Do You Think That Prejudice is a feature of life in Maycomb as seen in "To Kill a Mockingbird"? The novel "To kill a mockingbird" was set in 1935, a period where prejudice and racism were encountered in everyday life. The small country town called Maycomb was very "old and private" and the people there were not subjected to anything different to their traditional ways and did not experience things that were beyond the boundaries of their town, and was therefore very narrow-minded. The town was bounded by generations of tradition which provided an essence for prejudice and discrimination. The attitudes, treatment and judgment of people such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson and others clearly reflect the prejudice that exists within the town.
Racial divisions and hatred was a characteristic of Maycomb. The small town was made up of two major races, the whites and the Negroes. The whites, being the dominant race, disapproved of the black population and was weary about any association with them.
Screenshot of To Kill a Mockingbird(an American mo...
President George W. Bush awards the Presidential M...
English: "Also for sale 2 likely negro wenches..."The Negroes were out casts of the town and were considered the lower class of Maycomb, even lower than the true trash of the white community, the Ewells. The Negroes were referred to as 'niggers', 'trash' among other dehumanizing names and they were stereotyped as violent, unclean and were unfit to blend with their community.
In Maycomb, Negroes were generally assumed guilty of any crime that a white man accuses them of because of the stereotypical ideas constructed about them. In this case, Tom Robinson was found guilty of the crime even though evidence and testimonies clearly indicate his innocence. The majority of the white community, not knowing the full story and the facts, automatically assume his guilt because he is the 'typical Negro' and they do not recognize the other...