Single Stories In To Kill A Mockingbird

“So that is how to create a single story, show a people as one thing, as one thing only, over and over again, and that is what they become.” Says Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explaining that a single story is a story that people use against others even though that story doesn’t explain their whole life. In the small town Maycomb, the main characters Scout and Jem hear how their neighbors and friends use single stories to judge others. They learn to listen and look for other stories instead of giving in to having only one. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows how people in Maycomb use single stories to judge a person or group. The characters Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, and the Ewell's have single stories that people in Maycomb use against them and view them for only that story. The town uses a single story to keep Tom from winning the trial. The whole town just thinks that he is black and poor and works in the field all day so he must have been guilty even after his testimony. After the trial, Maycomb wasn’t surprised by Tom’s death,” To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical, typical of a negro to cut and run. Typical of a negro’s mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw.” (Lee 322). This shows that Maycomb thinks that African Americans don’t care because that is what they assume of them. All the …show more content…
On the first day of school Scout starts to learn what the Ewell’s are like by meeting Burris. Scout and Miss Caroline judge Burris because he’s gross, “He was the filthiest human I had ever seen. His neck was dark gray, the backs of his hands were rusty, and his fingernails were black deep in the quick.” (Lee 34) This quote shows that they don’t care what he is like on the inside because he is gross on the outside. All of Maycomb judge people like that without even getting to know them, because of their