A Blinded Town: The Embedded Prejudice in Maycomb.
The landmark novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was a simple story with complex literary meaning. There were several uses of metaphors as well as many different themes. These themes include: prejudice and tolerance, moral and physical courage, good and bad parenting, and growing up and understanding. Of the many themes in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the display of prejudice and tolerance in the town of Maycomb was most prominent.
There are different levels of prejudice embedded in the little town of Maycomb. Since this town is so small, its residents know one-another well and have blindly discriminated towards certain people for their differences. On page 226, Jem sums up the town's view when he says "There's four kinds of folks in the world. There's the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there's the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes." He further states "The thing about it is, our kind of folks don't like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don't like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks." Based on the children's perspective, one can see just how this prejudice has continued from generation to generation in the town.
The most concentrated level of prejudice is toward African Americans. This can be seen in how little representation they get and how those who support them are degraded. Even the children have learned racism. For instance, on page 199, Scout says "Well Dill, after all he's just a Negro." In addition, the African Americans do not always value white people. On page 119 during church, Lula says "I wants to know why you bringin white chillum to nigger church.".
Even though there was much prejudice shown in the novel, there was also some tolerance. Atticus Finch was the voice of rational wisdom in Maycomb. He knew that even if the African Americans were discriminated by the majority, an African American's skin color was not what defined the individual person.