Theme of Racial Prejudice in Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird Essay

How Does Harper Lee Develop the Theme of Racial Prejudice in the Novel â€Å"To Kill A Mockingbird†? â€Å"To Kill A Mockingbird† by Harper Lee is a novel set in the 1930s in a racially prejudice town called Maycomb County. A black man is accused of raping a white girl, and although it’s clear that he did not do it, the all white jury refuse to take a black man’s word over a white girl’s. Through the innocent eyes of an eight year old girl, the theme of racial prejudice is developed throughout the novel, although at times she is oblivious to it. In this essay I am going to discuss how Lee develops the theme of racial prejudice in the novel â€Å"To Kill A Mockingbird†. From the start of the novel, the reader gets the impression that Maycomb County hasn’t changed its views for many years. In chapter one, the narrator makes the comment, â€Å"Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only.† The word â€Å"ways† suggests that the town is quite rigid in their habits and â€Å"closed doors meant illness and cold weather† implies that their habits are old fashioned, as only allowing closed doors in certain circumstances is rather old fashioned thinking. In addition to the town having time-honoured habits, they are also very stuck in their ways when making accusations. For example, when people’s chickens and pets were found mutilated, the culprit Crazy Addie eventually drowned himself, but people â€Å"still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions.† This indicates that the town’s people are stubborn in their beliefs and refuse to acknowledge the tru th if it’s not what they initially assumed. This would encourage discrimination against individuals. Maycomb County’s beliefs are provoked by the social structure in... ...ps deliberate because mockingbirds are a type of finch and this promotes the idea that Atticus sees the mockingbird of the novel (Tom Robinson) as part of the family to be protected. An example of further symbolism used in the novel is when Scout and Jem build a snowman made up of mostly mud rather than snow. He continued to add more snow and mud to it thus making the snowman change colour. This represents how irrelevant the skin colour of a person is in contrast to the beliefs of the people of Maycomb County. In conclusion, Lee uses various techniques to develop the theme of racial prejudice in the novel â€Å"To Kill A Mockingbird† such as the personalities of characters, the racist comments made by the characters, and symbolism. Lee effectively highlights racism to the reader and successfully encourages the reader to sympathise with the victims of discrimination.