ipl-logo

Essay On Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

873 Words4 Pages

“I’ve been very mindful that things can change quickly, without warning...” (McCabe 14). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was greatly influenced by The Great Depression. There are many major historical connections to book, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality and the Scottsboro trials. One of the first historical connections to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was The Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were laws enforcing strict segregation among Blacks and Whites (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws included laws such as Blacks were not allowed to show affection toward each other in public, Whites did not use courtesy titles when referring to Blacks, and Whites and Blacks were not to use the same public facilities (Pilgrim). People in the …show more content…

Mob mentality is a term used to describe how certain negative characteristics surface when people are combined in large groups (Smith). Mobs usually portray an aggressive image, since people feed off of other’s negative emotions toward the victim of the mob. People were influenced by mob mentality for many reasons. Being apart of a mob alters people’s thinking, since they feel invincible whilst in the middle of a mob (Edmonds). People think that if they are in a group of people they will not be held responsible for the crime being committed (Edmonds). Mob mentality can be seen in To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. An example of mob mentality in the article, What is Mob Mentality, is when there is a department store sale and loads of shoppers are rushing to the racks, pushing each other out of their way (Smith). This situation could cause snowballing violence and could cause people to get trampled (Smith). In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are a few examples of mob mentality. One of those examples is when the mob of men showed up at the jail to kill Tom (Lee 241). Mob mentality shows how being in a group of people can bring out the worst characteristics of people. Jim Crow and mob mentality are not the only two connections to To Kill a Mockingbird, the Scottsboro trials are as

Show More
Related

Similarities Between Scottsboro Boys And To Kill A Mockingbird

793 Words | 4 Pages

Leading up to the Civil Rights Movement, the black community was in a constant battle against law enforcement treating them unfair compared to the white community. The Scottsboro Boys and Emmett Till’s cases were one of the many times that the legal system showed to be unfair to blacks. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the law enforcement and community were very racist against blacks and believed all blacks were criminals. In the story, Atticus Finch, who is a lawyer gets put into a very difficult situation and decides to defend a black man, who went by the name of Tom Robinson.

Read More

Examples Of Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

260 Words | 2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird In chapter 15 of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the author uses many ways to develop her message about mob mentality and human nature. Harper Lee uses multiple ways to develop her message including repetition and dark and light imagery. Harper Lee is showing us that mobs play a big role in protests in Maycomb County, Alabama. What this shows us about human nature is that humans tend to forget the consequences of what they do when acting in a group and feel almost invincible against punishments. A person that is part of a mob will act differently than they would act on their own.

Read More

Unreasonable Social Norms In To Kill A Mockingbird

1258 Words | 6 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird Prejudice exists everywhere, but not with everyone. Some people choose to defy it, especially if it seems unreasonable, or immoral. This is found throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns to defy unreasonable social norms, and unfair ones as well, by the action of adults around her, namely Atticus and Miss Maudie Atkinson. By gardening while wearing men’s overall, Miss Maudie shows Scout that you do not always have to conform to the social norm of women only wearing dresses to be respected.

Read More

Examples Of Jim Crow Laws In To Kill A Mockingbird

1591 Words | 7 Pages

Mob mentality is following others mindlessly, and do what the crowd does regardless if the activity is right or wrong (Smith). Mob mentality is also large groups of people doing violent actions that they would never do alone. People join in because if everyone is doing it, it must be ok (Smith). Mob mentality is demonstrated in today’s events as well, for example, Black Friday shoppers rush everywhere trying to get the hottest deals, and some of these shoppers have few limits to what they will do to get these deals (Smith). Some people get hurt and even trampled as people rush to and from places (Smith).

Read More

How Does Lee Use Historical Events In To Kill A Mockingbird

1027 Words | 5 Pages

n Harper Lee’s story, To Kill a Mockingbird, the sorrowful events of Black Friday and the Great Depression acted as a clear purpose rather than just providing historical context; they are veiled in the story to illustrate how the characters/setting are drastically affected by the economic state of the time being. Harper Lee, the author of the book, uses historical events to connect her novel to illustrate what it was like in that state of time. The Great Depression, Black Friday, Stock Market Crash, and the economic collapse are some of the utmost events that are cited in the story. These events can be connected through the characters and the setting in which they are.

