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To Kill A Mockingbird – Essay
After Tom Robinson’s trial, Jem realizes society’s many faults and says to
Scout:
“Scout, I think I’m beginning to understand something. I think I’m
beginning to understand why Boo Radley’s stayed shut up in the house all
this time…it’s because he wants to stay inside.”
Jem says this because he is beginning to see the hatred and the prejudice in
the world. To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, portrays gender
expectations, class barriers and racism as societal problems. All of these
prejudices would explain why Boo does not want to be a part of society.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, women are supposed to stay home, never do “man’s
work,” gossip about everything and be proper and dainty like a lady. Aunt
Alexandra is the perfect stereotype of the southern lady. This is what she
says to Scout immediately after she arrives in Maycomb:
“We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine influence.
It won’t be many years, Jean Louise, before you become interested in clothes
and boys.”
This shows she wants Scout to be a proper lady growing up under her
feminine influence. She occasionally holds Missionary Society meetings
where a group of ladies get together and gossip about families, people and
whatever else warrants gossip. By bringing out their prejudices and
revealing their monotonous gossip, these meetings portray the ladies as
shallow, dainty and uneducated. Here is a small excerpt from one of those
meetings, where Mrs. Merriweather is talking about her black maid:
“Gertrude, I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky.
Their mouths go down to here. Just ruins your day to have one ‘em in the
kitchen. You know what I said to my Sophy, Gertrude? I said, ‘Sophy,’ I
said, ‘you simply are not being a Christian today. Jesus Christ never went
around grumbling and complaining.”
This portrays the ladies as shallow and uneducated, revealing the
stereotype of the proper, formal, southern lady.
Class barriers are drawn in Maycomb County. The Ewells, a poverty
stricken, broken family, would never get the same privileges and respect
that the Finches would receive. Four families can represent the classes.
Here is the order from highest status to lowest: The Finches, the
Cunninghams, the Ewells and the Robinsons. Because Tom Robinson tried to
cross a class line to the Ewells, ultimately he was killed. The Ewells
tried to move up a level by accusing Tom Robinson, but only got right back
to where they where before. Aunt Alexandra would not let the Cunninghams
move up to a level with the Finches, because they’re “trash.” It’s hard for
families to move up the ladder, even through generations, because of
entailments. However, it is shown that you can move down when Scout and Jem
go to a black church and are, for the most part, accepted. Here is a
paragraph describing the social status of the Ewells:
Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic
fluctuations changed their status – people like the Ewells lived as guests
of the county in prosperity as well as in the depths of a depression. No
truant officers could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public
health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and
the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings.
The class barriers in Maycomb County are strong, and are kept unbreakable
by prejudice, hatred and entailments. Trying to move up the ladder seems
impossible.
Racism is definitely the biggest and worst societal problem portrayed in To
Kill a Mockingbird. Even the other two flaws in this society relate to
racism. The quote from Mrs. Merriweather showed the mask of grins and lies
African Americans wear. Also, the fact that the lowest family in Maycomb
County, the Ewells, have a higher status than the Robinson’s do, just
because of the color of their skin, says a lot. The simple fact is that Tom
Robinson got convicted because he was black and Mayella Ewell was white.
That the mob in front of the jail that one night was going to lynch Tom
Robinson simply because he was black. That every single person in Maycomb
County except Atticus, Jem and Scout are at least somewhat racist. Even
Dolphus Raymond doesn’t want people to know that he isn’t under the
influence of anything because he lives with the black community. That’s the
way that everyone in Maycomb County was raised and that’s the way they’re
going to raise their children. This portion shows how racism grows on
everybody in Maycomb. Dolphus Raymond is talking to Jem after he ran out of
the courtroom crying:
“Things haven’t caught up with that one’s instinct yet. Let him get a
little older and he won’t get sick and cry. Maybe things’ll strike him as
being – not quite right, say, but he won’t cry, not when he gets a few years
on him.”
Now you can see why Boo would want to stay inside. All of the hatred and
prejudice in Maycomb County has gotten to him. He doesn’t want to be a part
of a society where someone can’t get the same privileges as the next person
because of his gender, economic status or race. I’ll end with this quote
where Jem is talking to Scout:
“That’s what I thought too, when I was your age. If there’s just one kind
of folks, why can’t they get along with each other? If they’re all alike,
why do they go out of their way to despise each other?”