Hypocrisy in to Kill a Mockingbird
Hypocrisy is a huge theme of Maycomb’s society and community spirit. For example, racism plays a huge role. In the Tom Robinson trial, he is accused of raping Bob Ewell’s daughter, Mayella. But the real story is that Bob Ewell is abusive to his daughter and accused tom Robinson because he’s black. Since the social community is mostly tipped on the scale of discrimination, there are excuses made for whites. This leads into another following example. In the minds of the “good Christians” blacks are made to be slaves and do everything a white man says. Atticus is completely against this and tells Bob off. In retaliation, Bob Ewell makes it certain Tom Robinson is guilty. In the end Tom is purposed guilty even though the evidence clearly shows he’s not. The Maycomb community thinks they’re doing what’s right for the town and titles themselves “The Good Christians.” A few people, like Atticus, know they are wrong and knows they only persecuted Tom Robinson by the color of his skin. Another example of hypocrisy referring to racism would be with Mrs. Gates. Mrs. Gates is completely against Hitler thinking what he did was absolutely horrible about what he did to the Jews. But then again in her own community people are persecuting blacks the same way. Another example similar to this is Mrs. Merriweather talks about saving the poor Mruans from Africa but thinks black people in her community are a disgrace. Scout and Jem throughout the book later discover the hypocrisy in the adult world. Some examples would be, Aunt Alexandria’s view on the Cunningham’s, Lula not wanting her kids to go into a black church etc: Jem noticed the hypocrisy in the Lula situation was Lula complaining about all white people being prejudice against them but in her hate for whites and their prejudice she is also being racist and prejudice. Scout and Jem then noticed someone being mad at a certain race for doing the exact same thing they were