In Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout Finch's sees many things in life at a young age. Her father Atticus is a very wise man who shows her and her brother Jem how to see the world. Atticus is also a lawyer who takes on the job of defending a black man accused of rape. In this time period, the 1930's, racism is a booming issue. In To Kill a Mockingbird racism plays a big part in the story line.
During the 1930's the Jim Crowe laws were not in affect. Blacks were still very disrespected. It was not acceptable for them to even commingle with whites in a public setting. Scout Finch is a little different. Atticus raised his children not to see skin color but the person underneath. Calpurnia, the Finch's house cook, has an impact on this. She not only plays the role of a wise black woman, but she opens Scout and Jem's eyes to her culture. She takes them to her black church one Sunday morning. Scout notices that Calpurnia talks differently around her black folks than she does when she is around white people. Talking "nigger-talk" is unusual and wrong in white people's eyes at that time, blacks would only talk and act a certain way around each other. Finch points this out to Calpurnia and she says certain things are not meant for everywhere. It is sad that the blacks could not even be themselves in front of white people, they had to watch the way they talked to show them respect. Calpurnia also invited Jem and finch to her house because they wanted to go, but their Aunt Alexandra happens to be in town and puts a stop to it. The Finch family is one of the few white families that thinks it is acceptable to befriend blacks.
Tom Robinson's trial takes racism to a whole new level in the story. Tom is convicted of rape purely because he is black and his accuser is white. The evidence may be in his favor, but his skin color is not. Atticus fights against the racism of this trial, and a few other townspeople are on his side, including Miss Maudie and Judge Taylor. Jem and Scout also believe in racial equality, but are obviously in the minority. When Atticus loses the trial, he tries to make his children understand that even though he lost, he did help move along the ending of racism; the trial was lengthened out and Tom was given much more of a chance than previous blacks. Usually, such a trial would have ended immediately.
In the 1930's racism affected many people's lives. For some like Tome Robinson it decided their fate; and for some like Scout Finch it gave them a new outlook on life. Racism is still a problem that is in effect today, but we can learn from Atticus and his children: by accepting every color and fighting for what is right you can see the world in a better way.
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