Why are different races and social classes treated so differently? Why was education so awful at times? Two of the characters in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird are Jem and Scout. As Jem and Scout grow up, they discover that many things are not as they seem. Some people aren't treated as well as others just because of the color of their skin, the way they live, their level of education, or even just an urban legend. In those days in the courts blacks had to sit on a balcony. Many people at that time were so ignorant that they could not read hymn books in church, if they had any. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different types of prejudices and educational problems in the 1930s in Maycomb County, Alabama. Racial prejudice is widely shown in this novel in Maycomb County. In the courtroom scene in To Kill a Mockingbird there is a black section and a white section, which are segregated. The colorful balcony ran along three walls of the classroom like a second-story veranda, and from it we could see everything (Lee 219). This shows unfair segregation for blacks because they have to sit on the balcony but whites don't. If the crime Tom Robinson is accused of had been committed by a white man, the investigation would have been much more thorough. “Did you call a doctor, sheriff?” Atticus asked. “No sir,” said Mr. Tate (Lee 224). Just because he was a black man, they accused Tom of being guilty just because people said he was. While not directly related to the court scene, it is shown that there is racial prejudice when Tom runs away from Mayella Ewell instead of staying, so they find him guilty of this. He wouldn't dare hit a white woman under any circumstances and expect it to... middle of paper... actually make her stop. Another serious educational problem of the time was that many blacks were illiterate. Jem said it looked like they could save the collection money for a year and buy some hymn books, Cal laughed. "It wouldn't do any good," he said. “They can't read” (Lee 165). This simply shows that the black community was often not well educated. Growing up in Maycomb was also a struggle, as it was difficult to get an education. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different types of prejudice in 1930s Maycomb County, Alabama. The thesis was explained using actual quotes from To Kill a Mockingbird, and then gave a logical explanation as to how it was relevant. Prejudices affect the world even today and continue to be something horrible. Works Cited Lee, Harper. To kill a thrush. New York: Grand Central, 1982. Print