People can often be treated and judged in a less than equal mannerbefore people even know the true nature of the person, such as the way that theFinch children think that Boo Radley is some kind of a monster. Or the waypeople call Atticus Finch is called a nigger-lover.
One of my most favoritequotations is that of Martin Luther King Junior. “I have a dream, that one daymy children will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content oftheir character.” People should make judgements of the person’s character, notby their appearance, race, religion, sexuality, and morals.
One of the main focuses of the book is the Finch children trying to getBoo Radley next door to come out of his house. To them he is a mean monstrousperson. But for some reason they seem to think that tormenting him is the bestway to occupy their time. In fact, to the whole town the Radley family are meanpeople that kept to them selves. “There goes the meanest man ever God blewbreath into,” said Calpurnia (page 12). This shows how mean people can be justby judging others by their outsides. What gives these people the right to makethese kind of conclusions without ever even meeting the person(s).
Later in the book the Finch children find presents hidden in a tree nextto the Radley place. They can’t figure out who would set these nice gifts outfor them. Later they find out that is Boo Radley. He is just trying to be niceand other people won’t accept his original approach on life. At one point inthe book the children decide to go up onto the porch to try and get a peakinside the window. Then they see Mr. Radley inside with a shotgun and they ranaway. Jem got her pants ripped off on a fence and returned later to retrievethem and she found them mended and laying over the fence.
Another example ofhow nice the Radley’s are is when it was shivering cold outside someone places ablanket over Scout’s shoulders. Only later does she realize that the act wasperformed by the mysterious Boo Radley. I have just given multiple examplesstraight from the book of how the personalities of the person can be radicallydifferent from their appearance. That leads back to my thesis of judging peopleby their character not their outer shell.
One more maddening incident in the book that made me just furious when Iread it was when people started calling Atticus Finch a nigger-lover. When Ithink of the Nazi Holocaust, and slavery in the U.S. in the 1800’s, I just getan anger built up inside of me. I don’t see how people can hate a group ofpeople because of their religion or race. Back to the Atticus Finch incident,there is nothing wrong with defending someone you think is guilty and there isno reason to believe that they’re guilty just because of the color of their skin.
Why must people use the term nigger-lover is someone is helping out a blackperson. Why must people make it their business, and why must they get intosomething that has nothing to do with them. They don’t even know the real truth.
In conclusion, people make me sick. There is no reason why there shouldbe any kind of racial or religious kind of discrimination. This book is aperfect example of discriminating people based upon their outer shell. I likedthis book and it should be read by all so that everyone can understand thehorrors of discrimination, past and present.
