'To Kill a Mocking Bird'. The first example of prejudice in this novel is shown by the Town people concerning Arthur (Boo) Radley. Scout suitably described him as a 'malevolent phantom' because they thought he was some kind of monster

Authors Avatar

Analyse the various forms of prejudice you encounter in the novel

Prejudice is an adverse judgement or opinion formed beforehand or without knowledge or examination of the facts. It is shown in a lot of different ways in the novel ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’. The first example of prejudice in this novel is shown by the Town people concerning Arthur (Boo) Radley. Scout suitably described him as a ‘malevolent phantom’ because they thought he was some kind of monster and was also described as “alien”. He was said to be the one committing all the crimes in Maycomb. When everyone was asleep at night he would be sneaking around the streets peeping in people’s windows. When azaleas were frozen it was said that he had breathed on them. Even the children were affected by these rumours. They wouldn’t touch the pecans that fell off the Radley’s tree in the school yard because according to them, if you did, you would die. All of this could be qualified as their prejudice against Boo, just because he never came out of his house to do anything they had to make up a reason why he didn’t, but what they didn’t realise was that he was arrested when he was younger, and from that day onwards his father didn’t let him leave the house, he had become accustomed to staying indoors “Mr Radley’s boy was not seen again for fifteen years”.

Join now!

Another type of prejudice shown in this novel is class prejudice. It is most often demonstrated by Scout who is completely unaware of it as well as a few of her fellow class members on the first day of school. They attributed certain qualities to each family in Maycomb and expected them all to be hereditary. For example the reason, which Scout gave us, as to why Burris Ewell was so dirty was, as far as the children were concerned, because “He’s one of the Ewell’s” and the reason why Walter Cunningham refused the quarter Miss Fisher offered him ...

This is a preview of the whole essay