The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter written by Carson McCullers takes place during the late 1930s in a town in Georgie, a state in the South of the United States. During that time, the relationship between white Americans and African-Americans were regulated by the Jim Crow laws which enforced white supremacy. Through Carson McCullers’ use of place, racial tension, and class differences, she depicts herself as a southern writer and her novel as a piece of southern writing. Carson McCullers uses place to show the lifestyle of the south. The town in set in the deep south and has the aspects of racism and poverty.
English Literary Essay Amy Olley I have always felt very strongly about discrimination of races and so I decided to examine racism in Southern America between the 1930s and 1960s. The theme of my book project is: An Examination of the effects of the Jim Crow Legislation and of racism on both black and white in the books To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, which is my classic, The Help by Kathryn Stockett and The Colour Purple by Alice Walker. The Jim Crow Legislation was implemented in Southern America in 1876 and it ended in 1965. The Jim Crow was a legalization of black and white segregation. Separate areas for whites and blacks were constructed and there were punishments for people conversing with a different race.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a very complex book with multiple different themes presented within it. These themes are shown through the characters in the story and how they react to the situations they were thrown in to. The largest role in the book is actually played by the setting of the story due to it being set in southern Alabama in the 1930s. This makes more troubles and confusion for the characters because of the racist lifestyle most people in this time period lived by. Harper Lee created characters to be blinded by ignorance and show hatred for people proven innocent of misdeed.
Mayella Ewell comes from a poor family who is viewed in the Maycomb society as “white trash.” The Finch family has to face harsh criticism in the heavily racist Maycomb because of Atticus decision to help Tom. The soundtrack of the movie is important so the songs I choose are “Strange Fruit”, “Tearin’ up My Heart”, and “Eye of the Sparrow” which are good choices for the soundtrack. The first song I choose is “Strange Fruit” by Billie Holiday. It is a dark profound song about the lynching of African Americans in the southern United States during the Jim Crow Era. It was a protest song that Billie Holiday very rarely performed due to threats.
Throughout the novel, Atticus is almost “harassed” by people from the town because he believes what 's right and not what 's popular. With the Tom Robinson case, most people in Maycomb Alabama believe he reaped Mayella because Mayella and her dad said he did. During those times in History, A girl could say and African American raped her and the case would automatically be taken to court. The whole town thinks African Americans are less equal to White people. Atticus feels that all.
EXTENDED ESSAY How are African American Characters portrayed in: To Kill A Mockingbird? TUSHAR MANEKLAL CANDIDATE # ENGLISH LITERATURE SUPERVISOR: MR. SHAWN SKINNER DATE: November 2014 WORD COUNT: 3739 Abstract This essay explores the portrayal of African American’s in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. It investigates the depiction of African Americans through the lens of different characters. It is clear that Lee condemns the behavior of white people in the South towards the blacks and urges the reader to look at the plight of the blacks through her two main characters, Scout and Atticus Finch. The character of Scout Finch is rather autobiographical giving us vision into Lee’s own childhood and upbringing.
In Harper Lee’s view through the character of the fictitious lawyer Atticus Finch, “some negroes lie, some negroes are immoral, some negro men cannot be trusted around women, but this is a truth that applies to all human race and to no particular race of men”. In other words, Harper Lee believes that African American people should be treated just as equally with other people, since they are just like everyone else. In order to do this, Lee takes advantage of her main character’s occupation (a lawyer), in order to make her audience see how those who are highly educated and understand the idea of “justice” view the topic of racism. The author uses the court system, which is supposedly just and fair to legitimize her argument: the court system is something people put their trust in, it is the place where the actual truth must be revealed. By making Atticus’ case fail, and letting the defendant die, Harper Lee reveals truth in fiction, what is perceived to bring justice did exactly the opposite, and that at this time, the idea of “justice” could not be accessible to
Judging a book by its cover is an often used term that people use to describe a situation where many people are stereotypical. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, a book written about racism and discrimination, is projecting this lesson. This story is written in the narrative of a woman named Scout, who tells her tale of a specific story when she was a young child. It takes place in the 1930’s in Maycomb County of Alabama, where discrimination is typical and normal for the town to do. Jem, a mysterious, curious, and maturing brother to Scout, gets fascinated by what Atticus, his father, does for a living.
Atticus and others were different from the norm and stood up for people. The most apparent discrimination is obviously racism. The novel To kill A Mockingbird took place in Maycomb, Alabama. On top of this the time
A black man winning a trial over a white man was unheard of. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee illustrates the difficulties of being a black man on trial. Tom Robinson, a black man, is on trial for a crime that he did not commit. Atticus Finch, Tom’s lawyer and the father of Jem and Scout, attempts to overcome the barriers of racism and keep an innocent man from being found guilty. In her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses the symbolic significance of the snowman and fire, the mad