Roughly over one hundred and fifty years ago the United States of America fought a civil war to abolish slavery in this country. Over fifty years ago a law was passed in an effort to make all men equal. Sadly, even though there is a law, the human mind thinks whatever it wants to. From the past to the present some have tried to restore some sort of balance between the races, but it seems, at least for now, racism is still very much alive, especially in the novel "A Time to Kill".
Racism is one of the world's oldest and largest problems. It has been introduced to us by parents, relatives, and many others. Although it is instilled in one for many reasons, it usually almost always means the same thing. Everything that racism is made of is rooted in hate. Hate for a skin color, an attitude, a personality, a preference. It is said solely to make one feel superior, better than everyone else. In John Grishams" novel "A Time to Kill", he captures the hatred and feelings of a place where racism seems to be right at home, The Old South. In the time of the Civil War the south prided itself in being the richest and the most beautiful people in the country. Well that was then and this is now and lets just say most do not hold any of those luxuries. Racism in this novel is most likely used to insult blacks or whites in the small town of Clanton, Mississippi. The town itself is stereotyped by using nicknames to refer to someone " "You tell Looney I"m S"ry. I didn't mean to shoot em". (165) This quote was used to show how one of the main characters Carl Lee Hailey was undereducated and not terribly intelligent. In the novel Grisham uses slang to get his point across through the characters. " "Ozzie, them reporters wanna talk to you. I"d said dat you"d be out in a minute." (77) Sometimes the author just needed to add strait racism to show how evil some characters were. " "She's not dead because niggers generally could not be killed by a good kicking, beatin or raping.