What you don't know can't hurt you, or so they say. Ignorance seems to course its way through the lives of the inhabitants of Maycomb, the fictional town in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird, either directly or indirectly. Racism is a direct result of ignorance, and many of the people in To Kill a Mockingbird were racist, and those that weren't were greatly affected by it. Then there were the Ewells, who were ignorant on many other levels too. Even Scout's schoolteacher, whose job it was to impart knowledge, was hypocritical and racist!

Racism in Maycomb was the norm. Any attempt to deviate from that way of thinking was shunned, and you as well as branded on your forehead `nigger-lover'. As Atticus told Scout, ."..nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything - like snot-nose. It's hard to explain - ignorant, trashy people...