The setting within Harper Lee’s critically acclaimed novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ reinforce the key theme of prejudice. Set against the backdrop of a rural southern town during the Great Depression, where the segregation laws were championed, and gender roles were well defined, Harper Lee was able to demonstrate the ugliness of the deeply ingrained prejudice of the time. The setting of Maycomb deliberately showcases the theme of race, sex and class prejudice in the 1930s. The town is described as an old town, but a tired old town by Scout the narrator. “In the rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square… There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see out of the boundaries of Maycomb”- Scout Finch. This description creates an image on a sleepy southern town set in its ways. Entrenched in a time of hardship and prejudice. Although this text was published in the 1960’s I believe that the lessons this texts installed about prejudice still apply in today’s society.

By locating Maycomb as a small country town in the southern states of America, in the 1930s, Harper Lee creates the perfect setting for racism to manifest. Constitutionally blacks may have been freed from their shackles in 1865, when slavery was abolished nationally by the third amendment, but they were never free from their fellow citizens prejudice. African Americans continued to be inadvertently enslaved by society in different ways such as the Jim Crow Laws, that enforce racial segregation throughout the southern states of America. Harper Lee’s Maycomb was an example of a small red necked town in which racial prejudice was alive and well. Lee demonstrates the imbalance of power through the racial culture in Maycomb that convicts Tom Robinson. Atticus highlights this when he states “The one place where the 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 the jury box.”- Atticus. With such prejudice in place Tom Robinson, an African American, accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, in that time and place was never going to be found not guilty. True justice can never prevail where deep-rooted racism dominates, as in a town like Maycomb. Harper Lee, in choosing to situate the story in the deep south is setting it within an area where resistance to the acquisition of civil rights lead to the establishment of other forms of suppression. African Americans were disenfranchised through legislation imposing literacy tests, poll taxes, Jim Crow Laws and the condolence of white supremacy such as the Ku Klux Klan. These methods of discrimination supported an underlying culture of normalising racism. This can be seen when Atticus had to place himself between Tom Robinson and a mob who considered it ‘their right’ to lynch a negro. Whether he be guilty or not. In a town like Maycomb where racism is so prominent when people act out against the prevailing culture, this threatens the status quo. When Atticus chooses to represent Tom, in court, he condemns himself and his family to the wrath of the white privileged Maycomb society “Atticus are you are niggerlover? (Scout) “I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody… it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you”- Atticus. Scout’s question stemmed from her having to defend Atticus at school when her classmate Cecil Jacobs called Atticus a ‘nigger lover’. Harper Lee’s character Atticus provides that glimmer of hope that existed minimally in many towns like Maycomb, that eventually created change and defied prejudice. During this time period, there seemed to be no logic to the ingrained racism that prevailed. Harper Lee expresses this through Atticus’s comment “Why reasonable people go stark raving mad when anything involving a negro comes up, is something I don’t pretend to understand.”- Atticus. Harper Lee not only showed us the result of extreme racism on the victims in Maycomb but the way it prevented people from releasing their own prejudice. The normalisation of racism in Maycomb means others are unable to recognise their own bigotry. Lee draws attention to this in the classroom when Miss Gates, Scouts teacher, is explaining the discrimination against Jews by the Nazis, in Germany. And the differences in the systems of government between Germany and America. “Democracy, does anyone have a definition?… what do you think Jean Louise?” (Miss Gates) “Equal rights 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).  The normalisation of prejudice in Maycomb means others are unable to recognise their own bigotry. This blinkered racism 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 problem, racism, cannot change if people are unwilling to believe that they are in the wrong. I believe this holds true still to this day. Today, in America, African Americans and in New Zealand, Maori and Pacific Islanders are statistically over-represented in areas of deprivation. These include incarceration, welfare dependent, low socioeconomic, less qualified and health-related illnesses. In America, African Americans are victims of police brutality and shootings. This begs the question as to whether racism has diminished in the last century. We may have moved on in years but have we not moved on with our attitudes? Living in a predominately white affluent town I am not challenged daily on my racial views, nor are my peers. Deep down I believe that I am non-racists. However, how can I say this when I live in my community and aren’t challenge on that view daily. In order for the ignorance of prejudice to diminish in our society, people, including myself, have to value and embrace those who are different. We have to value what they can teach us and what we can learn. If we started doing this prejudice would struggle to exist. On a daily basis, I need to question that I am not treating people differently because of the colour of their skin. This awareness, in itself, is a step in the right direction.

