To Kill a Mockingbird

The statements made in “To Kill a mockingbird” about prejudice, include the presence of; class, gender, religious and importantly racial discrimination. These lead to injustices which are conveyed by having the story told through they eyes of a minimally prejudiced child. Her family provides the contrast in the book, which is furthermore conveyed by the use of; the title as a motif; metaphors and the fear of the unknown.

Racial prejudice is a strong theme in the novel. Prejudice about a race normally results in an untrue generalized perception of the race, regardless of the truth. In the novel injustice through racial prejudice is conveyed by having a �black’ man, Tom Robinson, on the receiving end of an unfair trial. This is due to the fact of the preconceived ideas made by others in the town.

Atticus, one of the characters with a contrasted, non-prejudice view, comes to the harsh realization that “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed.” This demonstrates that the trial was over before it began due to the fact of the racial prejudice. This results in the injustice of the prison sentence for Tom Robinson, without convincing evidence.

The recurring motif of the title also clearly conveys that people should not persecute others that haven’t being proven to do anything wrong. Many of the unprejudiced characters in the book, including; Miss Maudie, BB Underwood, Atticus and Jem, all relay the message that “it is a sin to kill a mockingbird, for all they do is sing their hearts out.”

This motif continues to reinforce that one shouldn’t be persecuted for any reason at all. The metaphor creates contrast in the novel, as the characters that say it are some of the only minimally prejudiced characters in the novel.

The idea of persecuting people for their beliefs is also evident in the novel. Persecution of beliefs has gone on a lot through history and it shows that people think that there is a right and wrong to beliefs. This is evident as Miss Maudie fears for her life – due to her religious beliefs.

She is approached by fundamentalist Baptist’s who proclaim that she “spent too much time outside in God’s nature and not enough time inside studying the bible.” She relays to Scout that they told her that “me and my flowers were going to hell.” This shows that prejudice leads to injustice and is conveyed through the use of fundamentalist religion members.

The lack of understanding injustice is evident as Scout is brought up not knowing much about prejudice. She doesn’t understand why it is controversial for Atticus to be defending a black man. As Scout is a child, it is pivotal in the conveyance of prejudice that she does not fully understand prejudice, so she can learn about it as the responders do.

Atticus tells Scout how it is controversial, but also says for her not be prejudice herself. He says that one can’t judge another “until you climb in its skin and walk around in it,” he also states that he is doing is “simply defending a Negro-man, his name is Tom Robinson.” This exemplifies the fact that one can’t choose who to and not to defend based on their race. Scouts innocence conveys the prejudice towards Atticus’ job.

Contrast of socioeconomic status is a big factor which leads to unjust and prejudice. This is because people think they are superior to others, based on their possessions. This is evident in the novel with the Cunninghams, who are segregated according to their class. On her first day of school, Scout,