Read More

Mob Mentality In The 21st Century

365 Words | 2 Pages

In recent years, we have had a series of events that have sparked outrage across our world. This outrage sometimes leads to an issue I have in contemporary culture: mob mentality. “Herd mentality”, or more commonly known as “mob mentality” refers to how people lose their self-awareness and moral code when they are with a group of people. Mob mentality usually drives people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, such as jumping someone, Whether it be a large amount of people online harassing an artist or a movement that has been tainted by the aggressive nature of some, herd/mob mentality has become a more prevalent and pressing issue in the 21st century.

Read More

African Americans In The 1930's

1045 Words | 5 Pages

The worldwide economic downturn known as The Great Depression took the world by storm. It was during this dilemma that every group of americans were immensely affected. None were affected as much as African Americans and racial status. It was this depression that made the already problematic lives of the African Americans even more challenging. Factors which which influenced racial issues against blacks in the early 1920’s through 1930’s were the Second Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow Laws, the fight for jobs, and the racial riots/lynchings that followed.

Read More

Mob Violence In To Kill A Mockingbird Essay

1725 Words | 7 Pages

Scout Finch was able to do this by asking Mr.Cunningham questions about his family. By relating to his family, Mr.Cunningham realized what he was doing and how it was going to affect his family and his life. Perhaps more important than this example is the obvious fact issued when Harper Lee famously writes, “A mob is always made up of people, no matter what” (Lee 210). People fuel a mob like gasoline in a semi trailer.

Read More

What Are The Jim Crow Laws

277 Words | 2 Pages

The Jim Crow Laws are a set of laws that were put in place to separate different races, such as african americans and caucasians. The name Jim Crow was often heard as a black, minstrel show character (Castleman, Tammy). These laws were put in place around 1875 following the easing of reconstruction, to make sure african americans use different public facilities than whites. After slavery was abolished, whites weren 't quite sure why african americans existed, because most whites figured blacks were put on earth to work. Along with new laws, came new problems that people didn 't know how to deal with.

Read More

Examples Of Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

167 Words | 1 Pages

One example of mob mentality in the book would be the jail scene(Lee 205). In this scene Atticus goes to the jail to guard Tom Robinson, and Scout and Jem follow him. Farmers and townspeople show up later to try and take Tom and kill him but as soon as things get bad Scout and Jem run into the crowd. As the argument gets heated Scout pics out Mr. Cunningham and tries to talk to him, but he ignores her.

Read More

Why Is To Kill A Mockingbird Be Banned

202 Words | 1 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is famous for its controversy. In fact, it has been banned from being read at many schools for its use of racial, sexual, and political content, all of these aiding the book’s “big ideas”. To Kill a Mockingbird has many themes. For example, one is about racial injustice. You would think a jury would establish their final decision based upon the facts, but in this book, the jury had already made up its mind once it heard that the case was a white man versus a black man.

Read More

Stereotypes In To Kill A Mockingbird

757 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is the story of a small town named Maycomb Located in Alabama, highlighting the adventures of the finch children and many other people in the small town. The people in this town are very judgemental and of each other and it often leads to people being labeled with stereotypes and people think they know everything about that person however that is not reality. It is not possible to know the reality of a person 's life by placing a stereotype without seeing it through their own eyes and experiencing the things they experience. This happens often throughout the story with many people in the town. People are labeled as many things such a “monster” a “nigger” and many other things that seem to put them in their

Read More

To Kill A Mockingbird Theme Essay

715 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird has many of underlying themes such as racism, courage, respect, femininity, etc. But the theme that fits this book most appropriately is innocence and the harm caused to the innocent by evil and bigotry. Examples of this include Jem, Dill, Tom Robinson, Boo Radley. While all these characters have completely different personalities and circumstances they all have one thing in common. All of them were innocent at one point and were harmed by the evil of

Read More

To Kill A Mockingbird Point Of View Essay

614 Words | 3 Pages

In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.

Read More

Examples Of Social Prejudice In To Kill A Mockingbird

977 Words | 4 Pages

Social prejudice is shown throughout Harper Lee’s award winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee powerfully analyses the theme social prejudice, and its effect on people. Such as how the Social prejudice is discrimination based on your status in society. An example of social prejudice would be the Radley family, which consists of Boo Radley, Nathan Radley and Arthur Radley. As they haven’t been out of their house in years people are lead to believe the rumours.

Read More

More about Essay On Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

Related Topics

Open Document