“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that” (Martin Luther King, Jr.). Martin Luther said this quote and it relates to To Kill A Mockingbird in more ways than one. Harper Lee portrays the town of Maycomb, Alabama in her Southern American Literature book, To Kill A Mockingbird, for she utilizes her characters to open the eyes of her readers to the discrimination and diversity of a small town in the 1960’s. The understanding of To Kill A Mockingbird examines the society and culture of racism through the lens of Maycomb.
To start off with, To Kill A Mockingbird portrays racism during different times throughout the book. The Finch family did not base their beliefs on racism, although they lived in a town full of discrimination and inequality.
“Yet Maycomb County is gradually revealed by the observant Scout to be a society divided by race, class, gender, and even heredity as defined by such accepted truisms as ‘Every third Merriweather is morbid’”(Flores 131).
This quote supports my thesis because of how the town of Maycomb was divided, and this small family’s beliefs were set apart from other individuals and families in the community. It says …show more content…
This idea of racism in To Kill A Mockingbird shows how people were really treated and how they never had a say in politics, rights, or decisions on who they loved; they didn’t get to tell people how they really felt because their opinions didn’t matter to the white society. To Kill A Mockingbird is a book that shows racism in the core of everything it talks about, yet the book was written on things that were based on real stories. Racism is shown in this book and it's still evident in today’s