To Kill a Mockingbird

Prejudice is the strongest of any of the motifs in To Kill a Mockingbird because of the intricate development that happens throughout the novel. The story starts out with the history of the Finch family. Whether the reader is aware of it or not it is in the family history that prejudice is introduced. Scout, one of the main characters, tells us in the first few pages that some of her family members are embarrassed because they did not have any ancestors in a battle which took place in England long before their town, Maycomb, was founded. “Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that we had no recorded ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings” (Lee, 3). At first glance this passage doesn’t seem to have anything to do with prejudice, but a deeper look reveals that prejudice is the

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She chose to have Scout, a little girl aging from seven to ten years old throughout the course of the story, narrate the events in the story. Through her use of literary elements, and her extraordinary development of the theme of prejudice, she truly conveyed one of her beliefs about prejudice to her reader, that prejudice is learned. The reader is lucky in the case of the trial because Harper Lee appoints Scout to recount the event of the trial, which leads to her main focus being on the children. The setting helps us understand how the people can seem so heartless. Atticus could have easily chosen to not take the case and then subsequently avoided all of the prejudice that as a result would be directed toward him and his family. “ ‘You’re too scared to even put your big toe in the front yard. In the town of Maycomb, Mayella Ewell, a white woman who is as low on the social ladder as any white woman could ever get, accuses Tom Robinson, a black man, of raping her. However Atticus is a man not easily swayed by the feelings of other people. Harper Lee, by insuring prejudice was mentioned at the very beginning, set us up for a seemingly endless chase, which only ends as the cover shuts. Atticus had decided that for the duration of Tom’s trial it would be a safe idea to have his sister, Aunt Alexandria, stay with the children. Since they have different habits and customs than the rest of Maycomb, prejudices are formed against them.

Common topics in this essay:
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Approximate Word count = 1995
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

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