Class Structure in To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Sample

Since the dawn of class structure, women, black, and poor Americans have been unfairly treated and affected. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a small southern town has faced obstacles due to strict class structure. People are harassed, abused, and even killed due to their race, gender, or sexuality. Class structure is something that can not just be solved with words, but is something that requires our community to come together and solve this problem which is slowly degrading our society. To Kill a Mockingbird addresses this and makes sure people are aware of this issue. By using the class system, humans learn to judge each other by false divisions, and therefore fail to recognize our shared humanity.

By allowing our class system to affect our youth, the problem of systemic discrimination will never be solved. Scout, the main character of To Kill a Mockingbird along with her brother, Jem, are often exposed to the class system and witness it disproportionately harm those lower on the class. When Scout was afraid to get the tire off of Boo Radley’s house when they were playing, Jem says, “sometimes you act so much like a girl it’s mortifyin''” (Lee 39), implying that by being a girl she is more scared and was less brave. Jem and Scout did not want to be associated with being a girl, as for a child, that was “mortifyin” (Lee 39). Lee speaks to the reader, showing that being a girl was bad back then, and if you were, you should do everything to go against it. By writing this, Lee shows that people automatically associate girls with the worst gender and that they don’t belong outside. Tara Anand writes how gender roles affect Scout. She states, “Scout doesn’t conform to gender roles, and is upset when she is made to'' (Anand 17). Girls and boys shouldn’t have to change themselves to fit in with society. By allowing our kids to learn lessons opposite to this as they have for centuries, discrimination based on gender, race, and class in general with continue to be previlant in our society. When Atticus started defending Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, Cecil Jacobs, a boy in Scout’s class, was told by his parents “your daddy was a disgrace an‘ that n------ oughta hang from the water-tank!” (Lee 79). With the mindset that all black people were bad during the Great Depression, Cecil Jacobs was taught by his parents that anyone who defended them was bad. Lee’s particular set of words here demonstrates that while even the poor Americans did not like black people, anyone associated with them was also a disgrace to them. When kids are taught like this, they pass that ideology to their offspring, and so on and so forth. By using words like, n------, parents create a vocabulary that kids are not meant to use in the first place. To Kill a Mockingbird speaks to this, and shows how a child's environment, whether parents or friends, can change a child’s understanding of society. Atticus is a relatively good father and tries to educate Scout and Jem about issues with the class system, though others such as Aunt Alexandra make it so that they still are still somewhat engrained to think using a class system. A child's first role model is their parents, and when parents implement a mindset to follow a strict class system, that child is changed for life, and not for the better.

Today, a class system is still implemented constantly. Whether Black Lives Matter or Gay Rights, we are still imacted by class issues in society. In Alabama during the Great Depression, classism was exceptionally relevant. When Atticus realized he had to defend Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman, he knows that it is a common fact that “a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins” (Lee 251). Rather than making an unbiased decision through the objective lens of justice, Lee illustrates how the courtroom was split into black and white. While Atticus is a great lawyer and wants to fight for what is right, he knows that it is impossible to overcome the mid-western mindset that all black men are bad. Lee speaks on the blatant racism during the 1900’s with nobody trying to fix it. Even today, cases such as George Floyd getting killed by a police officer or the shooting of Breonna Taylor without justice, it is openly visible that classism and civil injustice still goes on. Black Lives Matter is a movement that wants justice for the killing of these innocent black people. From back then to today, it is obvious to the reader, no matter the time period they are reading it in, that classism still continues. People still tried to fight for what was right, during the Great Depression time period, as when Mr. Link Deas, Tom Robinson’s employer stated, “That boy’s worked for me eight years an‘ I ain’t had a speck o’trouble outa him'' (Lee 199), yet they are silenced even if they side with these people. The judge yelled back to “Shut your mouth, sir!” (Lee 199) just because he sided with a black person. Lee demonstrates how black people were treated then, and so was anyone that sided with them. Though this happened nearly 84 years ago, activists against police violence are still silenced. After outbreaks of police violence happened around America, the NYPD went around, trying to “to silence the efforts of citizens seeking justice for victims of police violence” (NFG 21). From 1934 to now, not enough change has happened to eliminate the class structure. By still allowing it to take over our lives, we will not be able to help these underprivileged people, just because they are lower on the class system. 

Creating unwarranted divisions between people may end up being the downfall of the human race. By teaching our youth to biasly judge other people, and still utilizing a class structure today, we dismiss our chance to overcome classism. To Kill a Mockingbird does not just speak on how classism affects us today, but it demonstrates to us how the ongoing issue is not a degrading problem, but the possible end of humanity.