During the trial, Atticus reveals these prejudices to the entire town of Maycomb, including his children. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee develops the idea that prejudicial thinking permeates Maycomb and leads to societal stratification and limits the freedom of all of the citizens’.
Limiting the freedom of all citizens, Social stratification contributes to the underlying theme, because the stereotype makes poor people appear to be a worthless subset of what society deems “normal”. One of the many examples in Harper Lee’s novel is when Scout judges Walter Cunningham for pouring too much syrup, Calpurnia says to Scout, “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham” (33). Implying that Walter isn’t “company”, this moment starts to show that the theme of a prejudice, poorer people being like a disease that no one wants to associate themselves with, limits the freedom of others, because in the exposition Scout sees Walter as being someone who isn’t proper. Because of this, Scout will subconsciously immediately …show more content…
For example, while the trial was underway and Jem and Scout were home for dinner, “Jem says it might work if I cried and flung a fit, being a young and a girl” (292). Describing the only foreseeable way for it to work is by being “young and a girl”, Harper Lee is adding to her ongoing theme of prejudicial thinking limiting people’s freedom, because Jem, a person Scout views a being a plethora of knowledge, only sees it working if Scout “cried and flung a fit”, simply because she’s a girl; and this statement, compounding on top of all of the other gender biased statements, continues to influence Scout to believe that women are inferior to men, instead of making her own opinion. Moreover, another example demonstrating the gender stereotype is Scout depicts a time when Aunt Alexandra makes her cry when she tells her about the “finch women”, Jem says to Scout, “You know she’s not used to girls,” said Jem, “leastways, not girls like you. She’s trying to make you a lady. Can’t you take up sewin‘or somethin’?”(302) Insinuating that Scout is different, Jem is adding to the general opinion that women were inferior because, he asks scout why she can’t take up Sewin‘, an activity that has a very feminine and weak association; and by asking Scout why she can’t take up sewin‘, he is