Carter Assink
Ms. Mazure
Honors English 9.2
14th December, 2018
To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Social Inequality In The Book
Social inequality is when resources in a society are not equally distributed. Social inequality can be pressed on any person at any time. In our country there has always been social inequality, in the past it was black oppression into slavery and unequal rights; moreover, in our country the one percenters have always been able to get whatever they want, and the bottom of the scale has always either been scraping by or barely surviving and in poverty. Today the most common example of social inequality is the divide of the upper class and the lower class. The space between them has been ever growing since the birth of the middle class and now that too is becoming non-existent and part of the lower class. The novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is about two children growing up in depression-era Alabama and their experiences over the course of two to four years. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the big idea of social inequality leads us to the theme, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, which is demonstrated through Scout’s conversations, the Ewells, and Aunt Alexandra’s caste system.
The theme of the book, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, is demonstrated through Scout’s conversations is shown many times throughout the book. Scout often talks to Atticus and often asks questions about the town or people in it. Towards the beginning of the book she talks about her teacher in first grade, Miss Caroline, Scout talks about her misfortunes on the first day of school where Miss Caroline says Atticus was wrong to teach her. This is where Atticus brings up a lesson about people and learning to see how they see things: “‘First of all,’ he said, ‘if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view-’ Sir?’- ’until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’” (39). The quote demonstrates how people don’t understand each other and that to eliminate social inequality they need to understand each other. Atticus being a lawyer knows about many people and their situations and is trying to teach Scout how to understand people to help end treating people differently because of their family. Scout needs to learn this lesson young otherwise she will treat others differently because of their heritage or family and won’t make the same mistakes as many of the people in the town of Maycomb. Through Scout’s conversations with people, mainly Atticus, show the theme because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently.
Lee again demonstrates the theme, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, through the Ewell family. The Ewell family is a white family in Maycomb that lives off of welfare and the town. They are not interacted with by the rest of the town and nothing can change their social status. During the trial when Mr. Ewell is about to testify we get a snapshot of how the Ewells live: “Maycomb’s Ewells lived behind the town garbage dump in what was once a Negro cabin. … Nobody had occasion to pass by except at Christmas, when the churches delivered baskets” (227-228). The quote shows how the Ewells live on a different social plane and are treated differently. They live behind the dump where nobody wants to go, and even when they are visited it’s only because of charity. The churches only deliver baskets around Christmas because they know that people will need help making through the season. The Ewells only live in a negro cabin because of how poor they are and that is a big factor of why people won’t go to visit them. The Ewells clearly demonstrate the theme because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently because of how poor they are and how nobody visits them or helps them except at Christmas time.
Finally, Lee demonstrates the theme, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, through Aunt Alexandra and her caste system. At this time in the book, Aunt Alexandra is living with Jem, Atticus, and Scout so she can teach Jem and Scout about the Finch family and how to behave like a Finch. While explaining how to behave like a Finch she talks about the people in the town and why the people act the way they do: “Simply the guides to daily living: never take a check from a Delafield without a discreet call to the bank; if Mrs. Grace Merriweather sips gin out of Lydia E.Pinkham bottles it's nothing unusual- her mother did the same” (175). The quote proves the theme, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, indirectly. It shows that people are supposed to do certain things and behave in a certain way. People of Maycomb, for example, don’t help the Ewells because it’s just not how things are done. It indirectly proves the theme because Tom Robinson an African-American interacts with a white family that nobody is supposed to interact with, the Ewells, a lot of the time. Tom interacts with them by helping Mayella do her work because he felt sorry for her. Tom isn’t supposed to feel sorry for Mayella he is supposed to not have any feelings about her at all, in fact when he is in the courtroom people gasp because he says he feels sorry for her. Altogether, people have a specific way they are supposed to act proves the theme of social inequality through Aunt Alexandra and in a way also Tom Robinson.
In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the big idea of social inequality shows us the theme, because of a person’s heritage or family background they are treated differently, which is demonstrated through Scout’s conversations, the Ewells, and Aunt Alexandra’s caste system using Tom Robinson. People basically being forced to act a certain way because of society, having to learn how to treat a person and multiple people being hypocrites when saying that, and people not caring enough about others because of their family, exemplify the theme. The theme that comes from the idea of social inequality. There are many examples of social inequality in our world. Discrimination against people applying for jobs because of their race, the expanse of the gap between the rich and the poor, all these things are examples of social inequality. The book To Kill a Mockingbird can teach us a lesson about how to deal with one aspect of social inequality, how to treat people. One of the most important lessons that everyone should learn.
Works Cited Page
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. 50th Anniversary ed., Grand Central Publishing, 2010.