ipl-logo

Mildred D. Taylor Setting Analysis

841 Words4 Pages

Mildred D. Taylor chose Mississippi as the backdrop for her novel for two main reasons. Firstly, it is a Southern state of the United States which made it possible for racial segregation to be so extreme. Also, since 1933 was the period after the Great Depression, it made the black sharecroppers’ poor financial state very realistic as the people in the South were struggling to make ends meet. This allows the blacks to be portrayed as victims of racism as well as poverty.

As a Southern state of the US, Mississippi passed Jim Crow laws which discriminated against black people and brought about racial segregation. This would tie in with the novel’s theme of racial discrimination and provide a backdrop for incidents that show the unfair treatment …show more content…

The bus driver’s audacity to accelerate upon seeing them shows his utter disregard for the lives of the blacks. Racial prejudice against the black children is seen as the white children laugh at them, completely unable to sympathise with their plight. Moreover, the incident of the Berrys’ burning also illustrates the effects of racial discrimination on the blacks. They are victimised simply because the whites see them as trying to change the status quo. Just because John Henry Berry ‘had a nice little place up there’ at Smellings Creek, which the Whites deemed as unacceptable because they felt he should be in the same financial state as the rest of the black sharecroppers. They justify his burning with the excuse that he allegedly flirted with a white woman. Although this is only hearsay, they still go ahead with attacking him without sufficient evidence of his wrongdoings. The fact that they not only burnt him but his uncle and Beacon as well, who were completely innocent, show that even if their accusation was correct, this was clearly not justice but more of a situation of racial prejudice. This shows the Whites have the liberty to go around freely burning black people …show more content…

Also, the fact that it was set in the period right after the Great Depression made the black sharecroppers’ plight more pitiful as they have to deal with racism as well as financial issues. This makes it easier for the readers to sympathise with the black people and would allow the story to leave a greater impact on the

Show More
Related

  • Migration Dbq Analysis

    1377 Words  | 6 Pages

    Post-Reconstruction US was a very difficult time for many groups of people within the US. These people, specifically blacks, struggled to get and maintain jobs due to Jim Crow laws and severe racism and segregation. Sharecropping also limited the amount former slaves could rise on the social ladder, as it was basically a legal form of segregation. Doc. 7 shows this by proving that very little blacks were actually born in Philadelphia, a city notorious for its black population.

    Read More

  • Killers Of The Dream Lillian Smith Analysis

    335 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the book “Killers of the Dream” by Lillian smith there are several ideas that are brought forward that really demonstrate that the author exaggerates the true situation and the state of affairs in the south. In the context of the book, the south was experiencing serious crisis when the whited propagated segregation against the blacks and other low class whites. The paper contains the author’s thesis and a summary of the author’s primary points. Additionally, the paper examines whether the authors account is incomplete, questionable or cases where the account does not make sense. The social profiling that resulted was regrettable and brought serious repercussions to the society in general.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In A Gathering Old Men

    1926 Words  | 8 Pages

    Racism is one out of many important themes portrayed in the novel A Gathering Of Old Men written by Ernest J. Gaines 1983. The novel is set during the 1970”s on a Louisiana sugarcane plantation. Whites were threatened by the idea that blacks could one day be in power so they sought out other measures to uphold the absolute power of whites. In A Gathering Old Men, Gaines wants us to understand that the fight needs to keep going because racism still exist in recent times. Although it is usually connected somehow to violence, racism comes in many different forms in A Gathering Of Old Men.

    Read More

  • How Does Frederick Douglass Make Social Change

    469 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this book we can see how the author depict Southern culture in terms of

    Read More

  • Redlining In Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin In The Sun

    539 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her characters like Walter and Ruth are forced to live in a cramped house because they don’t have the money to move out. Walter has to work as a chauffeur driving people around all day for a low wage. Just like in that time period when African Americans could not get high paying jobs, this aided in the racial problem because it kept blacks from being able to move into white neighborhoods. Another method used to keep blacks out of White neighborhoods was contract buying. “When selling on contract, the speculator offered the home to a black purchaser for a relatively low downpayment- often several hundred dollars would suffice.

    Read More

  • Racism In James Baldwin's Notes Of A Native Son

    1455 Words  | 6 Pages

    James Baldwin is an activist and writer that was born and raised in Harlem that stood for equality within the black community. Baldwin is the grandson of a former slave and was the oldest of nine children where he grew up in poverty. At the age of fourteen, he discovered his passion for writing and reading by his hobby was going to libraries. As year He published his first book in 1955 known as Notes of a Native Son. The novel Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin displays a collection of essays of where he critiques racism and examines the culture of Blacks in White America.

    Read More

  • Diction In Letter From Birmingham Jail

    427 Words  | 2 Pages

    The authors use of words such as “dark clouds of racial prejudice” and “I cannot sit idly by” shows the injustice that was occurring in Birmingham. The “dark clouds” represent the social climate of Birmingham, allowing readers to see the negative effect it his having on the black citizens. He believed the injustice needed to be addressed and action needed to be taken against it, therefore what he did was justified. Additionally when Martin Luther King writes, “nagging signs reading ‘white’ men and colored when your first name becomes ‘nigger’ and your wife and mother are never given the respected title of Mrs…” This further demonstrates the unjust treatment of African Americans which is why someone needed to take action and not idly sit by as these things occcurred.

    Read More

  • Prejudice And Discrimination In Richard Wright's Black Boy

    3767 Words  | 16 Pages

    This chapter focuses on the depiction of prejudice, oppression and brutality in the novel under study. By analyzing the content of Black Boy we come to know about the different types of hardships and discrimination as experienced by the Richard Wright. 3.1 POVERTY AND HUNGER The text throws light on the neediness and the starvation as experienced by the black characters that are monetarily disempowered by the afflictions of racial segregation. The black population is deprived the right for equivalent work prospects.

    Read More

  • The Confession Of Nat Turner The Banned Book

    906 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many African American authors and critics very strongly disagreed with how the white plantation owners and the slaves were portrayed in the book. For example Nat Turner’s first slave owner, Samuel Turner, was presented in very high light. This was probably not the case, and that is the reason it enraged so many readers. The book was also banned in some places because of the sexual violence that was portrayed in the novel. Before I get into the book itself it is important to know about the actual person who was Nat Turner and the rebellion that he led in 1831.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor's Use Of Setting Analysis

    724 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Racism In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1914 Words  | 8 Pages

    How is the racial problem of the southern states of USA in the 1930s portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird? INTRO In the 1930s the Southern states of America suffered from a strong discrimination and racial hatred towards colored people. They had no rights, no respect and were not allowed to go places white people went. In other words they were segregated from the rest of the society.

    Read More

  • Ethical Dilemmas In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1399 Words  | 6 Pages

    Humans live in a world where moral values are very clearly set determining what is good and what is bad. We know what scares us and how racism should be treated. Nevertheless, this was not the case back in Alabama during the 1950s. In the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee narrates the lives of the people of Maycomb, Alabama, focusing on the story of Scout and Jem Finch, and the case of a said to be rape. In this emotion filled narrative, readers learn how life was back then not only in general, but for the separate social statuses that there was.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Isolation In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1244 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

    1067 Words  | 5 Pages

    How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.

    Read More

  • Social Stratification In The Movie The Help

    610 Words  | 3 Pages

    Black people were treated as less than because of their race and often had low paying jobs working for white people. Racism was especially bad in the south in states like Mississippi, where The Help takes place. The Civil Rights movement also started during this time so racial tensions were even higher during this

    Read More

More about Mildred D. Taylor Setting Analysis

Open Document