Prejudice

Prejudice, in various forms. creates minor effects and serious outcomes. As the novel opens, people from Summerland, Kansas, are rushing to Nicodemus because shamblers have overrun their town. The people from Summerland are not happy in Nicodemus, especially considering that an Indian and a black man are sheriff and mayor. When everyone is summoned to a town meeting, Katherine notes that she can almost feel the outrage from the Summerland people, “and my spirits lift a bit at realizing that for all their bluster and outrage the principles they clung to in Summerland will do nothing for them here” (185). When the mayor makes it clear that everyone in Nicodemus will be required to work and fight for the good of the town, the whites who have arrived from Summerland are clearly angry. The officials in Summerland forced blacks and the very poor to do all the...