Prejudice has been present for many years in many countries. Almost everyone has been affected by prejudice either directly or indirectly. The definition of the word prejudice is a judgement or opinion made without adequate knowledge. Almost every one has prejudged someone before meeting him or her or getting to know them. There are many ways in which one is prejudged such as gender, age, race, religion, the way one dresses etc. Prejudice is shown in "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee and in "The Crucible" by Arthur Miller. These show different states of prejudice. In this essay I will attempt to show you a number of ways that people can be prejudice against others in their community. There are some good examples of this through Tom Robinson in the book "To Kill a Mocking Bird". .
Tom was a black man who lived in the town of Maycomb. He was a nice man and a hard worker. He would never hurt a soul. One day, Mr. Bob Ewell accused him of raping Mayella Ewell. They brought this to court and the evidence was presented. There was little possibility that Tom could have committed this crime. This is due to the fact that Tom only had only the use of one arm therefore he could not physically hold her down and beat her. Even though all the evidence proved that Tom was innocent, he was convicted because he was a black man going against a white man's word. The court was being prejudice towards Tom because of his race. It came down to Bob's word against Tom's and the court had an all white jury. He was convicted because he was a black man. There is also prejudice in the community within in this novel towards black people as a whole.
This is shown in this book in many ways. The black people do not live in the same area as those who are white. They are on the outside of town. They also do not have the opportunities to make as much money as the white people do in the town. They are stuck with the lower class jobs that involve labour.