"To Kill a Mockingbird" centered around prejudice of several different kinds; prejudice means to prejudge. One example of Atticus' prejudice is when he told Scout "the Ewells had been the disgrace of Macomb for three generations . . . They were people, but they lived like animals." They were poor and uneducated and Atticus said it "would be silly to force people like the Ewells into a new environment." (Page 40) He tried to explain to Scout why it was ok to not force the Ewells to go to school but she had to. Isn't it immoral to allow a bad circumstance to continue to exist when it can be changed? Was he teaching her the right lesson? I don't think so.
The entire town prejudged Boo as a psycho because he was mentally ill. No one took the time to even notice him and his acts of compassion to the children. Tom was charged and convicted of a crime just because he was Black man. All of these situations could be changed if we recognized our own prejudices and chose to act differently even if others do not.
Leslie, I think you wrote a very thoughtful commentary. When I read Atticus' quotes, I sometimes keep in mind that he's "speaking" the voice of the town rather than his own private beliefs; he may be doing so here or not. Regardless, if the town believes it - you bring up an interesting point. Why is no one helping the status quo in the small town? Also, I would love to read more about how the quote relates to your own life and beliefs.
ReplyDeleteI've always been taught to respect people's differences and not judge people or situations by how they appear. Rich people are not always kind or compassionate and poor people are not always rude, ignorant or uneducated. People who talk a lot don't always make sense and quiet people often have a lot to say. If it is bad, you try to make it better for everyone rather than just a few people. Maybe if the town had paid more attention to the Ewells rather than judge them or think of them as animals, Mr. Ewell and Mayella would have treated Tom Robinson differently.
DeleteI agree that people get put into categories based on how they look, act, and how people talk about them. Boo and Tom both got placed into categories they should't have been in. They were both good-natured people who didn't deserve to be judged by nosy, shady townfolk who have nothing better to do with their lives except talk about other people. I think we are so quick to judge other people by how they look and act, but we don't think about how we act and look. We don't think about how we are putting them down, and how we wouldn't want to be judged so harshly. We don't think about how judging them wouldn't help us in any way, so why would we do it? We jut don't think before we act. That's the problem.
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