Scout Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”

Sometimes when people discriminate against one thing, they’re still open to another. In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, this issue is expressed all throughout the story. For the time and place “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place in, there was some way people would find a difference of another person and compare it to themselves. Examples of discrimination were racism and sexism; consequently, Scout learned multiple lessons from discrimination. Discrimination will alter someone’s life in ways of humiliation and treating them as if they aren’t like you; however, it seems like it was hard for everyone in Maycomb to realize that.

The first and main issue of discrimination in this book is racism. Racism was huge in the south. Multiple characters in To Kill a Mockingbird were impacted by racial discrimination, like Calpurnia, Tom Robinson and, his family. Racism consumed everyone in a way where an innocent man’s life was taken over a false accusation.

The second form of discrimination has to do with gender stereotypes. Scout is described as a tomboy, and doesn’t exactly fall into the group of young, girly girls. She is tough, determined and spends her time outdoors, instead of in a ladylike manner. Miss Maudie hates the prejudiced opinions of people, and doesn’t agree with them. She also supports Scout and helps her to stand up against people who try to push Scout into judgments about others. In contrast to Miss Maudie, Scout’s Aunt Alexandra acts as the ideal woman in that time period, with her disapproval of Scout’s tomboyish behavior. She doesn’t like Scout wearing overalls, even when it’s what is comfortable to her.

Scout learned to treat everyone with no judgement and as if they are the same as her with no strings attached. Scout is used to white people applying racism in her town, but doesn’t exactly understand why white they did it. Scout also learned to embrace her tomboy personality and not let people affect her opinion and way of dressing.

The lessons Scout learned apply to life in general and how you should treat everyone. You should always treat any person you interact with, with respect and kindness. Scout showed how to treat people acceptance from her father. Even though discrimination is still a real day problem, it definitely have gotten better over time. Now most people have better morals and realized that the phrase treat people the way you want to be treated, really does apply to your life. Overall, the main lesson learned is that Prejudice can alter your opinion on someone and can prevent you from getting to know person, and it could be someone who is like you in every way.

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