White People and Atticus Essay

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TKaM Essay Nobody is born being prejudice, we learn to be prejudice from the people around us, such as family, friends, and strangers. In the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird” written by Harper Lee, she shows us how racism can affect our lives. Racial prejudgement has a negative impact on the society, because it can cause unexpected conflict between each other. The first person to show racial prejudgement is Lula towards Scout and Jem. This happened when Calpurnia took the children to her church while Atticus was away at work. All the people that were in the church treated them like family and greeted them with warmth except Miss Lula. She was not acting the same as the other people. She was being rude and impolite towards Scout and Jem in the church because they were white. “You ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here-they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church, ain't it, Miss Cal?” (Pg 158) Lula said that when Calpurnia stops her after she asks why she brought Jem and Scout with her to their church and walks away. She makes the children feel unwelcome and wants them to go home because what she said meant “You can’t come to OUR church because you’re white and we’re black.” Lula show another occurrence of her racially prejudice point of view is because of how she was acting when she saw Calpurnia with the children, Scout and Jem. "I wants to know why you bringin' white chillun to nigger church." (Pg 158) This quote basically shows us that, in Maycomb, racism is not only directed towards black people, it can also directed towards white people. The reason why the whites hates black is because the white thinks that they're more superior and have more power. The black hates whites because the white people mistreated them and persecuted them so they have hatred towards them. Walter Cunningham would be the second person that has racial prejudice because throughout the novel, he changed and started to develop with a racially prejudice point of view from people in Maycomb. In the beginning of the book, the Cunninghams were know as the very poor farming family. “That's okay, ma'am, you'll get to know all the county folks after a while. The Cunninghams never took anything they can't pay back-no church baskets and no scrip stamps. They never took anything off of anybody, they get along on what they have. They don't have much, but they get along on it.” (Pg 26) Said Scout towards Miss Caroline, Scout's grade one teacher. This quote means that all the Cunninghams has a poor point of view but it shows us that they're honourable because they don’t take things that they cant take back and if they did, they would find a way to repay them, such as with food. For example, how Walter repayed Atticus because he was once one of his clients and he had no money, so everyday he would go to Atticus's house and repay him by giving them food. The second reason why Walter Cunningham is racially prejudice is because near the middle of the book, Walter was an innocent person, then ever since he started hearing rumours about Atticus defending Tom Robinson, a black man, things started to change. One night, he was in a mob with other people to go and find Atticus at the jail, so that he can hurt Atticus and kill Tom Robinson. “You know what we want,” another man said. “Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.” “You can turn around and go home again, Walter,” Atticus said pleasantly. (Pg 202) This quote showed us that Walter Cunningham is causing a racial conflict going on between Atticus and himself. He is going to kill someone that he does not even know. The only reason why Walter wants to kill Tom is because he is black and the people in Maycomb created rumours about him. Even though he heard negative things about him, he should at least get to know the person before he did anything to them. The last person that shows racial prejudice is Bob Ewell. In the court, he was disagreeing and lying everything towards Atticus and Tom Robinson
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