Prejudice: Difference of Race
Racism formed one of the main themes in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, and also one of the major plot lines: The Case of Tom Robinson. Scout herself had said: ‘Well, Dill, after all he’s just a Negro,’ By saying Tom’s ‘just’ a Negro emanates a sort of detached and opinionated feeling reflecting the prejudice present in that society. Judgments were made purely based on their skin colour. This simple yet emblematic line shows the mutual attitude towards the African Americans in Maycomb County.
If a girl of no more than 10 years old can throw in something like that in a conversation, what have the rest of the adults in the town thought about them; said about them; or even done to them based on their apparent attitude towards them? They were avoided, judged and even hurt due to their race.
‘Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit’em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird,’ Mockingbirds do no harm to people, but provide music for all to hear. The African Americans are one of the ‘mockingbirds’ in this novel.
‘Some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing...’ So if the African Americans at the time were just like any other person on Earth, why did the white Americans treat them with such derision and contempt? Prejudice. That’s why. Tom Robinson’s case is the proof that racial prejudice is held in greater importance above justice.
