To Kill a Mockingbird

Before all people from the US received equal rights, why was it that we as people thought different races didn’t get equal respect? In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird”, by Harper Lee, The white people thought that other races, such as Native Americans were not as good as they were. They thought just because there white there a higher power than other nationalities. There are many themes in this book but I decided to pick the two major things I noticed while reading this book. The first theme I noticed was that sometimes people are judged before they are known. The second and final theme is that sometimes people are wrongly accused of things that they would never even think of doing. Before equal rights were established, white people thought they were among the Native Americans in this book although everyone deserves equal respect.

The first theme that I’ve chosen is sometimes people are judged before they are known. An example of this is Dolphus Raymond. People think that he is a dreadful person because he spends all his leisure time with black people. They believe Dolphus does it because he is always drinking. After the kids in the town get to know him, they find out that he is a kind, sweet man who drinks coca-cola all the time, not alcohol. One quote that shows this is, "Scout, it's nothing but Coca-Cola."Another example from the story is, "You just pretend you're half-? I beg your pardon, sir." They don’t think people should hate Dolphus just because of who he lives with. This leads to my conclusion of the first theme I chose from the book, sometimes people are judged before they are known.


The second theme that I selected is shown in this book is sometimes people are wrongly accused of things that they definitely did not do. One example of this is Tom Robinson. He is accused of sexual assault, even though he did not do anything but things that are nice and proper. He went to the Ewell's house to help out Mayella, and she tried to kiss him. Then Tom got convicted just because he was black. Mr. Ewell did not care that he did not do anything to Mayella, he was just in the room and he was also black. That was a good enough reason to press charges on an innocent young man. A quote that shows this is, "Guilty...guilty...guilty.”

I don’t believe that black people should be treated unfair just because of their skin color. They are just as much human as you and I. This is a very racial book towards the black people. It was a very sad book to, and very exciting and thrilling at the same time. This book represents many racial terms towards black people. It seems as if to me that before people got there equal rights that the world was a much more prejudice place. Even though the white people are treated better than the black people in this book, everyone should be equally treated.