The people of Maycomb’s views and values stretch back into Alabama’s rich history. In Southern America, Negroes were taken from their homes and sold as slaves to work on cotton fields for their white masters. White people felt that they owned black people and could tell them what to do. People in North America didn’t agree with slavery and so there was a civil war. The North Americans won and the black slaves were free. “Although Maycomb was ignored during the War Between the States, Reconstruction rule and economic ruin forced the town to grow. It grew inward. New people so rarely settled there, the same families married the same families until members of the community looked faintly alike… them quiet stream of family resemblance”. There was then an economic depression and people in the country grew poor. White people blame blacks for this depression and feel hard done by. They feel hatred for Negroes and think that they’ve destroyed family traditions. The white trash’s views on Tom Robinson and other Negroes is really just an extreme version of what they think of each other.
Maycomb residents don’t have much contact to the outside world. They don’t see how other people live, so they think that their ideas on life are real and right. They don’t take into account that Negroes have feelings and aren’t less superior to whites.
Next, we need to understand the prejudice in Maycomb. One person that is treated unfairly is Calpurnia, as you can see when Aunt Alexandra tried to get Atticus to fire Calpurnia, because in her eyes, Calpurnia wasn't a good enough female role model. This is a prejudice action, because Calpurnia is as good as a role model as Aunt Alexandra, if not better. Aunt Alexandra is a bigot and doesn't see the Calpurnia for who she is, just the colour of her skin. Another person who is treated like an inferior is Scout by her teacher, because she knew how to read. "She discovered that I was
literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste". Scout
is treated like it is her fault that she knows more than the average child
did. She learnt earlier than others so she got punished unjustly.
Another group that is treated poorly in the society based on
bigotry, are the people who have chosen to be different. One person who chose to be different is Dolphus Raymond. He pretended to be drunk by drinking Coca Cola out of a brown paper bag which looked like he was disguising whisky, so no one gave him any trouble on the way that he lived his life. Another person that lives differently is Boo Radley. Boo stayed inside
his house for a number of years without ever coming out to interact with
others. He didn't want attention that would come from the rumours that
were said about him. Stories were made up about him and he felt it was best for him to stay inside. The people who chose to be different took a
risk of being made outcasts of the majority of the society.
The final group that was made to feel different was the group that
defended and protected the minorities and the wrongfully treated people.
Atticus was a good example of one who defended the different by defending
Tom Robinson in his case. Atticus had integrity that gave him the
strength to endure the ridicule that arose from his decision to defend a
black man. Atticus was threatened and his children were treated poorly by their peers, because he had the courage to stand up for the hated. Sheriff Tate defends the different when he says, "I never heard tell that it's against the law for a citizen to do his utmost to prevent a crime from being committed, which is exactly what he did, but maybe you'll say it's my duty to tell the town all about it and not hush it up”. By defending the different, people take a
chance of being known as strange or inferiors to the rest of the people
that they are around.
Finally, we need to look at the jury which convicted Robinson. They were all male, and when there’s a case of a woman’s word against a man’s, the woman usually wins. You never see people from Maycomb on the jury, they’re always from the woods. Folks who live in the woods surrounding Maycomb have similar views but are even more inbred and strong-minded. Prejudice towards blacks even stretches to the law; “In courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins”.
The jury and Maycomb residents are so racist that there was no way that Tom would be found not guilty. The residents are so used to living their lives the way they traditionally do that nothing can change it.
It seems that despite Atticus’s great attempts at standing up for what he believes in and trying to change the views of a whole town, hatred and immorality overrides good. However, he has changed the ideas and morales of two very important people who matter most to him: his children.
