Mark Twain once said, “The very ink with which history is written is merely fluid prejudice.” This quote illustrates how the world's history is based upon prejudice. During the Great Depression, many people were discriminated against including women, blacks and people of different social classes. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, many characters have to undergo the unjust treatment of gender, racial and social prejudice. For 3 years the story follows a small girl named Scout from Alabama. The novel is about Scout and her brother Jem discovering the many different prejudices that lie within the town of Macomb. Throughout their childhood, Jem and Scout are raised by their father, Atticus, and their aunt, Alexandria. Atticus is a
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While visiting Finches Landing, Aunt Alexandria criticizes Scouts wardrobe of only overalls. Aunt Alexandra tells Scout “[she] wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 81). The optimal description of a Southern woman in 1930’s would be Aunt Alexandria. She is very traditional and has a strict set of beliefs. In the Jim Crow south, women were expected to wear long dresses and corsets because they were intended to stay at home and take care of the children. Scout wants to be a kid and play with Jem, but Aunt Alexandra is always trying to tell her to stop acting like a boy and more like a lady. The Finches aunt has such strong convictions that they cause her to be racially prejudiced as well. Scout is confused when Aunt Alexandra tells her not to play with Walter Cunningham: “Because he- is- trash-, that's why you can't play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what. You're enough of a problem to your father as it is” (225). The Cunninghams are poor farming folk that survive off of paying for goods with the food they grow. They are very honest and never take something that they cannot pay back. Aunt Alexandra believes that just because they are poor, they are white trash and a no good family. This relates to the saying, “don’t judge a book by it's cover.”
While visiting Finches Landing, Aunt Alexandria criticizes Scouts wardrobe of only overalls. Aunt Alexandra tells Scout “[she] wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants” (Lee 81). The optimal description of a Southern woman in 1930’s would be Aunt Alexandria. She is very traditional and has a strict set of beliefs. In the Jim Crow south, women were expected to wear long dresses and corsets because they were intended to stay at home and take care of the children. Scout wants to be a kid and play with Jem, but Aunt Alexandra is always trying to tell her to stop acting like a boy and more like a lady. The Finches aunt has such strong convictions that they cause her to be racially prejudiced as well. Scout is confused when Aunt Alexandra tells her not to play with Walter Cunningham: “Because he- is- trash-, that's why you can't play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up his habits and learning Lord-knows-what. You're enough of a problem to your father as it is” (225). The Cunninghams are poor farming folk that survive off of paying for goods with the food they grow. They are very honest and never take something that they cannot pay back. Aunt Alexandra believes that just because they are poor, they are white trash and a no good family. This relates to the saying, “don’t judge a book by it's cover.”