My character: Atticus

Time: After Tom Robinson's trial

Dear diary, I am writing again today night as usual. However, my heart aches every second as I am writing. You should remember clearly my case which I was fighting for today. The one between Tom Robinson, a black, and Mayella Ewell, a white. I thought I could win against all odds as Tom had never raped Mayella. She knew it herself, but why couldn't she just say it out? Unless she was so cruel as to make a innocent Black die for nothing.

The court also knew that my stand was more convincing. However they still acquitted Tom. Was it because of his skin colour? Maycomb country as I knew was not that discriminating. However, today, I had seen for myself that even the court had a discrimination against the blacks. Diary, what do you think I should do? Since I became a lawyer, I learned to fight for peoples' rights. No doubt everyone has their own rights. But for Tom's case, where was his rights? He could not say a thing at all and even so, it wouldn't be treated seriously by the court. He should have the privilege to fight for himself.

Today, I have set myself another goal. I want to make sure that this kind of discrimination will not stay in our whites' mindsets. Everyone is equal. There is no such thing as a more superior group of people than another group of people. I do not really know why I am saying this, maybe because of my emotions. Maybe after I calm down I will write again. So thats it for now.

I will be interviewing my sister from Raffles Girls School.

Me: What do you think is prejudice?

Sister: It is a preconceived judgement on one or another based on their appearance and character. There are Affective, Behavioral and Cognitive prejudices.

Me: Then what do you think is discrimination?

Sister: It's a behavior which one treats a group of people unequally. There are Personal, Legal and institutional discriminations.

Me: What is the difference between prejudice and discrimination?

Sister: Prejudice is a judgement, thus cannot be seen or noticed, while discrimination is a behavior which treats a group of people unfairly. Prejudice causes discrimination.

Me: What types of prejudice and discrimination can be seen from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird?

Sister: Prejudice is the belief that Whites are more superior than the blacks, while gender, race and social discriminations can be seen from the novel.

Sister: The blacks were discriminated against as it was believed that Blacks are were only 3/4 a man. Scout was discriminated against as because of her gender(female), and females are thought to be less important than males.I think that the Ewells were discriminated upon because of the belief that they were dumb. The Radleys were discriminated upon because of they did not socialize with anyone in the country. They separated themselves from the society and thus the society did likewise.

Me: How were the discrimination/prejudices shown in the novel?

Sister: The discrimination of the Blacks was shown when Tom Robinson had to be made guilty of something he did not do just because of his skin colour, and also shown when all Blacks were not supposed to go to white churches. Lastly, the discrimination of Scout was shown when Jem and Dill tried to ignore and exclude her from many of their activities.The Ewells' discrimination is shown when it is allowed for them to not go to school as their home is just a lousy garbage dump and they are the bottom of the social class. The Radleys' discrimination was shown when Jem, Dill and Scout tried to disturb the peace they were having and tried mimic the Radleys'.

Me: So what is the main point of the story regarding prejudice and discrimination?

Sister: It is the common belief at that time that whites were more superior than the blacks and blacks had no right to argue for whatever is given to them by the whites.

Me: Thanks for your time.

Sister: No problem