Never judge a book by its cover. This is a famous English idiom saying one shouldn’t judge others’ actions, attitudes, values, and anything else based on things that are seen outside. However, people often make assumptions and expectations regarding such things as race, gender, or appearance. By reading To Kill a Mockingbird written by Harper Lee, I learned how this affects the community members individually and as a whole.

The story takes place in the early 1930s in Maycomb, Alabama, which is a small town comparatively isolated from the rest of the world. Therefore, there are still bad looks towards colored people. The main characters Jem and Scout Finch, who are white, get to go to Calpurnia, their black housekeeper’s church in chapter nine. While some people welcome Jem and Scout without any hesitation, some people don’t look happy with them coming to the church for black people. I believe this shows how a stereotype creates another stereotype. Though Jem and Scout did not discriminate against black people, how most other white people act based on their stereotype created another stereotype towards white people, that they would hate black people. 

Throughout the story, I find the three types of people. There are types of people trying to fight on the front line to break the stereotype, including Atticus Finch, Jem and Scout’s father. As a lawyer, he defends Tom Robinson, who is a black man unfairly accused of rape. Meanwhile, some people are trying to fit into the stereotype and protect themselves. Alexandra, Jem and Scout’s aunt, falls into this. When Atticus became known for defending Tom Robinson, Alexandra was strongly against it. She doesn’t want the honor of Finch as an old-fashioned white family to fall. Lastly, some hide themselves from the rest of the world to keep their belief. In chapter twenty, Jem and Scout find out Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a white man who was always drunk, living with his black girlfriend, was never actually drunk. He was trying to give a reason why he would choose to live with black residents, while he was just sick of them judging based on skin color. 

As this goes on, it creates a social hierarchy and people tend to hang out with others within their social position. Again, Alexandra was against Jem and Scout hanging out with neither Walter Cunningham nor Calpurnia, because they were socially below Finches. She believed they shouldn’t be treated equally at the same level as her family and her. Now, what’s the difference between Ancient Rome or Egypt, with an actual social hierarchy starting from royals and ending up with slaves, and Maycomb on this side?

Even though the stereotype is something that is inevitably created, after reading this book, I learned some cruel and negative sides of it. As a part of society, I think that we all should be conscious of how stereotypes limit people, and try to break them.

Written by Chloe Ko