Growing up, Scout and her brother Jem learn and adapt to and from their friends and neighbors. Meanwhile, their father, Atticus, is trying his best to keep his children pure and separate from their peers’ actions and bad habits. Throughout the To Kill A Mockingbird, these siblings and their father are usually treated unfairly and inconsiderably. Furthermore, their neighbor Miss Maudie is treated with little respect and no consideration. She is constantly criticized and talked to as if she is lesser, only because she doesn’t fit the image of a typical Christian woman. Over the course of the novel, Scout, Atticus, and Miss Maudie are the victims of a great deal of injustice, as depicted by the actions of the townspeople.
For several reasons, Atticus is criticized and unfairly treated, but somehow he always finds a positive side of a negative situation. Atticus is the one person that doesn’t care about his social status, which is bold for someone to do in the time period the book is set in. While being criticized and being called names, he stands his ground and proclaims, “Simply because we were licked 100 years before we started is no reason for us to try to win.” (Lee 80). What Atticus means when saying this is that even if you’ve been treated unjustly in the past doesn’t take away their right to fight for justice; to fight for what’s right.
Even so, Atticus is not the only one in the Finch household that is constantly being mistreated. Scout, a tough tomboy who, much like her father, doesn’t care about her appearance and refuses to appeal to the image of a pretty school-girl that society perceives a girl should look like. At that, Scout is often referred to as another boy and gets no respect from her neighbors. Mrs. DuBose, a grouchy, crippled old lady that is
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addicted to morphine adds to the deteriorating of Scout’s self conscience when she replies to Scout’s “hey” to her with, “Don’t you say hey to me, you ugly girl! You say...