Summary Of Kill A Mockingbird - 1645 Words

To Kill a Mockingbird is told from the view of Jean Louise (Scout) Finch. It is through her we are introduced to the social injustice, racial prejudice and problems rife in Maycomb’s society. Through Lee’s use of characters, objects and events we see how these issues are permeated into society, and I will be delving into these and explaining how they present the town of Maycomb. In chapter 2 Lee presents the town of Maycomb to be poverty stricken, emphasised through the characterisation of Walter Cunningham. When it is discovered he has no lunch on the first day of school, Scout tries to explain the situation to Miss Caroline, an outsider, by stating: ‘He’s a Cunningham, Miss’. This quote presents that poverty issues within families have†¦show more content†¦This metaphor is executed by character Tom Robinson who is wrongly convicted of rape due to his skin colour. When Tom was lynched when he tried escaping, it was essentially as if the lynchers had resulted in the ‘senseless slaughter of a songbird’ as said by Mr Underwood. This shows the bigoted personas the people of Maycomb possess as they targeted him as a result of believing black people are inferior in society. Atticus’ mockingbird teaching to Jem emphasises the racism in Maycomb as he has to teach his son how to act, because if he doesn’t, Jem may be susceptible to the racist ways of Maycomb. Robinson is one of the innocent mockingbirds referred to by Atticus in the novel. He does not do anything of ill-manner, yet he is persecuted by Maycomb, and through disguising Robinson as a mockingbird, Lee’s able to convey Maycomb as racist. The racism motif in Maycomb is furthered through the Ewell family. The Ewells, being uneducated and at the bottom of the social hierarchy cannot find a clear distinction between their social class and the black’s, so they therefore turn to racism and insulting the black community to feel superior. Racial prejudice has been prevalent as a social issue and is reflected through how white and black people communicate. Robert Ewell, in chapter 17 says how he saw that ‘black nigger ruttin’ on my Mayella’, and it’s this phrase alone which is the