To Kill Mockingbird has left me with more questions than answers. It has made me question whether society has really progressed far enough since the 1930s. Or is the injustice I read in To Kill A Mockingbird still happening today. Have we actually evolved as a human race? The key prejudice of sexism, racism and economic inequality that are the themes of To Kill A Mockingbird are still apparent in our society today. My reaction, being a strong sense of anger and frustration at the injustice within the novel made me reflect on my own good fortune. The closest I can come to understanding and having empathy to the disadvantaged characters in the novel, as a white middle-class young woman, is being discriminated against based on my gender.

Since the 1930’s the justice system may have evolved and laws may have become more equitable, however, personal prejudice and stereotypes still hold sway. I do not believe that it was just the institutionalised racism that lead to Tom Robinson’s conviction but the deep-rooted discrimination against people of colour that lead to his demise “There’s something in our world that makes men lose their heads—they couldn’t be fair if they tried. In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly, but those are the facts of life…The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any colour of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” (Atticus Finch)

While reading this book I began to question why people feel the need to persecute and hold prejudice against certain groups in society. I strongly believe that this happens for two reasons. The first being, people with strong prejudice feel a need to dominate, to make other human beings inferior in order to feel superior. Another reason is maybe due to the fact that we fear what we don’t understand. Bob Ewell a Maycomb citizen placed at the bottom of the white hierarchy and regarded as “white trash” exerted power over his daughter as well as Tom Robinson. This is in direct response to his need to control and dominate. Bob Ewell failed to inflict his power and dominance over his daughter, as she came to desire a negro, so naturally turned to Tom Robinson to blame. “I seen that black ****** yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella” (Bob Ewell) In the case of Boo Radley the majority of the town were prejudice towards him simply because they feared what they didn’t understand. “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that’s why his hands were bloodstained—if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time” (Jem Finch)

Within this suppressive darkness, there is a light, in the form of Scout’s youthful innocence. This brought a huge relief to me as is created a balance of perspective. This perspective can be largely attributed to Atticus’s moral conscience and his influence over Scout. The relationship between Atticus and his children enabled an instilling of social conscience and therefore provided a view of innocence in the book and made it more palatable.

The part in the book that enraged me the most was not the conviction of Tom Robinson, which was inevitable, but the hypocrisy demonstrated during the classroom discussion about the current situation in Germany. The differences in government between Germany and The United States Of America. “Democracy, does anyone have a definition?… what do you think Jean Louise?” (Miss Gates) “Equal right for all, special privileges for none” (Scout Finch) “Very good Jean Louise, very good… we are a democracy and Germany is a dictatorship…. Over here we do not believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudice.” (Miss Gates). This blinkered ignorance is poisonous. Refusing to look around and accept the reality of your white supremacy and the effect it has on others only encourages a culture of normalising prejudice. The first step to changing a matter is accepting that there is a problem. The problem (racism) cannot change if people are unwilling to believe that they are in the wrong. I believe that this holds true still to this day. Racism is still so dominant in our societies because people refuse to believe, and are unwilling to believe, that they are racist. The saving grace in To Kill A Mockingbird for me was the existence of the moral characters. Such as Judge John Taylor, Sheriff Heck Tate, Boo Radley and above all Atticus Finch. These people do not demonstrate prejudice or discrimination but appreciate and accept the existence of these matters and take actions to change this reality. As in all societies, there is a minority group that do.

I am fortunate that feminism has developed in a way in which race equality and acceptance has never had the chance to.

Overall To Kill A Mockingbird evoked a wide range of emotions. From anger, frustration, disbelief to finally relief. Anger at the injustice of Tom Robinson’s conviction. Disbelief that truth didn’t win out. Frustration at the hypocrisy and blind ignorance of the immorality of the situation that Tom Robinson was in. And finally, relief that there were people within Maycomb that were morally just and did the right thing. To Kill A Mockingbird left me questioning how far we have evolved on the issues of prejudice in the last 80 or so years. Statistical evidence of today would dispute we havent moved very far, where the majority of convicted inmates in both America and New Zealand jails are of coloured ethnicity. And where 31% of police killing victims and black, while they are only 13% of the population.

If people still judge someone on the basis of their religious beliefs, their gender, their position in society or the colour of their skin how will we ever be free of prejudice? If only as a human race we could live by the statement Atticus Finch instilled into his kids “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb in his skin and walk around in it”. We would have a better world.