Prejudice. It’s a dark disease of which many people suffer. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, proves no different from real life. The story focuses on a small town in Alabama and is seen through the eyes of young Jean Louise Finch. There are three effective examples of the prejudices that exist in the novel: Lula towards Scout and Jem, the neighbors towards the blacks in the town, and Scout, Jem, and Dill towards Boo Radley.
The first evidence of prejudice is Lula towards Scout and Jem. The plot of this incident takes place when Calpurnia takes the kids to her church while Atticus is away at work. All seems well with the people in the church greeting them warm and family-like until the trio cross paths with Miss Lula herself. She does not take kindly to Scout and Jem being at their church because they are white. “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?” (119) Lula says when Calpurnia stops her after she asks why she brought Jem and Scout with her to their church and walks away. She makes the children feel unwelcome and want to go home. Why? Because that statement basically and clearly says to them: “You can’t come to our church because you’re white and we’re black. Go away!” And to top the statement off, the reader is supposed to read it sounding pretty distasteful. It also proves that blacks can be just as prejudice to white people as white people are to them.
The second evidence of prejudice is the neighbors to the blacks in the town. The book is set back in the 1930’s, where the South still has some racial prejudice and segregation to it. In fact, the main plot is Atticus, Scout and Jem’s father, is defending a black guy named Tom Robinson in a rape case brought against him. Back then, if a white person befriends or even dates a black person, they are heavily mocked and even killed! So now the neighbors are taunting Atticus and his kids because of the dad’s client. But the real story behind the rape case is that Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell are actually good friends. The whole mess begins when the girl invites the nice black man over to chop up a chiffarobe. Tom does the job without complains and pay. Since Mayella was a lonely girl, she and Tom became fast friends. Soon, Tom comes by the Ewell house everyday to help his lady friend out with her chores. But one day, that friendship quickly sours. Mayella invites Tom into the house to do some more work for her. Tom willingly goes inside the house. But then, disaster follows. Mayella hits on Tom by hugging and kissing on him. Back then, if a black man even looked lustfully at a white woman, he would end up heavily attacked and chastised for it. In fear for his life and marriage, Tom quickly resists his lady friend’s passes at him. To make matters worse, Bob, Mayella’s father, shows up and yells at them. At that moment, Tom runs away as fast as he can. In order to be rid of her guilt, Mayella has Tom arrested and sent to court for rape. To add to the prejudice of blacks in Maycomb, Jem puts it with racially mixed children in public back in the day: “They don’t belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere….” (161) Even racially mixed children have a hard time of living in the South because they are mixed.
The third and final evidence of prejudice is Scout, Jem, and Dill towards Boo Radley. To sum this up: Boo Radley is in his house all day and the children take the joy into picking him mercilessly. They do this by making a game about his life in chapter four. Scout played Mrs. Radley, Dill played Old Mr. Radley, and Jem played Boo. The game is described like this by Scout: “It was a melancholy little drama, woven from bits and scraps of gossip and neighborhood legend: Mrs. Radley had been beautiful until she married Mr. Radley and lost all her money. She also lost most of her teeth, her hair, and her right forefinger. (Dill’s contribution. Boo bit it off one night when he couldn’t find any cats and squirrels to eat.); she sat in the livingroom and cried most of the time, while Boo slowly whittled away all the furniture in the house.” (39) Now, the children don’t know if this is true or not and are just making up what they have been spoon-fed by the neighbors. And because they never see him at all, Jem and Dill assume that he is dead and stuffed in his chimney. They even try to get him out of the house just for fun. In reality, Boo Radley is a nice guy. He leaves Scout and Jem gum, a ball of gray twine, two pictures craved in soap, a pocket watch, spelling medal, an aluminum knife, and Indian pennies in a knothole. The guy even gives Scout a blanket to keep warm with while she and her brother watch Maudie’s house burn to the ground. But the kids don’t understand this because they are just children and see their deeds as play.
Prejudice is a cruel disease, which twists many people’s minds when they pick it up in life. Harper Lee proves this in her novel with Lula’s prejudice towards Scout and Jem, the neighbors’ prejudice towards the blacks in the town, and the children’s towards Boo Radley. To Kill a Mockingbird clearly proves that it is no different from real life.
Works Cited
Lee, Harper. To Killing a Mockingbird New York: Time Warner, 1982.
