During the time of this book, class prejudice was peaking and racism was at its worst so a lot of the settings where this story is located are known for being some of the most prejudiced states in America. The story’s name also symbolizes destroying innocence. Throughout the book, multiple characters such as Jem, Tom Robinson, Dill, Boo Radley, and Mr. Raymond can be identified as mockingbirds as they have been innocent but also who have been injured or destroyed through contact with evil. Showing the meaning of how to kill a mockingbird because no one wants to because it’s showing the death of innocents and so it’s saying how to kill one. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”
“There are four kinds of folks in the world. The ordinary kind like us and the neighbors… the Cunninghams… the Ewells… and the Negroes.” the character of Dolphus Raymond, who defies the norms of his class as a white man from an established family, demonstrates the social class prejudices in Maycomb. Some people in the novel have portrayed the idea that the classes of the town are alive. As they assume which group people fell into just by looking at their clothes skin or their background and they treated them differently because of that. This shows the same type of discrimination as racism as they assume there place in the town whilst not even getting a first impression.
In the book we experience a lot of discrimination towards the lower-class people of the town, we see this in some extreme cases such as in the class room where one of the cunninghams didn’t have any food for lunch so the teacher offered some money, this ends in one of the students explains how he won’t be able to pay back as he is too poor and will have to repay in a different style of work
we see this type of treatment when Tom Roberts goes for his trial. “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life.” Atticus’ words reveal that the courts were always biased against black people. No matter how much evidence proved their innocence, if they had been accused of a crime by a white person they would always be found guilty.
Hi Oliver,
It is good to finally see you engaging in the assessment.
As you know, this is the final ‘hands-on’ period, so this is the final stage where I can offer feedback:
– Make sure you use a clearly recognised essay structure
– Answer and address the question in your writings. SETTING to reinforce an IDEA.
– Make sure you don’t rely on retelling plot information, but drive your argument forward using the literature.