CHAPTER IV MORAL VALUES IN HARPER LEE’S NOVEL TO KILL A MOCKING
BIRD
4.1 COLOR SKIN PREJUDICE
Color skin prejudice is one of theme of the novel. During the Depression era, blacks were still highly subjugated members of society. Blacks were not
permitted to commingle with whites in public settings, as exemplified in the courthouse physical separation of races and in the clearly distinct black and white
areas of town. Moreover, things like intermarriage were almost unheard of, and sorely looked down upon.
Throughout the novel, Scout explores the differences between black people and white people. She and Jem attend church with Calpurnia and Scout
truly enjoys the experience. Afterwards, she asks Calpurnia if she might be able to visit her house sometime because she has never seen it. Calpurnia agrees, but the
visit is never made, largely because Aunt Alexandra puts a stop to it. Jem, Scout and Dill also sit with the black citizens of the town in the balcony of the court
house to observe the trial. In addition, Scout and Dill have a lengthy conversation with Mr. Raymond, a white man who married a black woman and has mixed
children. Mr. Raymond reveals that he pretends to be an alcoholic by carrying around a paper bag with a bottle of Coca-Cola inside in order to let the town
excuse his choice to marry a black woman.
Tom Robinson is convicted purely because he is a black man and his accuser is white. The evidence is so powerfully in his favor, that race is clearly the
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single defining factor in the jurys decision. Atticus fights against color skin prejudice, and a few other townspeople are on his side, including Miss Maudie
and Judge Taylor. Jem and Scout also believe in color skin prejudice, but they are obviously in the minority. When Atticus wins the trial, he tries to make his
children understand that although he lost, he did help move along the cause of ending color skin prejudice as evidenced by the jurys lengthy deliberation period.
Usually, such a trial would be decided immediately.
Scout unpleasant first day of school offers a further introduction to Maycomb’s tortured social ladder. It provides sharp color skin prejudice as one
theme of the novel. In her interaction with Miss Caroline, Scout is victimized by her teacher’s inexperience about Maycomb’s social life. It can be seen from quote
below:
Walter Cunningham’s face told everybody in the first grade he had hookworms. His absence of shoes told us how he got them. People
caught hookworms going barefooted in barnyards and hog wallows. If Walter had owned any shoes he would have worn
them the first day of school and then discarded them until mid- winter. He did have one clean shirt and neatly mended overalls.
Lee, 1960:19
The law and method of teaching are shown to be irrational. Burris Ewell can keep the law happy by coming to school only a day a year in quote below:
One of the elderly members of the class answered her: ”He’s one of the Ewells, ma’am,” and I wondered if this explanation would
be as unsuccessful as my attempt. But miss Caroline seemed willing to listen. “Whole school’s full of ’em. They come first day
every year and then leave. The truant lady gets ‘em here’ cause she threatens ‘em with the sheriff, but she’s give up trying to hold
‘em. She reckons she’s carried out the law just getting’ their names on the roll and runnin’ ‘em here the first day. You’re
supposed to mark ‘em absent the rest of the year…” p.27
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Color skin prejudice in Maycomb also appeared when Scout asks Atticus about his interest in depending Tom Robinson,a black man accused raping white
woman; because her friends insult Atticus depends a black man in quote below:
But I was worrying another bone. ”Do all lawyers depended niggers? “of course they do, scout” He made it sound like you were runnin a still.”
Atticus sighed. “I’m simply defending a negro-his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump.
He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they’re clean-living folks. Scout, you aren’t old
enough to understand some things yet, but there’s been some high talk around town to the effect I shouldn’t do much about
depending this man. It’s a peculiar case it won’t come to trial until summer session..” p.75.
Not only Scout’s friend who insult her about Atticus defending Tom Robinson, but also Francis do that. It can be proved by quotation below:
“ If uncle Atticus let you run around with stray dogs, that’s his on business, like grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I guess it ain’t
your fault if uncle Atticus is a nigger-lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family...”
“Francis, what the hell do you mean?” “just what I said. Grandma says it’s bad enough he lets you all run
wild, but now He’s ruinin’ the family, that’s what he’s doin’ “.
