“That is three-fourths coloured folks and one-fourth Stephanie Crawford”, Miss Maudie.
Maycomb’s close community is shown also when it snows (see reference in paragraph two). It’s new an exciting for a town such as Maycomb and therefore everyone wants and needs to know information for it, mainly school cancellations.
“Eula May was Maycomb’s leading telephone operator. She was entrusted with issuing public announcements, wedding invitations, setting off the fire-siren, and giving first-aid instructions when Dr Reynolds was away.”
When Miss Maudie’s house catches fire the while Maycomb community is out helping her. This also shows that the community is so close knit. It was in the middle of the night and everyone was still in their night robes but they were risking their lives to help one of the community.
“The men of Maycomb, in all degrees of dress and undress, took furniture from Miss Maudie’s house to a yard across the street.”
Maycomb is a very religious town and going to church is Maycomb’s “principal recreation”. The community have very strong beliefs yet they are hypocrites to their beliefs. Maycomb’s view of believing is taking communion, going to church and reading the Bible. This is all very well but still isn’t enough. Miss Maudie is criticised by the foot washers because of her love for her garden and flowers:
“They thought I spent too much time in God’s outdoors and not enough time inside the house reading the Bible.”
Atticus’ view of God is a lot better:
“Atticus says God’s loving folks like you love yourself–”
Mrs. Grace Merriweather is a perfect example of religious hypocrisy as she talks about the Mrunas in Africa and she tells about how they live in "poverty and darkness," with no one but J. Grimes Everett to help them. However, in the novel the Mrunas in Africa actually represent how the blacks live poorly in their quarters in Maycomb. The bitter irony is that the ladies feel sorry for, and are so willing to help the Mrunas, yet they overlook the problem at home, and even criticize their own black cooks and servants.
“I tell you there’s nothing more distracting than a sulky darky…Jesus Christ never went around grumbling and complaining…I tell you, Gertrude, you never ought to let an opportunity go by to witness for the Lord.”
Outsiders who come into Maycomb are not very welcome. If they do not follow the traditions of the Maycomb community, the residents do not have a high opinion of them. Boo Radley is a prominent example. He is a recluse and kept away from the world by his parents. People of Maycomb have made him up to be a “monster” because Boo does not fit into Maycomb’s business. His family has made the situation worse by not being involved in the community as well.
“The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not got to church, Maycomb’s principal recreation.”
Another character shown as an outsider in Maycomb is Miss. Caroline. She has been sent from North Alabama into a prejudiced society. As she does not come from Maycomb, she does not know the children’s background. She also has pre-conceived ideas of teaching and is not at all prepared for what Maycomb gives her. Miss Caroline has already come with a disadvantage she has not got the right background, according the Maycomb Community.
“North Alabama was full of Liquor Interests, Big Mules, steel companies, Republicans, professors, and other persons of no background.”
The roles of men and women in society are another prominent issue in Maycomb. Scout faces a lot of pressure from Aunt Alexandra to become more ladylike and less how she really is. She enjoys playing with Dill and Jem but even they start to reject because of her being a girl. Aunt Alexandra gives the idea of how a woman or girl should be and Scout does not want to be like this.
“I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches…she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants. Aunt Alexandra’s vision of my deportment involved playing with small stoves, tea-sets, and wearing the Add-A-Pearl necklace.”
Jem isolates because she is a girl. He does not think she is brave enough or manly enough to play some of the games they like. Dill and Jem leave Scout out when they are playing and this makes Scout feeling unwanted, all because she is a girl.
“I was not so sure, but Jem told me I was being a girl, that girls always imagined things, that’s why other people hated them so, and if I started behaving like one I could just go off and find some to play with..”
In the Deep South generally women are seen to be vunerable and fragile, therefore needed to be protected by the men. Women are shown as incapable to cope with the stress and danger of some parts of life. In the trial Atticus asks that the women should leave because of this type of intense case and suggests that women are not on juries because:
“I guess it’s to protect our frail ladies from sordid cases like Tom’s.”
Social class is very important in Maycomb. People judge others by what background they have and what family and grounds they possess. Prejudice is shown by the top rank of society, against all who don’t have much of, or any background.
