To Kill A Mockingbird Assessment p3844

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ASSESSMENT By having ignorance it allows prejudice to form in a person’s mind. A person can be ignorant when they are limited in knowledge of whom they are judging. However to become ignorant one must be under the influence of false information or lack of knowledge from a source. In Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Harper Lee constructs a town situated in Maycomb Alabama during the 1930s which throughout the novel she demonstrates how prejudice pervades it. In the novel, each character allows the reader to see the prejudice that forms within them; through Scout’s perspective the reader gains an understanding of why the society is prejudice and how they let their prejudicial feelings cloud their judgement against the truth. When the truth is substituted by gossip one becomes ignorant of the truth and consequential the individual will hold unsubstantiated prejudicial opinions and views. When one’s opinion is grounded by gossip they are likely to believe it their whole life unless they are shown the truth. This is shown through the town’s attitude towards Boo Radley. The town gossiper Miss Stephanie Crawford characterises Boo as a monster living among them. Jem quotes to Scout what Miss Crawford told him, “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained” Jem’s description of Boo Radley creates imagery for the reader to visualise the town’s perspective of Boo however his description is based on the gossip he hears. Due to the gossip, Jem and Scout become ignorant towards Boo and develop prejudicial feelings; because of the prejudice formed Scout treats Boo as a monstrous human being. “Boo Radley…….., My stomach turned to water and I nearly threw up.......” Through the metaphor, “My stomach turned water” labelling him as a monster, Scout is disgusted that she was touched by him. It is seen that gossip is a big influence towards how society lives; especially in an ignorant town many people’s opinions are stimulated by whoever surrounds them. Scout’s action shows the reader the influence she is under by the town; since she has only heard atrocious stories about Boo, she is limited to the emotions of how she should feel about him and because of her ignorance she doesn’t seem to have a reason to be appreciative to him. As the reader can see Scout is slowly beginning to develop into a prejudicial person towards Boo. Not giving in the effort to acquire the truth about Boo, Scout and the town believes that the gossip is true hence the reader can see how prejudice is being formed through the ignorance believing gossip. When one race shows superiority to another race, their ego does not allow them to accept the fact that they have been defeated. The case of Tom Robinson is an example of how the White people show their superiority to the Negros. “He’s nothin‘ but a nigger-lover!”, when Atticus was given the case to defend Tom Robinson, people automatically judged him as a ‘nigger-lover’ despite the fact that Atticus had no choice but to accept the case. Being plagued by the people in town about her family as ‘nigger-lovers’, Scout has developed a confusion as to why people are denoting her family as ‘nigger-lovers’; she inquires Atticus about what a ‘nigger-lover’ is. “You aren’t really a niggerlover, then, are you? I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody . . .” Scout then learns that some people judge others because of the little information they know. From this it can be seen that the moment an incident involving a Negro happens; the town victimises whoever defends the Negro. When it was evident that Tom Robinson was an innocent man, the town still charged him guilty

because of who he is. “They’ve done it before and they did it tonight and they’ll do it again and when they do it—seems that only children weep.” The ellipsis emphasises the adults being clouded by their prejudicial feeling of superiority to Negros that they allowed an innocent man to be charged guilty; and that children are the ones who can see past the prejudicial blinkers and accept the truth for what it is. From this the reader can conclude that due to the ignorance of White people acting superior to Negroes, they allow this prejudicial judgement to affect the way of how they would treat a Negro in public. People act the way they act because of how they are expected to act. Mr Dolphus Raymond is evoked as a drunken man from the town’s perspective. From what Scout and Dill heard from Jem, Scout had casted him as someone who she should not talk to. She judges him on gossip/ hearsay instead of direct evidence before learning the truth about whom he is, “Mr. Dolphus Raymond was an evil man I accepted his invitation reluctantly”. Scout and Dill discovers the truth that what he drinks seems to be whisky is only coke. “You little folks won’t tell on me now, will you? It’d ruin my reputation if you did.” The word ‘reputation’ indicates that Mr Dolphus is just trying to uphold what the town expects of him as a person. “I try to give ‘em a reason, you see ....... folks can say Dolphus Raymond’s in the clutches of whiskey—that’s why he won’t change his ways ……that’s why he lives the way he does.” It is noticeable that Mr Raymond is hinting to Scout and Dill about how ignorant the town can be. He knows that the town cannot it that Mr Raymond lives the way he does because that is simply what he wants. Therefore he gives them a reason to latch onto which satisfies them to accept his behaviour. It can be seen that Scout had form an ignorant perspective before she had fully understood the situation. Her ignorance was only constructed because of what Jem had heard from the town’s gossip. However once she had heard Mr Raymond’s explanation is she able to comprehend how the town thinks and hence as the reader we can see that the town has built their thoughts from prejudicial judgment beforehand and that they are too ignorant to learn the truth. Ultimately through Scout’s eyes, we can see how a society uses their prejudicial feelings to dictate how one acts towards another. Whether it is to a different race or to someone whom had isolated themselves away from society; people have built up their ignorance and refuse to acknowledge the truth that is being shown to them. Their reliance on gossip confirms that they are too ignorant to learn; the pride they have towards their race displays how they allow their prejudicial judgments to enable them to believe that they are still the superior race to Negros. Their expectation of others shows that their ignorance has hindered their judgement and they allow that prejudicial feeling to impose how they are to expect others. Overall through the novel we are able to extract the feelings of prejudice developing due to the ignorance that the characters have/or are being influenced by.