Pride In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Just like the instant gratification that tempts people to procrastinate, the pride that people experience, can cause them to act in ways they normally would not. In some ways, as emotional beings, pride can be how people justify their worth to themselves. However, this is not always an unpleasant occurrence, as it can be beneficial to do so. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown through the narrator’s uprising that regardless of who a person is, when their pride is at stake, they can become someone else to maintain their dignity. Human dignity can be a powerful motivation, however it can simultaneously be very fragile and be lost. Atticus Finch and Mr. Cunningham are two characters who do anything they can to maintain …show more content…
During the trial Bob Ewell learns that his daughter “reached up an’ kissed [Tom] ‘side of th’ face,”(194). If that were not bad enough he then receives pity from a negro who is supposed to be inferior to him, when Tom says that he “felt right sorry for her,”(197). In Maycomb, racial prejudice and white supremacy is very predominant. Even though Bob Ewell was impoverished, he still had his pride as a pure blooded white. At the trial he learns that his daughter had kissed a negro, but he was able to keep his dignity because he had previously punished her. In addition, his family was pitied by a negro and the the whole courthouse knew it. After that incident, Bob Ewell surely lost his pride, which results in his grudge against Atticus and the other men at the courthouse. Mr. Dolphus Raymond is known by the town as an alcoholic who “got a Co-Cola bottle full of whiskey,”(160) and “got a colored woman and all sorts of mixed children,”(161). It is later shown that people “could never, never understand that [he] lives[s] like [he does] because that’s the way [he wants] to live,”(170). Similarly, to Bob Ewell Dolphus Raymond’s interaction with negroes cost him his dignity. He was going to have a great future with a white woman, but lost it when he committed adultery. He wants to live with his mixed children and their mother freely with pride and dignity. However, the town doesn’t think like he does and as a result, he has given up his pride in order to live like he does. In both cases, Bob and Dolphus lose their dignity because of negroes and racial
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