Despite white American women gaining the vote in the 1920s, sexism was alive and well in the township of Maycomb in the 1930s. Harper Lee highlights the inequality between the genders in her portrayal of the women of Maycomb. Lee demonstrates this through the roles women had, in Maycomb society, and the expectation on how women were meant to behave. Most women in the south were raised to accept their role of housewives and mothers. Women growing up in the south were socialised to accept discrimination based on their gender. Suppression of women was maintained through the lack of equal opportunity to education and financial deficit. All of this force women back into their domestic realms and beholden to the men in their lives. Societal attitudes and expectations of women restricted them to the subservient roles they played. Male attitude towards women being of lesser value and lesser worth could be summed up in Jems comment “Scout,  I’m telling you for the last time, shut your trap and go home- I declare you’re getting more like a girl every day”- Jem Finch. Even as a young man Jem’s views of women had already been shaped by the dominant male culture of the 1930s. Harper Lee emphasizes this through the stereotypical gender roles in Maycomb. Women were perceived as the weaker sex and therefore not seen as a cable or trusted. “For one thing, Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she is a women”- Atticus. Through Scout’s attempts to defy her sexuality, which were constantly rebutted by those around her, Harper Lee endeavours to demonstrate that nonconformity at that time was pointless. From an early age Scout got the message, through daily life, that girl ‘things’ are bad and boy ‘things’ are good. Scout, therefore, made every attempt to not act like a girl and be a tomboy as long as she could. But from every quarter in Scouts life, this was discouraged “Aunt Alexandra told me…I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches: when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants”- Scout Finch. Lee explores the darker side of this lack of freedom and choice imposed on females, in Maycomb, which can lead to women staying in abusive relationships. In the case of Mayella Ewell although she was abused by her father she believed that the only option available to her was to stay where she was. Control in the 1930s was in the hands of the men and society reinforced that. For women, their reputation was one of the few commodities they had. Aunt Alexandra was trying to preserve Scout’s reputation and mould Scout into being a young respectable lady. Mayella Ewell was trying to hold onto her reputation by accusing Tom, because that’s all she had. Although they are two ends of the scale these actions are a consequence of society’s imposition of women. Harper Lee displays a willingness to hope for a different future through Scout. However, she reinforces the gender stereotypes of the 1930s through society’s constant dissuasion of Scout’s tomboy ways. Nearly 100 years on gender equality does not exist. Millions of women and girls are suffering and being discriminated against because they were born female. In some countries, girls are still denied simple rights like the right to education, control over their own bodies and pay equity. In our society, modern day girls are told we can do anything. However, the reality is far from that. Like Scout we often hear throwaway sexist comments, putting girls down “you kick like a girl” “why are you acting like such a girl”. Boys in my peer group think they have the right to comment on how we look, what we wear, our weight and our choices. Girls dumb themselves down because we are told that being smart is unattractive. We are labelled bossy and a bitch is we act assertively. If we challenge sexist attitudes toxic masculinity raises its head because men are threatened by the notion of having to question themselves. Even though society has changed and time has evolved the prejudice of sexism still fully exists, I experience this bullying daily.

Class prejudice was the backbone of the structure of American society in the 1930s. By setting the story during the Great Depression, Harper Lee amplified the impact the depression had on the theme of class prejudice. Maycomb was the textbook example of class society within America. Jem sums up the classes, although naively, with surprising accuracy. “There’s four kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbours, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negroes.” Class was based on your economic status, with the exception of negros who in the south could never rise above their low status. Harper Lee accentuates the hierarchy of the town of Maycomb, through the class system. This hierarchy allows the whites to remain supreme and privileged and kept the blacks suppressed, powerless and ‘in their place’. The Great Depression was the most severe worldwide economic downturn in the history of the industrialised world, lasting from 1929-1939. The consequence of the depression had the greatest impact on the poor. Although many of the wealthy lost a great deal it was the lower class, that had so little to start with, that suffered the most. The Great Depression reinforced the cycle of poverty. With few jobs available, people desperate to feed their families would be forced to take lower than respectable wages. Harper Lee expressed the prevailing view that classes did not mix through Aunt Alexandra’s comment. “Because-he-is-trash that’s why you can’t play with him. I’ll not have you around him, picking up habits and learning god knows what.”-Aunt Alexandra. Aunt Alexandra represents the mindset of the white collar in Maycomb and the majority of America. Atticus had a different viewpoint. Harper Lee, through Atticus’s endeavours to teach his kids to value a person based on the qualities not their status, attempts to differentiate between the two lower classes. This is highlighted in this way, Atticus believed there were two types of working class. There were the Cunninghams who were honest farmers, poor but respectable. They would never take anything they couldn’t pay back. The Ewells, on the other hand, had no pride, lived like animals, near the dump whose actions were based on human instincts. Although we do not have a class system in New Zealand, so to speak, the disparity between the wealthy and the poor has grown substantially in recent years. Pacific Islanders and Maori are disproportionately at the bottom of ‘the heap’. Here in New Zealand, despite having a welfare system, there are children going to school without shoes and with empty stomachs. However, perhaps here in New Zealand even with and financial crisis less well off people may be able to use the resources available to climb out of their economic strata. Whereas in America in the 1930s and well into the 60’s it was virtually impossible to move up a class and be accepted. Meanwhile, for African Americans and Maoris the colour of their skin still remains a barrier, in any decade, to acceptance.

Time has moved on since the 1930s but it seems as tho many mindsets haven’t. I am the third generation of females from the 1930s that are still discriminated against because of my gender. I know the world is not an equal or liberal place because I still hear the word ‘nigger’ and ‘girl’ be used as an insult or put down in the school playground. Harper Lee’s choice to use the sleepy southern town of Maycomb, as her setting, truly influenced the entire story. Harper Lee chose the town of Maycomb to showcase the idea of prejudice because it demonstrated the blatant reality for many Southern America towns in the 1960s. This book was published to help the human race reflect and realise that what they were reading was, and still is a reality. Although I do not live in the town of Maycomb prejudice still manages to structure my society. We are still not living in a world of equality, one that truly strives to provide “equal rights for all, special privileges for none,” one that insists on “a square deal” for every individual in its courtrooms and every child in its classrooms. To Kill a Mockingbird is as relevant today as it was in 1960; there have been significant gains, but we still have a long way to go.