“Being Southerners, it was a source of shame to some members of the family that had no record ancestors on either side of the Battle of Hastings.”
Aunt Alexandra is a typical person who is prejudiced against people who have now background. Her view is that if someone does not have a good background or family line then it would be better not to know them. For example when Aunt Alexandra will not let have Walter Cunningham be friends with Scout because of his background:
“But they’re not our kind of folks…there’s a drinking streak in that family a milde wide. Finch women aren’t interested in that sort of people…Because – he – is – trash.”
Her view shows us the complete and utter prejudice that there can be shown in society. Aunt Alexandra think a family is more important if it kept their land over generations, but so have the Ewells, and therefore the children find this definition confusing:
“Aunt Alexandra was of the opinion, obliquely expressed, that the longer a family had been squatting on one patch of land the finer it was.”
There are five specified classes in Maycomb town. The highest being the middle class, which includes most of the community, below this class there are the Cunninghams, who are above the Ewells because they have respect and pride for their family and live with what they have.
“Mr Cunningham could get a W.P.A job, but his land would go to ruin if he left it.”
With the Ewells, especially Bob Ewell, they have no pride or dignity. They do a lot of things that are illegal and shameful to Maycomb. They shoot game out of season but they are so poor and if they didn’t then they would starve. The family wouldn’t be so poor if Bob Ewell didn’t spend all his on drinking. The middle class measures of society therefore try to ignore the Ewells.
“Maycomb gave them Christmas baskets, welfare money, and the back of its hand.”
The Cunninghams and the Ewells do have one other thing in common than being very poor, they are both very racist, even more so than the middle class people. This is especially true of the Ewells because their class is the closest to the blacks’ class. Therefore they abuse their right, which is white being regarded as better than black. Cunninghams are part of the Lynch party that visit Tom because of their extreme racism. They do this because it shows that they are superior to someone in society, which is ironic because it makes them worse people in general.
The blacks themselves are presented as dignified, honourable and clean-living people but are treated very badly. They live near the dump, almost in it. They have no human rights above the whites as seen in the trial. Their church is used for gambling in the weekends. They have the lowest jobs and have hardly any money.
“A dirt road ran from the highway past the dump, down to a small Negro settlement some five hundred yards beyond the Ewells.”
In court a white man’s word will always be superior to a black man’s. Reverend Sykes points out to Scout, Jem and Dil:
“I ain’t ever seen any jury in favour of a coloured man over a white man…”
In the trial itself Tom Robinson is ridiculed by Mr. Gilmer. Mr. Gilmer calls Tom “boy” just because he is black also Tom said that he felt sorry for Mayella, a white woman. This is such a shock for all the prejudiced community in the trial.
“You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’ Mr Gilmer seemed ready to rise to the ceiling.”
Tom cannot even say to court that Mayella lied, because it’s a black’s word against a white’s.
“I say she’s mistaken in her mind.”
Although the Negroes are outcasts of society as people, they are better than the Ewells as they value what they have and take care of it, they also obey rules.
Dolphus Raymond and his children are other examples of outcasts of society because Dolphus is a white man and he had a black partner and therefore their children are half-cast. They were regarded as the lowest of the low, they do not belong with the blacks and they don’t belong with the whites so they are just seen as nothing.
“They’re just in-betweens, don’t belong anywhere.”
“around here once you have a drop of Negro blood, that makes you all black.”
The people of Maycomb find it very difficult to understand why such a thing can happen and Dolphus Raymond knows their views. That is why he pretends to be drunk all the time.
“that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does.”
The Maycomb community can understand this more because they think the drink is making him do such a thing. It’s a more sensible choice, Dolphus is not prejudiced, but he keeps it quiet behind the “drink”.
Thus Maycomb is stuck in the past and is tired and old. It suffers badly from the depression because of this. Most of the white community are hypocrites and people such as Aunt Alexandra who have exactly the same views on social status, religion and prejudice fit into Maycomb “like a hand into a glove.” However, the hope for the community lies in characters like Atticus who is teaching his children to be tolerant and not prejudiced:
“I hope and pray I can get Jem and Scout through it without bitterness, and most of all, without catching Maycomb’s usual disease.
