TO_KILL_A_MOCKINGBIRD_ESSAY

Boo Radley and the Finch family were just two examples that were judged, not by race, but simply by fear alone. Boo Radley was continuously kind and generous to the two Finch children. He suffered terribly from this because his family were too afraid to let him out of the house in case something happened to him. Because of Atticus’ non-prejudiced attitude, his entire family suffered the consequences. He left them special little prizes and trinkets, all in the hope to somehow win their friendship. The only evidence they had was from an untrustworthy white man and his daughter. In the novel, he was presented as the only character in the town not to judge people by their race, or by any other ridiculous ideas that may have been going around. The children would not go near his house because of the rumours (another form of prejudice) that were circulating in the town from gossiping ladies who had nothing to do but chatter. Atticus knew that he could not win the case, but felt obliged to at least present Tom’s defence, with whatever evidence existed. The entire prejudiced attitudes of the town of Maycomb County were based on traditional ideas that had to be changed. The jury – a group of randomly selected people who decide the outcome of a court case – had no just cause for putting Tom to death except for its feelings of hatred and loathing because he was a Negro. Atticus’ non-prejudiced attitude was very clear to the readers of the novel when he accepted the court case to defend a Negro man named Tom Robinson. The jury convicted Tom without sufficient evidence. Here we saw another example of racial discrimination. There are several forms of prejudice that come from many people’s narrow-mindedness.