To Kill A Mockingbird Social Inequality Analysis

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Social Inequality has been around since the stone ages. Study shows that women were likely to have moved to the men’s place after marriage. This is one example of social inequality due to one’s gender. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, race and economic status are the main factors of social inequality, as it is shown through Tom Robinson and Bob Ewell. Harper Lee shows social inequality due to race, through Tom Robinson. For example, Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, and the people in Maycomb know that if there is a case where, “ a white man’s word against a black man’s word, the white man always wins.” (page 242) Most people knew that Tom was saying the truth in his defense, but trial verdict came out as guilty. The…show more content…
For example, while Scout describes the Ewells she says, “Every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells. No economic fluctuations changed their status-people like the Ewells lived as guests of the county in prosperity as well as the depths of a depression. No truant officer could keep their numerous offspring in school; no public health officer could free them from congenital defects, various worms, and the diseases indigenous to filthy surroundings,” (page 170) This shows how the great depression made an impact on the Ewells for generations, and made them live in poverty and isolated from the rest of the society. The Ewells have so many kids that Bob has to go hunting every day into the woods, even out of season. In addition, the readers can see that even Jem, a nine year old boy, knows that the Ewells were an outcast of Maycomb, and it clearly shows when he tells Scout, “There are four different kinds of folks in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the negroes.” (page 250) Jem basically tells Scout the social hierarchy of the people in Maycomb County. He puts the Ewells in second to last because of their economic status and the African Americans in last because they were a different race. The fact the Ewells were in poverty created social inequality in
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