To understand Maycomb society, it is important to recognise that religion plays a deep part in Maycomb life. Harper Lee attacks the hypocrites who speak about Christianity but mistreat their fellow human being. ‘The religious woman seemed to look down on Tom Robinson like dirt.’ The Baptists and the ladies of the missionary circle are particularly criticised for their lack of humanity. We constantly hear the blacks derided and insulted by religious women and men. ‘Nigger lover’ is an expression often used for someone like Atticus, who disagrees with the society’s view on ‘equality’. When accused of crime black people are not even considered worthy of a fair trial; they are viewed as immoral and potential criminals: ‘As soon as Mayella opened her mouth Tom was a dead man.’ This is where religion and justice clash. Harper Lee subtly confronts this to supply the reader with a view of hypocrisy on the Maycomb society.
Women in Maycomb are expected to conform to traditional ideas about Southern femininity. Scout’s courageous and bold character explores aspects of being a woman that challenges tradition. For the first couple of chapters the reader assumes Scout is a boy, Harper Lee plays on this to supply the novel with a subtle moral about judging people and also uses it to emphasise that Scout and her family are breaking the tradition. As the novel progresses Scout realises by herself that she should grow out of punching people and standing up for what you believe in, and step into the role of a woman of Maycomb: ‘Atticus told me not to get in any more fights, so I walked away.’ Women have a constructed role to play in family life and aren’t expected to achieve highly: ‘Very few women worked because they were mot expected to.’ Aunt Alexandra is a typical example and it is her inability to see when she is wrong that is her greatest fault. But when Bob Ewell attacks Jem and Scout, she admits her guilt when she sees it: ‘I had a feeling about tonight- this is my fault. She began I should have-’. She represents all the basic failings of Maycomb ladies with her ‘river boat’ boarding school manners. Harper Lee portrays women as not unkind but ‘mistaken’ in their attitudes on equality.
Education is also criticised by Harper Lee. The school system and lessons the children receive are gently mocked: ‘People didn’t seem to go to school to achieve highly, they went to school because it was a school.’ By mocking the education I think Harper Lee has emphasised that the children are getting brain washed at a young age, prolonging the traditions. Flexibility for independent views and thoughts are limited. Scout says: ‘but the prospect of spending nine months refraining from reading and writing made me want to run away’. The school objects to Scout developing her own sense of intelligence and independence, and does its best to prevent her progress: ‘Now tell your father not to teach you any more’. The attitudes displayed by their teacher are opposed to the humanitarian ideas of the book. Harper Lee is accusing the school and teachers of giving children a fixed road to take for the early years of their life and when Scout turns off the road she is told off, leaving her upset and confused: ‘I mumbled that I was sorry and retired meditating on my crime.’ The children learn lessons of real value from other sources, for example when Jem and Scout so heavily judge Boo Radley but discover he is a kind and lonely man: ‘Boo isn’t a scary man after all is he Jem?’ The lessons they learn reflect the progress on the young society of Maycomb moving on from prejudice.
Local hierarchy is an important part of the structure of Maycomb’s society. Blacks are positioned at the bottom of the hierarchical scale due to the town’s racial prejudices. This keeps a section of the community in isolation from one another. This is evident throughout the novel and can be seen to permeate the entire fabric of Maycomb society. Calpurnia is a good example; she is a deprived member of Maycomb society on account of her colour but is able to reprimand Scout about her treatment of Walter Cunningham who is at the lower end of the hierarchy scale: ‘He is just like any other white boy Scout.’ She comments that social position is of no consequence if the responsibilities that go with it are ignored: ‘Just because he is poor it doesn’t position him below anyone else.’ Scout is ingrained with the town’s hierarchical attitude. ‘Walter is not company, only a guest because he is a Cunningham.’ So early on in the book we see signs of Maycomb’s hierarchical attitudes being passed on to Scout. However later on in the novel we find Scout is educated out of this point of view and is deeply upset when Aunt Alexandra refers to Walter as ‘trash’. I think this shows hope for the future of Maycomb because the younger generations will develop independent views on equality. While the novel realises all traditional tragic elements of Southern fiction, it also moves forward into a future that sees the South relinquishing these slowly, without losing its sense of community and identity.
Maycomb’s society is controlled by segregations, hierarchy, prejudice, family, loneliness and isolation. These themes unify into the moral landscape of a small town. Within the novel we live for a while in Maycomb and get to know its inhabitants. We begin to understand the moral tone of the town with its hypocrisies, its self-interest and its fear of change. We see young Scout develop moral courage that helps the reader see hope for the people of Maycomb finding life beyond discrimination, segregations and racial prejudice and a way into justice and equality.
