Ignorance is obviously one of the worst defects in a human being and one can observe the inherent ignorance on racial questions in the novel ‘To Kill a Mockinbird’ by Harper Lee. One has to consider the fact that the novel is set in a sleepy town in Macomb County in mid 1930’s Alabama where the theme of racial ignorance was terribly rife. The idiotic concept which filled the poor white man’s mind was that the black man was constantly on the prowl to rape white woman and deflower them so he deserved any sort of punishment which often resulted in death. Lee is very descriptive when she comes to the possible lynching incident where Jim is being held at the jail lockup and is being protected by his lawyer Atticus Finch. The conversation between the parties demonstrates how utter ignorance and racial prejudice have poisoned these men’s minds and how they are only fixated on one thing, to punish the black man by stringing him up to a tree. Ignorance in this situation also shows how morals can be completely thrown out of the window as the mob also includes some relatively young boys who are exposed to the brutality of racial ignorance at a very early age. Lee definitely had some real life lynching scenes in mind when she penned this novel as more often then not, children were taken to watch the spectacle of lynching. This definitely shows that the novel is influenced by the theme of racial ignorance and this was definitely something which was rife in Alabama in the mid 1930’s.
Works Cited:
Wood A L; Lynching and Spectacle; Chapel Hill, North Carolina, UNC Press; 2009; Print
