"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.

Essay by MIKEYPL4LYFHigh School, 11th gradeA+, May 2003

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PREJUDICE

There is much evil in the world; prejudice being one of these evils, has caused the pain and suffering of others for many centuries. Some examples of this include the Holocaust and slavery in the United States. In the book "To Kill a Mockingbird", by Harper Lee racism was the cause of much agony to the blacks of a segregated South. Along with blacks, other groups of people are judged unfairly just because of their differences from others. Mr. Robinson is a very significant character throughout Scout's maturation. Along with Calpurnia and Mr. Raymond; Scout her self is found degraded through-out the story. The prejudice and bigotry of society causes the victimization of people with differences.

Some who are discriminated against are those who are born differently than the majority. One person that is treated unfairly is Calpurnia. Aunt Alexandra tried to get Atticus to fire Calpurnia, because in her eyes, Calpurnia wasn't a good enough female role model (p.136).

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 character of Calpurnia, just the color of her skin. Another character who is treated inferior is Scout, because she knew how to read. Scout's teacher found this very discouraging, and can clearly be seen on page 17 where it states, "She discovered that I was literate and looked at me with more than faint distaste." (p.17). Scout is treated like it is her fault that she knows more than the average child does. She learned earlier how to read than others, so she gets punished unjustly. Tom Robinson is also one who is discriminated by a biased community. Tom is found guilty by the jury in his case...