There were quite a few connections we made between the people of Maycomb and our school. It seems as though there's a social caste system in Maycomb that isn't much unlike the cliques at Flathead. People who have lived in Maycomb the longest, such as Aunt Alexandra, seem to have a sense of seniority over the other residents; kind of like upperclassmen in high school. Rumors are also very susceptible to be spread and believed in Maycomb. Mr. Raymond didn't like dealing with things, and he figured if he drank Coke from a brown paper bag people would think it was liquor. Rumors spread that he was a drunk, and he made people believe it. I have known people like Tom Robinson, they didn't do anything wrong but be different, and nobody liked him so they bullied him. I find To Kill A Mockingbird kind of like The Kite Runner; Amir was of a different race than everyone else, and was segregated and eventually killed.
The advancement of the Tom Robinson case played a big role in our group discussion, we talked about how the members of the jury were scared to and didn't stand up for Tom Robinson even though the case against him was so obviously flawed. How the white people who weren't that racist were afraid of what others would think of them was mind-boggling. In a court, everybody should be treated as having been born equal, but even in the recent past this wasn't the case for coloured folk.
I've learned how you should stand up for what you believe in and how everyone is created equal in a sense of human rights. People are born differently, some are smarter or stronger than others, but just because of physical features such as skin color we shouldn't discriminate.
