In my opinion theme with the most impact in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird” isHypocrisy as shown in three main incidents . These are the teachings of Ms Gatesabout the atrocities of Adolf Hitler whilst she hated blacks ; the missionarycircle trying to show how Christian they are while believing that to be abrother of Christ you must be white and finally the hypocrisy of the Americancourt system in the 30’s by saying they stand for justice.
In Ms Gates’classroom we read about her teaching her class that the Jews are beingpersecuted against by the Nazi’s. According to Ms. Gates this is un Christianand she finds these actions despicable. The hypocrisy of this teaching is shownas soon as she mentions the word ‘persecution’.
This is due to the fact that sheherself is persecuting the black people of Maycomb by not raising an eyebrow tothe killing of an innocent black man. This lady shows her blindness to theracial problems of the Deep South ( where she lives ) but feels a lot of empathyfor the Jews who are being mistreated and slaughtered in Germany ( manythousands of miles away ) . The missionary circles in the 1930’s working in thesouth of America show the two faced nature of white citizens several times ineach meeting . One strong example that springs to mind is Mrs Mariweatherspositive comments about a Christian explorer in Africa helping the evil savagessee the light of Jesus Christ whilst on the other hand she condemns Attacus forhelping an innocent Negro . These so called Christian women safely say well doneto a man helping African black people ( who were happy with their lives in thefirst place ) but if anyone should help out a black person anywhere near them itthen becomes ‘Nigger loving’ and should be condemned by all within thecommunity.
It creates a double standard by showing that as long as racialproblems do not involve them directly they can be tolerant. The American Courtsof the 1930’s were also hypocritical. Truth and Justice were held as the mostbasic right for Americans. Truth in the Tom Robinson case was never a factor. The white jury knew that Bob Ewell had beaten and raped his daughter MayaellaEwell and that Tom was innocent .
But because a human being had more colourpigment in their skin it was assumed they would be guilty without question ,sotruth was never a factor . Justice also the pride of the American legal system inthe past ,and now but once again in the Tom Robinson trial ,no matter how muchevidence was presented in favour of Tom to prove his innocence, justice wasn’tdone because Tom had more pigment in his skin than the jurors thereby he wasassumed to be guilty. In my opinion members of the Maycomb community are tryingto fool themselves into believing that they are model citizens and goodChristians, even though a small number amongst them know that they are wrong topersecute and hate due to colour . Hypocrisy and racism were as much a part ofMaycomb society as church and community spirit.
