Examples Of Trash In To Kill A Mockingbird

The term “trash” is typically used to describe discarded waste or something that gets thrown out; however, in To Kill a Mockingbird, trash is used to describe a person. According to dictionary.com, the definition of trash is “a worthless or disreputable person.” The connotation of the word trash is used to insult somebody as being useless and his or her opinion is discarded because they are not trustworthy or knowledgeable. Trash describes one who is untrustworthy, not well educated, and does not follow the expected social structure. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus uses the word trash to describe someone who treats people poorly and takes advantage of others. In a conversation with Jem, Atticus states, “As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forgetーwhenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash” (Lee 295). To Atticus, anyone who uses somebody for their own benefit shows that they are untrustworthy and therefore, considered trash. …show more content…
From To Kill a Mockingbird, one can see that there were multiple people in the novel that were considered to be trash. Atticus believes anyone who is untrustworthy is trash, Aunt Alexandra believes anyone who is not well educated is trash, and Dill believes anyone who breaks the social structure is trash. In today’s society, there are still people one could call trash. Some people are treating others poorly because of their race, religion, and sexuality. The people who are commenting poorly on others need to stop and change their behavior because it is not acceptable, they should be ashamed of themselves. Is it possible for someone who is trash to