There was also prejudice against Boo Radley, as everyone thinks he is crazy because he hasn’t left his house for so long. Children have probably got this view past down to them from their parents. However, in the book it does not seem as if he is crazy because of many things he has done. He placed a blanket around Scout when she was watching the fire of Miss Maudie’s house, he might have done this because it was a very cold night and he did not want Scout to get a cold. This could come across as caring, but people just ignore it and try to save the furniture from the fire. As well as this, after Jem’s trousers had fallen off outside of the Radley house, Boo kindly stitched them back together as they had ripped and he had folded them up and put them back over the fence. Then he had been putting gifts into the knothole in the tree for Scout and Jem to find. He had given them many presents including a carved picture of Jem and Scout out of soap and a broken pocket watch on a chain with an aluminium knife. So this proves he is not crazy as most of the children and parents may think.
People are prejudiced against the Cunninghams not because they are poor but because they have their own way of doing things because they are poor. People didn’t like this at this time because, they liked everybody being the same and so everybody was in order. Some other people who are like this in the book are the Ewells, the family that is in court against Tom Robinson.
I have also noticed that the attitudes of older ladies are very prejudiced. Mrs Dubose is shouting at Jem and Scout. She then gets annoyed with them and shouts at Scout saying that she should be more feminine and she says, ‘you should be in a dress and camisole young lady. Mrs Dubose thinks that femininity comes if you wear a dress. Straight after this, Mrs Dubose gets annoyed with the two again and turns towards what Atticus has been doing and shouts ‘Not only a Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for niggers!’ She believes that Atticus is doing the wrong thing lawing, and therefor supporting a black man in court. Many people in the area believe that Atticus is putting a bad name to Macomb County.
Children also express their thoughts to Scout. This happened at school for Scout, as Cecil Jacobs, a school boy, says that Atticus ‘defends niggers.’ Scout denies it but does not know what it means but assumes that he is being horrible towards Atticus. But Cecil goes on and on and in the end Scout ends up fighting him about it. Also when Scout is round at Aunt Alexandra’s for Christmas, ‘Francis jerked loose and sped into the kitchen. Nigger-lover, he yelled.’ This shows that Aunt Alexandra’s side of the family thinks that Atticus is betraying the family and, like Mrs Dubose, they think he is doing the wrong thing.
There is also ageism against Atticus by Scout as she thinks Atticus was past his best in life and was feeble as he was ‘nearly fifty.’
There is huge controversy surrounding the trial of Tom Robinson as ‘the only thing they have got is a black man’s word against the Ewells’. The evidence boils down to you-did - I-didn’t. The jury couldn’t possibly be expected to take Tom Robinson’s word against the Ewells’. This proves that everyone knows that a black man could not win a court case against a white man. This is because the jury is racist and so will not believe a black man. If they believed Tom then it would stop him from going to prison or stop him from getting the death penalty.
