At the beginning of “To kill a mockingbird” we only see a minimal amount of prejudice towards the black people of Maycomb but as the novel progresses we get a real sense of hatred and negative attitudes towards them. Chapter nine is the main turning point of the novel it is where we as the reader begin to experience just how severe and uncalled for this prejudice is and as we continue to read further into the novel we see that it only gets worse for the unfair treatment and uncalled for abuse is presented to us even more then it was previously. On page 83 Atticus tells the children that he is to be defending a black man, he expresses to the children that regardless of what views other people take of him he feels he would not be performing his duty as a well respected lawyer if he did not accept the case nor would he be able to set a good example to his children or those around him; “If I didn’t I couldn’t hold my head up in town, I couldn’t represent the country in the legislature, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again….” This quotation shows us that Atticus us one of the few members in society who is unprejudiced with good morals and it is Harper Lee’s way of showing the reader that although racism is a major issue not all individuals are racist for there are some such as Atticus who are willing to treat everyone with the same respect regardless of colour. The majority if not all of the prejudice towards the black people of Maycomb is experienced through the eyes of the children and also through the attitude Atticus takes towards teaching Scout and Jem that everyone should be treated with the same respect regardless of race, age, sex or status. He teaches his children that prejudice is unacceptable as you should never judge a person before you know them; “you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view- until you climb into his skin and walk around in it…”
After Atticus has accepted the case of defending the accused Tom Robinson on a charge of raping a white girl we witness that many people within his community turn on him and show disrespect to him and his family. One of these people is Mrs Dubose; an elderly neighbour with a morphine addiction. In the past she has often felt the need to scream abuse at the children for no reason, she would comment on the way they played or sometimes even how they just walked down the street but once the news that Atticus was defending a black man had spread she felt that she had the right to comment on that as well. Once again she screams at the children as they pass her house but this time she tells them that their father is “No better then the Negros he works for!” This remark emphasises the fact that black people were the lowest among society, even lower then what was known as the “white trash” and therefore they should not be regarded as equals or treated with the same respect that they would treat fellow members of their community. I think the fact that Atticus is willing to treat every one the same and is not scared of the black people within society threatens Mrs Dubose along with other members of Maycomb as they cannot understand why people would take this approach towards people who are different from themselves. Mrs Dubose is used as a device to put an emphasis on the fact that racism was so common; we can interpret this because of the way in which we see that Atticus was not surprised nor angry when he heard abut the way Mrs Dubose had acted towards his children even though they had nothing to do with the matter at hand.
In responding to Mrs Dubose’s outburst Atticus warns the children that as the trail progresses more and more people will take this view on him and the abuse will become worse but they must ignore it and keep out of trouble. He also talks about religion and his personal religious beliefs; “I couldn’t go to church if I didn’t try to help that man” I think from this we can see that religion is important to Atticus and he too takes God’s view that we are all equal so therefore he would not be acting like a true Christian if he did not give Tom Robinson an equal chance by defending him. Harper Lee also talks about religion when she introduces us to the church that the black people attend. We are informed that the church was brought with the money made by the first free slaves and from hearing this we sense a real feeling of pride and we get the impression that this church, along with its history is of great importance to the black community. It is clear that religion is taken very seriously for Calpurnia stresses to the children that if they are to attend church with her they must be on their best behaviour and must look highly respectable.
Although Harper Lee is trying to portray the idea that black people are not at all like their typical stereotype and therefore should be treated with respect she doesn’t fail to show us that the racial prejudice is not only one sided. Harper Lee shows this through the incident that happens when the Finch children attend the black church with Calpurnia, although the children are well behaved and look respectable some of the congregation seem to have a problem with the fact that Calpurnia has brought white children to their church and she receives some verbal abuse from another woman but is nothing that she cannot handle yet it is still enough prejudice to make the children feel uncomfortable and therefore want to leave. This is the first time Scout and Jem experience prejudice first hand and through this experience I think they learn a lot about unfair treatment as they are given an insight into what it must be like for a black person on a day to day basis.
Most of the black people and people who associate with them tend to keep themselves to themselves for obvious reasons so that people can’t judge them or criticise them, a prime example of one of these people is Dolphus Raymond. Mr Dolphus Raymond pretends to be drunk all the time, on what people presume is whiskey but as we read the novel we discover that what he is drinking is just coca cola. He is a white man married to a black woman and therefore his children are labelled as “Mixed Chillun” within the community. We find out that the reason Dolphus Raymond acts drunk all the time is in order to protect his family from any more criticism and abuse. He would much rather have people label him a drunk and blame the alcohol on his reason for marrying a black woman rather than people giving him and his family grief because of his actions. People feel sorry for Mr Raymond and therefore leave his family alone and this is what he wants as if they knew that he actually loved his wife then he would be labelled a “Nigger lover” which was regarded as a much greater sin then being a drunk within Maycomb.
Although Harper Lee tries to present to us this clean cut image of the “Negros” as they were called we see that even though they seem very nice and genuine they are still considered to be the least important people in Maycomb and therefore no respect is given to them. An example of this is the fact that the church which belongs to the black people is used by the white men for gambling during the week. This shows us that the views of black people were obviously not taken into account and their beliefs were regarded as a lot less important, maybe even pointless compared to those of the white people. I say this because from reading through the novel it is clear that gambling in a white church would be considered totally unacceptable so therefore it should not be allowed to happen in a black church for not only does it show disrespect towards the black people but also towards God.
Even though we see that the majority of black people within Maycomb are all good hearted, with the exception of those who showed prejudice towards the children, we also see that it is clear they will never be treated as equals within their society. Tom Robinson’s trial proved this to us as it was obvious that he was innocent but the people of Maycomb would much rather believe a white girl, whom they can relate to in terms of colour rather then a black man whom they cannot understand and are most likely scared of due to the fact that he is different. Throughout the course if the trial we come to see that Tom is innocent and Mayella is just lying in order to protect her father but none of that matters to the people of Maycomb for all that matters is that the accused was black. Being black meant Tom was doomed from the start, his trial was pointless as the truth didn’t seem to matter at all, the only fact that the jury and the other members of the community were interested in was that Tom was a black man. This trial showed just how bad prejudice can be, a man was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit all because he was black. His family had to deal with never being able to see him again knowing that the same thing could happen to them one day because they too were black members of the community.
