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In this paper I intend to explore one of the main themes of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, the issue of prejudice. I intend to explore how the children change through out the novel and the novel relevance to the time and place it was written, in other words, the historical content. Prejudice is defined in Comprehensive Desk Dictionary by Thorndike Barnhart as an "opinion formed without taking the time and care to judge fairly." The main focus of part one is Boo Radley. Boo was considered to be an outcast by many of the people in Maycomb. He never came outside, except for two occasions in the book. The first time Boo comes out is when a fire breaks out at Miss Maudies, and Scout is standing outside in the cold.
Boo wraps a blanket around her, without her knowing that he did. The other time didn't happen until part two, when Jem and Scout are attacked by Bob Ewell. People were prejudiced against Boo because he is different. The children had not seen him so they made up stories about him (Johnson, 1). They were afraid of him.
They didn't realize it was Boo leaving the gifts and wanted to be friendly. In part two the main focus is on Tom Robinson. He is a black man accused of raping white woman. The prejudice in this part of the novel is called racism. The opinion formed because of the color if Tom's skin. Racism was very common in the south at this period in American history.
African Americans were treated differently than whites. They were not allowed to use the same water fountains, or sit next to each other on the bus or in restaurants. The blacks had their own section of town (Johnson, 1). According to Maycomb society, there should be no mixing of the races. Aunt Alexandra did not want Scout and Jem to go to the Negro church or to go to Calpurnia's home. The "whites" felt they could not take Tom's side against a white woman.
The white townspeople even showed Atticus that they didn't want him defending Tom. They sent this message to him on his lawn in front of his house and then again at the jail. They did not want Atticus to defend a black man against a white woman. Tom was accused of raping Mayella Ewell, Bob Ewell's daughter.
Atticus was his attorney, and went through a lot of pressure and put a lot on his children, hearing their father being called a "nigger-lover" for defending Tom (Johnson, 2). People said that Atticus was a "nigger-lover" because he was going to defend Tom to the best of his abilities. Tom was convicted even though the evidence stated, should of got him off the hook, but because he was black. The blacks were also prejudice against the whites. When the Finch children went to the black church one of the black women said to Calpurnia "You ain't got no business bringin' white chain here - they got their church and we got our'n" (Johnson, 3). In the novel the children, in the beginning had a slim, if any at all, vision of the life.
Their reality of life was the life they had inside of the walls of their safe home, with their father. They saw people like Boo Radley and Tom Robinson as demonic and witch like. They don't realize how hard and ugly the world outside their home is and can be. In my opinion they really don't have an idea of how much they really have, and how little others do. The children, through out the novel mature and gain knowledge, and a better understanding of things they didn't understand before. Scout especially learns in part two about racism.
She believed Tom would be found not guilty. She doesn't believe Mayella on the witness stand. Her father proves that Tom could not have raped Mayella yet the jury still find him guilty (Johnson, 4). The children learn about injustice and racism. Atticus tells them that a black man's word can not be taken against a white man's word. Scout is upset when she hears the comment made by Miss Gates when leaving the courtroom that it was good Tom was convicted because it would keep the blacks "in their place." In part one, they didn't know who Boo Radley was, or what he looked like.
Jem and Scout were afraid of Boo, and Dill was curious about him. They wouldn't walk on his property and never went in front of Boo's house. Until Jem was dared by Dill, they never even thought of going up to Boo's house. They like everyone else thought of Boo as different, strange and a outcast.
The children begin to realize that Boo isn't the way they see him as, when he wraps the blanket around Scout during the fire (Johnson, 4). The children learn to see people as human beings and not to prejudge them because they are different. Scout especially learns this because she sees herself as different than the average girl in Maycomb. She likes to read and is a tomboy (Johnson, 4). The children mature, and become wiser about the way people think and how they act. They become aware of the fact that a black man could not get a fair trial Maycomb.
They see the racism and the hardships of their society. They see that it takes immense courage to defend and befriend someone different. They find this out by watching their father defend Tom Robinson... Scout gains courage at the end when she took Boo by the hand to Jem's bed after the incident with Bob Ewell. Scout told Boo it was okay to touch Jem and escorted Boo arm in arm to his house. This is how the children changed, matured and to saw things differently (Johnson, 4).
The novel was written about the 1930 's. During this time the country was in the period known as the " Great Depression." Many people were jobless and homeless, many people lived in shanty towns, with shelters made of sheet metal and scrap lumber lean-tos. All over America it was common to see unemployed men and women riding the rails looking for work, shelter, and food. In 1931 a person working 55 or 60 hours in Alabama would only earn $ 156 annually.
Because of the shortage of jobs and how low paying they were, there were ferocious rivalries for these few jobs. The blacks and whites hatred intensified with the competition for jobs. One of the most famous court cases in American history was during this time, it was the Scottsboro trials. The Scottsboro trials were very similar in many ways to the fictional trial of Tom Robinson (Johnson, 15). The incident which was the basis of the Scottsboro trials began on March 25, 1931 when a group of people were riding a train from Tennessee to Alabama.
After leaving the train two white women accused nine African-American men of raping them in an open car. There were several trials with different verdicts for the nine defendants. The similarities to the fictional trial of Tom Robinson include the issue of race. In both cases black men were accused of raping white women in Alabama in the 1930 's. If the jury had found the men not guilty in either trial it would mean that the jury had taken the word of a black against a white.
This was something that could not be allowed in the present society. In both cases the accusers were working class, poor women who used rape to cover up a secret, so their credibility as witness were tainted. In the Scottsboro case it was Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, who accused the men of rape to cover up the fact that they were involved in a criminal act when they left Tennessee for Alabama, and that Victoria Price was a known prostitute (Johnson, 16). In Tom Robinson's trial it was Mayella Ewell accusing Tom of rape to cover up the fact that, Mayella tempted Tom, which was not acceptable in the Maycomb society at the time, and that her father, Bob beat her for it.
Another similarity is the threat of lynching. In the novel the idea of lynching arose when the gang of men went to the cell of Tom Robinson... There was also the similarity of Atticus and Judge Horton in the Scottsboro trials. Both men acted in favor of black defendants, going against the wishes of their communities (Johnson, 19).
In conclusion, there are various theme in the book. The theme of prejudice is present throughout the novel in the first part against Boo Radley and in the second part in the form of racism against Tom Robinson. The understanding of prejudice helped thee children change during from childhood innocence to a point of maturity and acceptance of people who were different from themselves. The historical content of the novel is reflected in the parallel to the Scottsboro trials and the way of life in Alabama in the 1930 's. Bibliography:
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