Prejudice in Harper Lee´s To Kill a Mockingbird

Prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird

“Prejudice is a learned trait. You’re not born prejudice; you’re taught it” –Charles R Swindoll. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is about a young girl named Scout who lives in a world filled with prejudice. There are many instances and types of prejudice in the novel. A man named Tom Robinson was convicted for doing a crime he never did because of the color of his skin. To this day, Tom would have never been tried because the evidence assuredly shows he is not guilty. One only becomes prejudice if you are taught it from other prejudice people. Harper Lee shows this idea throughout her novel through her characters, dialogue and theme.

An example of characters that portray racism is a woman named Lula. Lula is an African American who attends Calpurnia’s church and she shows that even the people who are subjected to racism are racist themselves. Lula scolds Calpurnia for bringing white children to their church. “Lula stopped, but she said, ‘You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here—they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?’”(P112). In this quote, Scout and Jem experience racism for the first time. Lula is a victim of racism but is racist back to them. Even though Scout and Jem aren’t colored, they felt how it feels to be discriminated because of how they look or where they come from. They are put into a unique situation because they are the objects of someone’s racism, and that normally doesn’t happen. However, Lulu isn’t the only character in the book that shoes racism. Majorities of the people who live in Maycomb are racist. "She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a bl...

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... does” (p268). Mr. Raymond is married to a black woman and has a mixed family. He pretends he is an alcoholic by carrying around a paper bag with a bottle of coca cola inside to give the town an excuse why he would marry a black woman. There is many times when racism is a theme in To Kill A Mockingbird.

Throughout her novel, Harper Lee shows prejudice from her characters, dialogue, and theme. She does this through the character Lulu and how the citizens of Maycomb believe Mayella’s story because she is white, instead of believing a black man with all evidence showing he is not guilty. She also helps display prejudice with dialogue and her theme. She shows how white people talked and referred to colored people and the lack of respect that went along with it. “Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You've got to be taught to hate.” – Roger Ebert.