Prejudice shown by Miss Caroline and Miss Maudie in "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Prejudice can be defined as an assumption that is made by someone based upon something other than one's own experience with that organism or object. Prejudice can occur within a simple subconscious opinion that is formed without much knowledge on the topic or prejudice can occur when a person consciously builds a strong dislike against something or someone that they don’t actually know about. Propaganda can cause strong prejudice because a person's mind could take this propaganda and build upon it to form a bias against an event that the person has not actually witnessed in action.
  Miss Caroline displays prejudice when she makes assumptions about kids in the community. She makes assumptions about students many times. One of these times she displays prejudice was when she gave Walter Cunningham money to buy lunch, assuming he would be able to pay her back. She made this assumption with no background knowledge about the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams were actually a very poor family that would never be able to pay Miss Caroline back. Prejudice usually has a negative connotation but the way that Miss Caroline used this prejudice was to try and help Walter because she saw that he had no lunch and she did not want him to be hungry. Another scene of prejudice that Miss Caroline displays is when she proceeds to make Scout feel guilty for being educated. By doing this she also assumes that Atticus is not able to properly teach Scout. Miss Caroline also assumed that Burris Ewell would come back to school. Miss Caroline becomes terrified when a tiny bug crawls out of Burris Ewell's hair. The Elwell family is even poorer and less respectable than the Cunningham family. Burris only comes to school the first day of every school year, to make an appearance, to avoid trouble with the law. These events are thought of as prejudice because she has no background knowledge about these students and she makes assumptions about their lives. Although by definition this is considered prejudice, the assumptions were made subconsciously and they were not intentionally harming or spreading rumors about anyone. Jem displays prejudice when he made the assumption that turtles can not feel anything: “‘Turtles can't feel, stupid,’ said Jem. ‘Where you ever a turtle, huh?’”(Lee 15). Dill is not showing any prejudice here because he points out that Jem is making this assumption about something he has had no personal experience with.
Prejudice could be potentially harmful to the person it is against because if this prejudice is spread, it would cause more people to have prejudice against this person. This point is proved with the symbolism behind Miss Maudie’s nutgrass. Miss Maudie's nut grass is a representation of how rumors and gossip in Maycomb County are easily spread. Gossip is also a common thing in which prejudice occurs because the person that spreads the rumor did not actually witness the event, they are just passing on what they heard from another person which could be untruthful, filled with propaganda or not the complete story:
“‘Pull it up, child, pull it up?’ she picked up the limp sprout and squeezed her thumb up its tiny stalk. Microscopic grains oozed out. ‘Why, one sprig of nutgrass could ruin a whole yard. Look here. When it comes fall this dries up and the wind blows it all over  Maycomb County!’”(Lee 56).