The Poison That Is Prejudice

My Introductory Journal Post


Prejudice itself does not come without it's own associated connotations, one of which-perhaps the most common-being, racism. Exemplified many times throughout this novel, this is false; prejudice is not remotely limited to the aforementioned discriminatory justification (rasism). The best example of this so far in my reading of this novel has been five innocently spoken words: "Miss Caroline, he's a Cunningham" (P.22). The context under which this announcement was made and what it set out to accomplish; the fact that they were spoken so innocently, was what struck me the hardest.

Allow me to further elaborate upon said context; Scount grew up in Maycomb County, a southern region of the United States. Scout was in the middle of her first day of school when Miss Caroline (a relatively modern young teacher, from North Alabama-which also was not free of the children's biases) offered to lend Walter Cunningham a quarter to buy a lunch-in place of the one he claimed to have forgotten-but, much to Miss Carolines impatience and confusion, he refused to accept it. However, "it was clear enough to the rest of [the class, including Scout], and so Scout took on the responsibitity of relaying an explanation everyone thought was more than sufficient; surely the name will explain everything.

As I mentioned before, it was not the words themselves, but the way, and under what context they were uttered, that truly exposed the environment in which these children were growing up; an environment in which prejudices are so routine and common, they have virtually become instincts; an environment in which prejudices make up society. These social prejudices have been woven so well into society, that children who have greater aspirations may have no hope of escaping their family name.

As it is with virtually every society, it is the children who will be it's future, and so it is the Aunt Alexandras that have "[a] preoccupation with heredity" (P. 147) who have to open their eyes, and draw the line to sever the flow of the poison that is prejudice.



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