because she doesn’t believe African-Americans have the same rights as white folks. Jem and Scout are being judged by people that they know because Atticus isn’t defending someone that is white. Mrs.Dubose wasn’t the only adult to speak badly about the Finch family. Jem and scout are looked at differently by th...

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...30’s Maycomb citizens may have wanted to put a black man in jail for no particular reason, but if that case ever went to court today, Tom Robinson and Atticus would’ve won without a doubt.
In closing, Racism is wrong no matter what society or class you are from. The color of someone’s skin shouldn’t determine their place in the world. Because of racism, people of Maycomb were hostile toward anyone who disagreed with them. Their actions effected Atticus, Jem, and Scout because they weren’t agreeing with the “normal” white person opinion. People being racist put Tom Robinson in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. All in all, racism can effect communities everywhere if it continues to happen. People in the world should consider each other equals no matter what race they are from.

Works Cited

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1960. Print.

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