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To Kill A Mockingbird Mob Mentality Analysis

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To Kill a Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee and follows the adventures of Scout Finch and her older brother Jem. Historical occurrences influence Harper Lee’s writing, prompting the book to deal with the challenges faced by people during The Great Depression and the racial tensions that were present in the United States. Central plot points throughout the book depict Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and racism. The Jim Crow laws were a racial caste system that promoted inequality. People believed that the Jim Crow laws were necessary to protect white women, stop the mixing of races, and prevent African Americans from becoming big economic competitors to the local white business. Examples of the law were blacks and whites could not …show more content…

This is shown in current examples like department sales, evacuations, and teens being pressured into drinking or smoking (Smith). Mob mentality is a dark part of the United States history. An event that demonstrates this is the lynching of Tom Ship and Abe Smith that occurred in Marion, Louisiana on the night of August 6th, 1930. A mob broke out due to the shooting of Mr.Deter who was a 24 year old white man. Tom, Abe, and one other man were jailed for the crime without substantial evidence. The mob eventually broke into the jail and proceeded to beat Tom to death with a crowbar, then drag Abe to the courthouse square where they hung him (“StrangeFruit: Anniversary of a Lynching”). A photo taken at the lynching shows the graphic scene of Tom and Abe’s bodies hanging from a tree. The most chilling element is the thousands of people gathered around them who are seemingly unshaken by the event (Beitler). Mob mentality is prevalent in To Kill a Mockingbird. The most iconic scene in the book that displays mob mentality is when a group of farmers from old sarum arrive at the jail looking to cause harm to Tom Robinson. The group of men were attempting to get to Tom because he was arrested for supposedly rapeing a white women, and they wanted get justice for her by punishing or killing Tom. The mob was eventually defused when Scout began to talk to Mr.Cunningham through the crowd about his son and entailment, thus discarding the notion of anonymity (Lee 193-195). Mobs were not only fueled by a need for revenge or twisted justice but by the server underling issue of racism in the United

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