In Maycomb everybody is judged by what family he or she are from. Examples of this are the Cunningham's - everyone knew about them and that they had no money but wouldn't take something they couldn’t pay back. In chapter 2 Miss Caroline offers to lend lunch money to Walter Cunningham but he refuses. Miss Caroline wouldn’t accept this Scout is forced to explain “Walter is one of the Cunninghams’, Miss Caroline” and then further explains “You’ll get to know all the country folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can’t pay back- no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don’t have much, but they get along on it.”
Maycomb's society is greatly divided and a person’s social status and respect is based on what family they come from. Atticus is from a highly respected family and the respect for him could be derived from this. Atticus himself is highly respected by everyone that lives in the town and this is proved because he is consistently elected to represent the town on the state’s law-making body. Atticus's opinions could be quite controversial as he believes that black people shouldn’t be looked down upon and this is proved by him defending Tom Robinson in the court case and saying to Scout that "every lawyer had one case that affected them personally" and that this was his. He believes that he had to defend Tom Robinson because he believed him to be innocent and that "before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority is a person's conscience." This shows that even though Atticus knows he will probably lose the court case, he is still going to defend Tom because he thinks it’s the right thing to do and that he couldn't bear to have the fact he should have defended Tom but didn't on his conscience. Throughout the book Atticus also shows a great understanding of human behaviour, which makes his guidance role to his children even greater. Miss Maudie does challenge the attitude of social snobbery declaring that true background is decided by a person's moral wealth. This isn’t defined at any one point but in various situations throughout the novel. She has also no time for hypocrisy, she dislikes Mrs Merriweather for criticising Atticus, and Stephanie Crawford for spreading rumours about Boo Radley. She was also critical of religious groups who clain to be Christian but whose behaviour to others shows prejudice and lack of humanity.
Another example of social status is the Ewells. The Ewell's lived in a situation very similar to the black people only living five hundred yards away from a Negro settlement. But the contrast between the his house and theirs was great. He lived directly behind the town’s dump in what was once a Negro cabin but where theirs were neat and snug his was ramshackle and un-cared for. “The cabin’s plank walls were supplemented with sheets of corrugated iron, its roof shingled with tins cans hammered flat, so only its general shape suggested its original design: square, with four tiny rooms opening onto a shotgun hall” a style traditional in the poorer areas of the southern US. Despite this Bob Ewell still considered himself to be far superior to Negroes. This is proved when Bob Ewell shows his disgust at Tom Robinson saying he helped Mayella because he “felt right sorry for her.”
In the first chapter Scout states that "because of Simons Finch's industry, Atticus was related by blood or marriage to nearly every family in the town." This shows that a lot of the time people just marry people in the town instead of from one nearby. This means that it could be a cousin marrying a cousin or a second cousin.
Through the novel we also learn that religion is important to all of the townspeople. The Radley's are looked down on because they do not attend church or welcome people on church days. The novel points out people that believe in Christianity but mistreat other humans. For example the way a lot of the townspeople treated the Negroes.
The role of women in the town is shown to be very old-fashioned. The women are expected to conform to certain ideals and behave in a certain way. It is not right for a woman to have heard swearing, which is one of the convictions against Boo Radley as he swore so loud that every woman in town could have heard him. This fact that every women in town could have heard him is not true but swearing in possible earshot of women was considered to be greatly wrong. Atticus’s sister, Aunt Alexandra, is the perfect example of what women should behave like in the Southern States at the time of the novel. She is in charge of holding the missionary meetings and is the secretary of the Amanuensis Club. This shows she is an upstanding member of the community. She also has great dignity and self control which were desirable traits in women at that time.
Dolphus Raymond also teaches us something about the town. Mr Raymond lives with a black woman and has mixed coloured children. Everyone in the town believes him to be a drunkard because he drinks out of a bottle in a brown paper bag. The bottle inside the bag turns out to contain coca - cola but he lets everyone think he is a drunkard so that they can blame his unacceptable behaviour on it. He feels that the people living in Maycomb need to think that he can't change his way of life, and they are unable to understand that he doesn't want to. The townspeople believe that no normal person would live with a person who has different colour of skin as the Raymonds do.
We learn a great deal about the town but the major thing we do learn is that it is stuck in age-old beliefs. Beliefs that white people are superior to black people, that women should behave and act in certain ways and that if someone goes against what is believed to be normal the citizens frown upon it.