Prejudice And Injustice In To Kill A Mockingbird

Both Steinbeck and Lee seem to suggest that it is human nature to destroy and that human society is riddled with prejudice and injustice. At the beginning of To Kill A Mockingbird both Jem and Scout decide that Boo Radley is a monster and that they should keep away. The only reason that they should believe this is because of ridiculous rumours spreading about the man around Maycomb such as ‘His father entered the room. ‘Mr. Radley passed by, Boo drove the scissors into his parent’s leg’ This also implies that humans are quick to judge. This rumour makes Boo sound extremely violent but when it says ‘and resumed his activities’ it makes him sound ‘psychotic’ which would scare the children even more. Lee uses Jem, Scout, and Dill to imply that humans are quick to judge throughout the novel. For example: Scout sees that her teacher is strongly against Hitler but supports the unfair conviction of Tom Robinson. She says: ‘it’s not right to persecute anybody is it’ this shows the hypocrisy between the adults in the town. It also shows …show more content…
They give us 3 sides to the story of prejudice instead of just one. They show the person being the victim of prejudice, the person being prejudice against someone else but then they also have another side- a child’s perspective on everything that is going on, in To Kill A Mockingbird that child is Scout however in Of Mice And Men Lennie brings that child’s perspective. Both Lennie and Scout don’t understand the prejudice where they live, yet the two childlike figures add some childlike naivety to the narratives. Lennie, who is classed as an idiot and hasn’t been very well educated, doesn’t understand racism showing that it is education and adults passing on beliefs, that causes discrimination- not the individual. The same can be said for Scout as she questions her teacher over the sentencing of Tom