However, after listening to Atticus’s pearls of wisdom (“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it”), Scout gradually begins to treat others with sympathy, a process that culminates in the final scene of the film. These moral lessons are particularly effective for Scout, who begins the film with an inability to empathize with point of views that challenge her own or feel foreign to her. Throughout the film, Atticus encourages his children to step outside of their own sheltered, egocentric worlds and into other people’s shoes. Unfortunately, by the end of the film, no significant progress has been made in changing the town’s conceptions of race, though Atticus’s powerful defense summation likely did challenge several people’s ingrained prejudices, as evidenced by the jury’s hours of deliberation. However, this position is shared by few, and most of Maycomb’s residents are shrouded with racism and hateful bigotry. Atticus combats racism, and Jem, Scout, Miss Maudie, and Sheriff Tate all seem to uphold anti-racist ideologies. As Atticus notes, Tom Robinson’s case should have never even been brought to trial race is the deciding factor in both his conviction and the jury’s decision. Romantic entanglements between whites and Blacks are unspeakable, which underlines why Mayella’s guilt over attempting to seduce Tom led to her falsely accusing him of rape and putting his life at stake. In the film, we see the separation of races in the courtroom, and more broadly in society, with Maycomb split into distinct black and white areas. During the Depression, and throughout human history, Black people have been subjected to segregation and systematic racism designed to maintain their subordination to whites. Racism and the ideas of race pervade To Kill a Mockingbird.
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