Labels In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Labels have affected us throughout history. Whether it being now in modern day times or it being during the times of racial segregation and suffrage against women and blacks. In the book “To Kill A MockingBird” by Harper Lee, Lee tells the story of how labels affect the people in Maycomb, Alabama treat one another. These labels can deny people equal justice, decide where people belong on the social hierarchy, and force people to cope with stereotypes.

The white people of Maycomb deny equal justice towards the black people of maycomb, by using negative labels towards them. For instance when Tom Robinson is found guilty of the rape of Mayella Ewell, it starts becoming clear to Jem that Toms ruling was unfair and the jury was wrong. Atticus (the …show more content…
One of these characters is Dolphus Raymond. Scout and Dill step out of the courthouse so Dill can get some air, thus they meet Dolphus Raymond who offers Dill some cola.(4) Raymond then describes to Scout that “[w]hen I come to town, which is seldom, if I weave a little and drink out of this sack, folks that’s why he won’t change his ways. He can’t help himself, that’s why he lives the way he does.”(200) Since Dolphus Raymond married and had kids with a black woman, people in Maycomb have to find a reason to explain why he lives like that. So they label him as a “drunk” and “in the clutches of whiskey”. In addition to Dolphus Raymond, Scout also faces problems with not being a woman. Nearly every interaction Scout has with Aunt Alexandra consists of Aunt Alexandra trying to shape Scout into a proper woman by making her play with things like “small stoves, tea sets, and wearing the Add-a-pearl necklace.”(81) Because Scout is a girl growing up in the 1920s where women were supposed to have etiquette, she is forced by Aunt Alexandra to become more of a woman to fit the standard set by society. Because there were so many standards and stereotypes set in early 1930s Maycomb, many characters are forced to change their life to fit the
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