Prejudice is significant in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in several ways. Racism against black characters like Tom Robinson and the Finch's black housekeeper Calpurnia is prominent. Gender prejudice is also shown through the treatment of Scout and other female characters. Poverty adds further challenges, as the Ewell family faces due to their socioeconomic status. Overall, the novel illuminates the prejudices that existed in 1930s Alabama through the experiences of its characters.

1. Prejudice
To Kill a Mockingbird

2. Show how prejudice is significant in ‘To Kill a
Mockingbird’.
You must consider the context of the novel in
your answer

3. • Knowledge of the text
• Personal engagement with the task
• Critical style
AO1
AO4
• Understanding of the
relationship between the text
and context in which it was
written

4. Step 1 – Interrogate the question
• What kinds of prejudice are there in the
novel?
• Are some focused upon more than others?
• How does that prejudice manifest?
• What is significant about it?
• What effect/impact does it have in the novel?
• What effect/impact does it have on YOU?

6. Step 2 – Work chronologically through the
text and identify source material that might
be useful
(make brief notes and jot down brief
quotations)

8. Racism

9. Racism – Maycomb
‘but around here once you have a drop of Negro blood, that makes
you all black.’
Jem – Chapter 16 – Page 178

10. Racism – Narrative voice
‘I ain’t ever heard of a nigger snowman.’
Scout – Chapter 8 – Page 73

11. Racism – Tom Robinson
‘I guess Tom was tired of white men’s chances and preferred to take
his own’
Atticus – Chapter 24 – Page 260

12. Racism - Calpurnia
‘I don’t want anybody sayin’ I don’t look after my children’
Calpurnia – Chapter 12 – Page 130

13. Racism – Mrs Dubose
‘what has this world come to when a Finch goes against his
raising?...Your father’s no better than the niggers and trash he works
for!’
Mrs Dubose – Chapter 11 – Page 113

14. Gender

15. Gender – Justice
‘Miss Maudie can’t serve on a jury because she’s a woman’
Atticus– Chapter 23 – Page 244

16. Gender – Scout as a ‘tomboy’
‘I swear, Scout, sometimes you act so much like a girl, it’s mortifyin’
Jem – Chapter 4 – Page 42

17. Gender – Aunt Alexandra
‘We decided that it would be best for you to have some feminine
influence.’
Atticus – Chapter 13 – Page 140

18. Gender – Mayella Ewell
‘She had committed no crime, she had merely broken a rigid
and time-honored code of our society…she is the victim of
cruel poverty and ignorance , but I cannot pity her: she is
white’
Atticus– Chapter 20 – Page 224

19. Gender – Mayella Ewell
‘I seen that black nigger yonder ruttin’ on my Mayella!’
Mr Ewell – Chapter 17 – Page 190

20. Poverty

21. Poverty – opportunity
‘Helen can’t leave those children to work while Tom’s in
jail…Nobody leaves here till we have ten dollars.’
Reverend Sykes– Chapter 12 – Page 135

22. Poverty – trash
‘But I want to play with Walter, Aunty, why can’t
I?...Because-he-is-trash.’
Scout/Aunt Alexandra– Chapter 23 – Page 248

23. Neuro-diversity

24. Neuro-diversity – Boo Radley
‘Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom.’
Scout/Aunt Alexandra– Chapter 1 – Page 9

25. Democracy

26. Democracy – Hitler
‘That’s the difference between America and Germany.
We are a democracy and Germany is a
dictatorship…Over here, we don’t believe in persecuting
anybody. Persecution comes from people who are
prejudiced.’
Miss Gates– Chapter 25 – Page 270

27. Democracy – Hitler
‘Jem, how can you hate Hitler so bad an’ then turn
around and be ugly about folks right at home - ?’
Miss Gates– Chapter 25 – Page 272

28. Exam Board Examiner Guidance
AO1

35. Step 3 – examine your notes and reflect on
ways in which your knowledge on context
might be seeded into your answer.

37. Context relevant to this theme
• Harper Lee’s biography
• The Great Depression
• The Civil Rights movement
• Jim Crow Laws
• The Scotsboro Boys
• Emmet Till
• The Suffragettes
• Treatment of mental illness &
neuro-diversity in 1930s

39. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZIzYwmEDE
&feature=youtu.be
James Corden
1st June 2020

40. Exam Board Examiner Guidance
AO1