To Kill a Mockingbird: Social Inequality, Courage and Prejudice

To Kill a Mockingbird: Social Inequality, Courage and Prejudice

To Kill a Mockingbird features a lot of themes like empathy, prejudice or the moral development of the children, but discrimination, social inequality or racism are one of the most important in the novel because the story is set in the south of USA in the 1930's. Although To Kill a Mockingbird was the Harper Lee's first and last book, the novel won a Pulitzer Prize and had a large success. A movie was filmed two years after the book got published. Gregory Peck and Robert Duvall played in that film. In front of a court, all men are supposed to be equal. Unfortunately, this isn't true for Tom Robinson, who is an innocent black man sentenced to death. In this book, a black man isn't equal to a white man. One of the two main stories in To Kill a Mockingbird is the unfair trial of Tom Robinson. Although To Kill a Mockingbird features a lot of themes, discrimination, social inequality and racism are the most serious ones, but empathy, courage or moral development are very important too.

First of all, Harper Lee presents social inequality throughout the whole story, and she uses different ways in To Kill a Mockingbird to show that discrimination is wrong. The main story is about the Tom Robinson trial. All the white people don't care about the fate of a black man. "Why are you defending him, he's a negro," says Alexandra (page 169). The people in Maycomb didn't like black people; they were racists. They treated blacks just like animals or objects. Scout and Jem don't understand why people's skin color should make a difference in the way they are treated. Next, the word of a white man is in every case stronger and more powerful than any word of a black man. The situation was very bad for the blacks. "I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin on my Mayella," says Bob Ewell (page 231). It doesn't have any value what Tom Robinson said during the trial, even though the jury saw that Bob and Mayella are less convincing than Tom. Nevertheless some people think that black people should be equal to whites. "I like more black people than white people," says Dolphus Raymond (page 215). Some exceptions take black people normally in Maycomb like Raymond, Atticus or Tate. The social inequality was a big problem in Maycomb.

Next, courage takes a big role in the novel. To Kill a Mockingbird shows how courage can be shown in different ways, and that even the most subtle act of courage makes a difference. "I felt right sorry for her, because she seemed to try more'n the rest of 'em" (page 264). Here is courage to tell the truth, as illustrated in the courtroom by Tom Robinson. There is courage in being in a minority and remaining as such, as shown through Atticus' late-night meeting or defending Tom Robinson. Jem and Scout touch the Radley house to