Before Tom Robinson’s trial the lynch mob came to kill Tom but Atticus was there to try and stop them and he would have been killed too if it weren’t for Scout who interrupted them and started to talk to Walter Cunningham’s farther the leader of the lynch mob about his son Walter. This is racial prejudice because the lynch mob hadn’t even heard the trial yet and they were going to kill him, they hadn’t even found him guilty of the accusations yet but because he was black they thought he must have done it.
The whole of Macomb’s attitudes in general towards black people is that they are trash. No one has any respect for black people at all except Atticus, who sees them as equal as the white community. His servant Calpurnia, he regards more as a family member than a servant. But Aunt Alexandra doesn’t share the same views. He wants Calpurnia to be fired but Atticus says that she is a faithful member of the family and she can leave when she wants to.
Class and family prejudice also plays a big part in the novel. Different people were put into different classes. It all depended on how rich or poor you were or the job you had or the colour of your skin. The Finch family was at the top of the class and the Robinson’s’ were at the bottom. The Whites at the top and the Negroes at the bottom.
In the trial for Tom Robinson we found out that Tom helped out Mayella with some of her chores because he felt sorry for her. This wasn’t the best thing to say because why would a Negro feel sorry for a white person. Every class should look down on the class below it, so a black people should not feel pity for anyone because they are at the bottom of the classes.
The Cunninghams and the Ewells are the lowest of the white class as they are dirty and poor. The Cunninghams are nice people but they are just poor and they never take anything that they can’t give back. The Ewells however are poor, dirty and generally no one likes them, but just because they are higher in class they regard the blacks as trash. This however isn’t correct because the blacks keep themselves clean and even though they are poor as well they are generally hardworking and honest.
Prejudice is also betrayed in the book in individuals such as Boo Radley and Tom Robinson. Boo Radley is seen as being an evil person and has vicious rumours about him being spread round the whole of Maycomb County. The children tend to be the most prejudice towards Boo as they say he has poisoned the pecan nuts in the school playground, and has eaten the heads of cats and squirrels raw. He has been transformed into some kind of monster, although his life has been rather sad and unfortunate rather than evil and cruel. When Boo begins to leave Jem and Scout presents, they are suspicious, but when Nathan Radley cements up the knothole in the tree where they received these presents they begin to think more deeply about the situation in the Radley House. Boo shows his affections the children by a series of actions: mending Jems trousers and when he saves them from the murderous attack of Bob Ewell. Rather than to condemn people it is better to try and see things from their point of view by ‘Climbing into their skin,’ as Atticus says. The title of the story suggests that it would be a sin to kill a creature that does no harm. Both Tom and Boo may be seen as mockingbirds, they don’t do any harm but are both damaged mentally and physically by the prejudice of others.
