The Faults in Our Minds

Poverty does not necessarily mean that one is trash, and ignorance does not determine a person’s intelligence; however, when the two are put together during hard times, it doesn't make for a good mix.  In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it is shown that poverty and ignorance cause many negative impacts in Maycomb County during The Great Depression.

One negative impact is that many people are blinded by racism, even when hit with reason and truth.  For example, plenty of evidence was given against Bob Ewell, such as “There is circumstantial evidence to indicate that Mayella Ewell was beaten savagely by someone who led almost exclusively with his left… Tom Robinson now sits before you, having taken the oath with the only good hand he possesses - his right hand.” (204)  Despite this, the jury still said “Guilty… guilty… guilty… guilty.” (211) This shows that a;though everyone in the courtroom realized that Tom Robinson was innocent, he was still convicted because of his race.  This also shows that if one person becomes prejudiced towards something or someone, because of their own poverty or ignorance, it will spread to others, until everyone believes it and will not want to go against it.  In the same way, other faults among communities can be spread.

People are easily raised into stating one thing but doing another, also known as hypocrisy.  For example, Scout notices that Miss Gates talks about Hitler and his horrible deeds, but goes on to be cheerful at the fact that Tom Robinson was convicted.  She exclaims “I heard her say it's time somebody taught 'em a lesson, they were getting' way above themselves, an' the next thing they think they can do is marry us." (331)  This shows that Miss Gates, while not liking Hitler’s prejudice against Jews, is basically doing the same thing, but to African Americans.  This also shows that hypocrisy can be spread through poverty and ignorance, because if one is poor and is unable to see reason, they have a sort of lense in front of them, so that they can only see what they want to, even if it’s not right.  Many people in Maycomb County are affected by this.

Grudges are hard to let go of, even if the incident is long past.  For example, “Mr. Bob Ewell stopped Atticus on the post office corner, spat in his face, and told him he’d get him if it took the rest of his life.” (217) Bob Ewell blames the fact that the whole town doesn’t like him on Atticus, and tries to kill his children for it.  This shows that Bob Ewell lacks the trait of listening to reason and truth, since he can’t accept the town’s dislike, and wears the same lense as Miss Gates, enabling him with the need to do the only thing he can, which is attack Atticus’ kids, which is low, but what one would expect from him.  This also shows that grudges, even though they may have a well intentioned reason behind them, should not be kept for long or will encourage rash decisions and unthought-out plans.

As a result, Harper Lee expresses in To Kill a Mockingbird that poverty and ignorance combined can cause blind racism, hypocrisy, and long lasting grudges with bad decisions.  These faults of human-kind are still found everywhere today, even in places without poverty and ignorance, but are slowly disappearing as more and more people are raised without these influences.