Harper Lee's novel, "To Kill A Mockingbird," contains many examples of prejudice and discrimination towards women, children, people of dark skin, and family backgrounds. The novel is mainly about the discrimination in a trial of a black man accused of rape. Discrimination is stated in the dictionary as being "unfavourable treatment based on racial, sexual, etc. prejudice." As the main characters in the story grow up, they learn that this unfavourable treatment happens in their everyday life. Scout is often told how to be a proper lady, and not to behave as boys do. Jem is thought to be ignorant and stupid because he is a child. Tom Robinson is assumed guilty just because a white person accused him of a crime. Many of the families in the story are stereotyped, such as the Cunninghams, the Ewells, and the Radleys.
The book teaches us about many of the forms of racism and prejudices that were present during the 1930's. Racism affects all of us, but we must try to understand what it was like for people in the story. There is a lot of prejudice in the novel towards females. Most of this is shown with Scout. There were many times that Scout was offended due to the fact that she is a girl. She was quite a tomboy growing up and wore guy's clothing. She is told not to wear this type of clothing because it is said not to be ladylike to wear clothes like overalls and jeans. .
The way that females were talked to was also very different from today's society. "'You goddamn whore, I'll kill ya.'" (Lee 194) Mr. Ewell said this to his daughter Mayella after being caught with Tom Robinson. Prejudice towards children is something that happens in school, our homes, and in all other places. Racism is something that gets less every day, but prejudice is something that everyone has a part in. We should try our part to get rid of it because to do so would make us all better people.
In the classic novel, there are many examples of prejudice and stereotypes.
