Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee - 2334 Words

â€Å"As I often say, we have come a long way from the days of slavery, but in 2014, discrimination and inequality still saturate our society in modern ways. Though racism may be less blatant now in many cases, its existence is undeniable,† Al Sharpton once said. Racism and classism are prevalent motifs that existed more prominently in the past, and continue to exist in the present. Harper Lee elaborates on this universal idea in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird which is about the protagonist, Jean Louise Finch, Scout for short, and her childhood which takes place in the somnolent Southern town of Maycomb County, Alabama. The novel talks about the crisis of conscience and race that rocked the fictional town of Maycomb during the Great†¦show more content†¦Atticus is shown to be an outsider in the white community because of his unique and acceptant nature. After a few meetings with Mrs. Dubose, an elderly, peevish, racist woman who lives near the Finches, Scout asks At ticus a question about race, and he answers by giving her a lesson on name-calling. In the text it says, â€Å"You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?† â€Å"I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody...I’m hard put, sometimes---baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name† (Lee 144). This shows Atticus’s anti-racism and love for all kinds of people, including blacks. Racists use â€Å"nigger-lover† to suggest that a person is trying to give African-Americans special rights, but Atticus points out that all he is arguing for is equality and loving everybody the same by saying, â€Å"I do my best to love everybody.† When Atticus expresses, â€Å"it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name† he is referring to the whites as â€Å"somebody† calling Atticus a â€Å"nigger-lover.† Atticus is pointing out that such accusations reflect back n egatively on the accusers, showing them to be prejudiced, ignorant and illiberal. Thus, Atticus is calling them â€Å"poor† in the sense that they are vile in spirit and deficient in understanding. Their insults do nothing to hurt enlightened, fair-minded people like Atticus.