Francis rose and sprinted down the catwalk the old kitchen. At a safe distance he called, “He’s nothin’ but a nigger-lover” Lee,
1960:83
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Color skin prejudice also shown in court when black people wait the white people to go upstairs, it shows color skin prejudice in Maycomb’s society that black
people and white people in difference, as looked at the condition of the society in Maycomb Country. It can be proved in quotation below:
This was news, news that put a different light on things: Atticus had to, whether he wanted to or not. I thought it odd that he
hadn’t said anything to us about it— we could have used it many times in defending him and ourselves. He had to, that’s why he
was doing it, equaled fewer fights and less fussing. But did that explain the town’s attitude? The court appointed Atticus to
defend him. Atticus aimed to defend him. That’s what they didn’t like about it. It was confusing.
The Negroes, having waited for the white people to go upstairs, began to come I “Whoa now, just a minute,”
Lee, 1960:163 Tom Robinson see that he will be carried to a court by Mr. Ewell to be a victim
of color skin prejudice. It can be proved bt quotation below :
“If you had a clear conscience, why were you scared?” “Like I says before, it weren’t safe for any nigger to be in a—fix like that.”
“But you weren’t in a fix—you testified that you were resisting Miss Ewell. Were you so scared that she’d hurt you, you ran, a big
buck like you?”
“No suh, I’s scared I’d be in court, just like I am now.” “Scared of arrest, scared you’d have to face up to what
you did?” “No suh, scared I’d hafta face up to what I didn’t do.”
“Are
you being impudent to me, boy?”
“No suh, I didn’t go to be.”
p.198
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Scout also see how color skin prejudice appear in court, and make a different to a nigger.
it can be proved by quotation below : “He didn’t act that
way when—” “Dill, those were his own
witnesses.” “Well, Mr. Finch didn’t act that way to Mayella and old man
Ewell when he cross- examined them. The way that man called him ‘boy’ all the time an‘ sneered at
him, an’ looked around at the jury every time he answered—” “Well, Dill, after all he’s just a
Negro.” “I don’t care one speck. It ain’t right, somehow it ain’t right to do ‘em
that way. Hasn’t anybody got any business talkin’ like that—it just makes me sick.”
“That’s just Mr. Gilmer’s way, Dill, he does ‘em all that way. You’ve never seen him get good’n down on one yet. Why,
when—well, today Mr. Gilmer seemed to me like he wasn’t half trying. They do ’em all that way, most lawyers, I mean.”
“Mr. Finch doesn’t.” “He’s not an example, Dill, he’s—” I was trying to grope in my
memory for a sharp phrase of Miss Maudie Atkinson’s. I had it: “He’s the same in the courtroom as he is on the public streets.”
p.199
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as immoral and liar.
It can be prove in quotation below: “Which, gentlemen, we know is in itself a lie as black as Tom Robinson’s skin, a
lie I do not have to point out to you. You know the truth, and the truth is this: some Negroes lie, some Negroes are immoral, some Negro men are not to be
trusted around women—black or white. But this is a truth that applies to the human race and to no particular race of men. There is not a person in this
courtroom who has never told a lie, who has never done an immoral thing, and there is no man living who has never looked upon a woman without desire.”
p.205
Color skin is not a a right way to judge someone else,because every man are created equal and have the same position in this world. It can be proved by this quote :
“One more thing, gentlemen, before I quit. Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal, a phrase that the Yankees and the distaff side of the
Executive branch in Washington are fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency in this year of grace, 1935, for certain people to use this phrase out of context, to
satisfy all conditions. The most ridiculous example I can think of is that the people who run public education promote the stupid and idle along with the
industrious—because all men are created equal, educators will gravely tell you, the children left behind suffer terrible feelings of inferiority. We know all men are
not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe—some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they’re born
with it, some men make more money than others, some ladies make better cakes than others—some people are born gifted beyond the normal scope of most men.
p.205
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status that break human interaction. Color skin prejudice in Maycomb are prepared to result cruel and hates.
It can be proved from this quotation:
“What about the Chinese, and the Cajuns down yonder in Baldwin County?” “I mean in Maycomb County. The thing about it is, our kind of folks don’t like the
Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the colored folks.” p.227
4.2 Underestimate
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