Great countries have gone to war over prejudice, the vicious, hurtful human trait that is almost always controversial. Prejudice can come from anyone- it causes people to treat others unfairly, and births two opposing opinions. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, many members of the Maycomb community experience and exhibit prejudice. Prejudice is exhibited toward minorities in Maycomb. This prejudice can turn to hate, and peaceful men like Mr. Cunningham can turn violent. While Maycomb’s black community experience negative prejudice from whites in their everyday lives, they very often discriminate against whites themselves if given the chance. Illustrated by several scenes in the novel, prejudice affects both the oppressed and privileged
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One Sunday, Jem and Scout go with Calpurnia to the church the black people go to, called First Purchase. Here, they encounter a black woman named Lula who says to Calpurnia that she “ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here-they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it?” (Lee 119). Jem and Scout are white, and come from a respected family, putting them high on the socioeconomic ladder; at this time in Alabama, it puts them above all the blacks. However, this does not stop Lula from exhibiting prejudice against them. Lula lives and works in a black community. For her, the majority of the people she knows are black. Atticus’s children are not black, but instead are white. They differ from her known majority, and she feels like enemies are encroaching on their territory, the territory of the black community, by being whites and coming into their church. Because she feels threatened by their presence, she exhibits prejudice toward them. Even though Scout and Jem are privileged because of their skin color, they are prejudiced against in this situation and experience discrimination first hand. Prejudice can be against members of the privileged class and fracture a society, pitting privileged people against oppressed ones because both groups exhibit prejudice against each other. Peace and harmony are achieved by …show more content…
Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman. While being questioned on the stand, he says that he felt sorry for Mayella. Mr. Gilmer, the prosecuting attorney, responds to him saying “ ‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’. . . [in the white seating area], nobody liked Tom Robinson’s answer” (197). Even though the Ewells live on welfare and are seen as the trashiest white family in Maycomb, the white people sitting in the courthouse (almost all of white Maycomb) see even them as better than a respectable black like Tom Robinson. The prejudice against people of Tom Robinson’s race makes his statement controversial; a person feeling sorry for a person with a very low standard of living is normal, but because a black person is saying so in reference to a white person, his statement is interpreted negatively. His race and the prejudices white Maycomb has toward his race are what cause his statement to be controversial. This statement, along with race, eventually leads to Tom Robinson being convicted even though evidence like Mayella being injured on the right side of her face (Tom’s has no use of his left hand) points to his innocence. In this situation, the prejudice and the controversy caused by pitting a black man’s honest word against the lying words of white trash leads to a man being sent to jail and
One Sunday, Jem and Scout go with Calpurnia to the church the black people go to, called First Purchase. Here, they encounter a black woman named Lula who says to Calpurnia that she “ain’t got no business bringin’ white chillun here-they got their church, we got our’n. It is our church, ain’t it?” (Lee 119). Jem and Scout are white, and come from a respected family, putting them high on the socioeconomic ladder; at this time in Alabama, it puts them above all the blacks. However, this does not stop Lula from exhibiting prejudice against them. Lula lives and works in a black community. For her, the majority of the people she knows are black. Atticus’s children are not black, but instead are white. They differ from her known majority, and she feels like enemies are encroaching on their territory, the territory of the black community, by being whites and coming into their church. Because she feels threatened by their presence, she exhibits prejudice toward them. Even though Scout and Jem are privileged because of their skin color, they are prejudiced against in this situation and experience discrimination first hand. Prejudice can be against members of the privileged class and fracture a society, pitting privileged people against oppressed ones because both groups exhibit prejudice against each other. Peace and harmony are achieved by …show more content…
Tom is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, a poor white woman. While being questioned on the stand, he says that he felt sorry for Mayella. Mr. Gilmer, the prosecuting attorney, responds to him saying “ ‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’. . . [in the white seating area], nobody liked Tom Robinson’s answer” (197). Even though the Ewells live on welfare and are seen as the trashiest white family in Maycomb, the white people sitting in the courthouse (almost all of white Maycomb) see even them as better than a respectable black like Tom Robinson. The prejudice against people of Tom Robinson’s race makes his statement controversial; a person feeling sorry for a person with a very low standard of living is normal, but because a black person is saying so in reference to a white person, his statement is interpreted negatively. His race and the prejudices white Maycomb has toward his race are what cause his statement to be controversial. This statement, along with race, eventually leads to Tom Robinson being convicted even though evidence like Mayella being injured on the right side of her face (Tom’s has no use of his left hand) points to his innocence. In this situation, the prejudice and the controversy caused by pitting a black man’s honest word against the lying words of white trash leads to a man being sent to jail and