Summer Reading Essay: Topic Five The Great Depression’s claws elicits the worst or the best in people within the sleepy town of Maycomb, Alabama in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. The book takes place in a small town in the South during the Great Depression. The novel’s main event is the trial of a black man, Tom Robinson, who is accused of brutally beating and raping a young, white woman, Mayella Ewell. Lee mainly writes to the small-minded people of Maycomb. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee highlights the country setting of Maycomb to establish values within the novel. The setting of the book lends itself to providing many racially-driven biases and stereotypes. The first implicit bias a reader notices is the automatic trust many of the white characters place within Mayella’s version of events. Most of them do not realize that they play into supporting the systematic oppression of one …show more content…
Being in the South, one can assume there will be a set of of characters who speak like a stereotypical redneck. Those characters are typically the ones whose families have been hit hard by the Depression since they are already poor, even before the Depression begins. An example of how they speak is: ‘“I told’ja I hollered’n’kicked’fought一”’(250). This set of characters, such as the Ewells, speak with a informal and casual type of diction. In juxtaposition, Scout has a eloquent vocabulary, even from a young age. The most likely cause of that is that her father, Atticus, is a highly educated man. He uses an extremely tactful, crisp and cultured diction that isolates him from many of the characters, especially the main group of clients he works with. Lastly, the diction of the black characters closely resembles that of the Ewells. These characters have an uneducated dialect, partly because of the poor access to education and social standing in their setting. conclusion
In the novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, cruelty comes up again and again as a central theme and driving force in the plot. The novel takes place during the Great Depression, a time period where segregation is the norm, and cruelty is commonplace. The main character, Scout, grows up seeing all of this, and questions it. She watched racism take place around her, and grew up throughout the course of the novel, and found that even though the events that transpired were unpleasant, they made her a better person. “To Kill a Mockingbird” was set in the Great Depression.
To KIll a Mockingbird by Harper Lee uses the town of Maycomb changing throughout the story ultimately affecting the ending. Lee represents society as an ever changing factor to people life. There are a few things that attribute to this change including the case against Tom Robinson as well as the mob that confronts Atticus wanting to get at Tom Robinson. Characters such as Atticus Finch have seen this change in Maycomb and are personally affected by it.
Scout's race in To Kill a Mockingbird affects the tone, voice, and content of the narration because it is in the tone of a white woman looking back from the perspective of herself as a young white child in Jim Crow South. A young white child's tone is different because she has no idea of how bad it is for African Americans in her town. Since things have just always been that way and the racism never directly affects her she is mostly unaware of it. She wonders why Calpurnia uses the front door when the rabid dog comes down the road because she has just always used the back entrance and doesnt recognize why or that it is disrespectful.
The book To Kill a Mockingbird took place in the 1930’s in a tired old town called Maycomb. Racism was at its highest, while jobs were at its lowest. The story is told in the perspective of the main character Scout Finch a 6-year-old girl. She shows the readers how the good people of Maycomb are hurt with the bad of Maycomb. Scout demonstrates this by putting many characters through many obstacles.
Although due to being a poor, uneducated woman whom is treated like an object, Mayella is not a powerful character. For 19 years of Mayella’s life she has been
In To Kill A Mockingbird, there are many chapters that involve racism, poverty, and or violence. This book takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The Finches, Jem, Scout, and Atticus which are the rich white people, the Cunninghams, the poor humble people, the Ewells, the dirt poor white trash people, and the colored folks all are involved in either racism, poverty, and or violence. Many examples of poverty are stated in To Kill A Mockingbird. An example of poverty is the Ewells because the Ewells have nearly nothing.
Tom Robinson is a black man who is wrongfully convicted of raping a white girl, Mayella Ewell. This novel goes through Scout's life from when she was 6, till she is 9. She lives in the town of Maycomb Alabama, and lives an innocent life until about halfway through the story, where she begins to ask questions. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Scout shows the readers that racial inequality creates an unjust society through the African American community, through the people surrounding colored folks, and through Tom Robinson’s Case. The first example of the consequences of racial inequality is the African American community in Maycomb.
Showing them the harsh reality of life with honesty and fearlessness. During this time the Great Depression was hitting the southern town of Maycomb. This novel compares many of its characters to mockingbirds, a symbol of pure innocence. One summer, Atticus, who is a lawyer, finds himself in the middle of a controversial case, involving a African American man, Tom Robinson and a white woman, Mayella. Despite the town throwing hatred towards Atticus and his family, he doesn’t back down because he takes pride in helping the innocent.
“They don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (Lee 119). This quote shows why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird. The mockingbird is a central idea shown by characters throughout the book, here’s why… The book is set in the small town of Maycomb, where there are a lot of prejudice and mean people.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel that show the life of a southern state od Alabama during the “black racism” time period, where majority of the people had the mentality that (quote) with the exception of a few. To chosen to portray it from the eyes of Scout Finch, from a child’s point of view. Living in Maycomb, in the midst of a conservative society of the 1930’s and 20’s Southern America Scout Finch is an extra ordinary child.
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” is set sometime in the 1930s in Maycomb County Alabama. The story is told through the point of view of Scout Finch who lives with her father, Atticus, and brother, Jem. The kids like to play pretend with their friend Dill about the man who lives in a scary house down the road, Boo Radley. The kids come in a few close counters along the way during these games in which Atticus does not approve. Scouts’ father, a lawyer, is appointed by Judge Taylor to defend Mr. Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a young girl.
In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee teaches us about the town of Maycomb County during the late 1930s, where the characters live in isolation and victimization. Through the perspective of a young Jean Louise “Scout” Finch, readers will witness the prejudice that Maycomb produces during times where people face judgement through age, gender, skin colour, and class, their whole lives. Different types of prejudice are present throughout the story and each contribute to how events play out in the small town of Maycomb. Consequently, socially disabling the people who fall victim from living their life comfortably in peace. Boo Radley and his isolation from Maycomb County, the racial aspects of Tom Robinson, and the decision Atticus Finch makes as a lawyer, to defend a black man has all made them fall in the hands of Maycomb’s prejudice ways.
To Kill a Mockingbird is a story that takes place during the Great Depression in a small town located in southern Georgia in the 1930s. The book focuses on Jean Louise “Scout” and Jeremy Atticus “Jem” and their coming of age and the major events that made the two grow up. One of the events was the trial of the Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, in which their father, Atticus Finch, was defending Tom, a man of color. Mockingbirds are used throughout the book to represent people that were harmed by the society even though they were innocent. There is a common misinterpretation of the meaning behind the Mockingbird leading many to believe that Scout is the Mockingbird in the story.
Option 2 Literary Analysis To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel set during the 1930s in a small town in Southern Alabama called Maycomb. The story is told through the narrator, Scout, a young girl who lives with her father, a lawyer, and her older brother Jem. As a child, Scout is portrayed as a stubborn and obnoxious little girl who loves to read, play with her brother Jem, and fantasize about her mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. However, her life gets turned upside down when Scout’s father agrees to do something that is deemed unacceptable in the south; he agrees to defend Tom Robinson, a black man who is accused of raping a white girl. Instantly, Atticus and his family go from being respected and beloved by their town, to being
The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the town of Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. The author Lee demonstrates some major themes such as social inequality, intolerance, education, legal justice and bravery through this character. The title To Kill a Mockingbird symbolises innocence where Lee explores this through the eyes of Jem and Scout who are kids of Atticus Finch. He is one of the most honest, patient, kind, fair, respected and admired men in Maycomb during the Great Depression. Atticus is known for his moral character throughout the book.