Comparing 1930's Society, as Depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird with Present Day Society

In the book ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee, racism and social inequality are two central themes. Many different forms of social inequality coexist in the society depicted in the book, as the people of Maycomb are very rigid in their ways. This is because the book takes place in a time at which there was much racism and social inequality. In Maycomb, firstly there is discrimination between rich and poor white people, who do not often interact with each other. There is also racism against blacks by all white people in society, both rich and poor. Black people are denied basic rights and discriminated against in this town. Lastly, there is racism between the lowest classes of the community: poor white people and

Education before the Civil War in the South was not as important as in the North. In the South, states did not stress over education and thought it was a private matter. They believed the education should be given in a house where the values of society would be taught.

If to kill a mockingbird had taken place in a different time scouts life, the characters freedoms and the southern lifestyle would be different.

It is important to put yourself in one’s shoes. By doing so, you can understand that person’s situation better. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Aunt Alexandra is prejudiced towards social classes, and Bob Ewell is prejudiced towards people whose skin color is different than his.

Between the time period of 1840 and 1860, slavery played an influential and pivotal role in the development of a new southern lifestyle. In the struggle for dominance in America, slavery was the South’s stronghold and the underlying cause in much of their motives for many of the economic instigations along with the affirmative political actions. By dominating the everyday southerner’s life, slavery also dominated the economic and political aspects of life during the height of the slavery period. By the 1840’s the Southern economy had become almost entirely slave and and agriculturally dependent. Without the dependence of slaves in the south, a person was to remain landless, poverty stricken or struggling to sustain life through the means

From the Revolutionary War onwards, the South has been developed as the shining example of what an American should be like. Slavery was a huge attribute of Southern society, though looked down upon by the world, it was practiced and eagerly defended by political logic and religious zeal. One argument is made from a Senator

In the antebellum south, the Large Plantation – agricultural way of life dominated the whole society. Only 25% of white southerners owned slaves and most did not live in mansions but in dark, cramped, two-room cabins. Cotton was the crucial cash crop of the South, but it was not the only crop grown there. Corn, sugar, rice, and tobacco were also grown – but Cotton was king, and the most labor intensive of all these crops. Not only was the South reliant on cotton, but the northern factories relied on the raw material as well as England. The South was the world’s largest producer and from 1815 to 1860 it represented over ½ the U.S. exports.

The South was left in ruins after the war. Homes and families were displaced, Railroads and industry were damaged, farms once full of cotton and tobacco were stripped down to nothing. In aspirations that it

Throughout our readings this semester, one of the main issues that has surfaced time and time again is the poor economic conditions that plagued much of the South. Resulting from a lack of education, many people in the South have a limited skill set and worked on farms or in mills for little pay. As time progresses, education and economic conditions sluggishly improve in states across the South. Today, the South is still regarded by some as a bunch of ignorant rednecks, but many of these rednecks are first generation college students.

Imagine a place where the verdict of a rape trial stems from racial prejudice rather than the proper evaluation of proven evidence. This is Maycomb, Alabama, the strange, Southern town where Scout and Jem Finch grow up during the 1930s in the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. In short, the novel travels a thin line between a light-hearted narrative of the siblings’ childhood with their single father, a defense attorney named Atticus Finch, and the injustices that arise within their close-knit community. The complexities include extreme racism, a peculiar social hierarchy, and general misunderstandings of certain people within the small town. These are all seen as “Maycomb ways”, almost as if they are considered facts. Through her writing, Lee conveys an important message that an essential part of a child’s education often takes place in a home or community rather than a classroom by utilizing the characters, Atticus Finch and Tom Robinson, a black man accused of rape whom Atticus is defending.

Research shows that children are more susceptible to commit crimes, fail in maintaining long lasting relationships and develop depression as well as other psychological disorders from the effects of bad parenting. In fact, many people grow up treating others the same way their parents have treated them with reference to their parents’ values, behaviours and attitudes. Harper Lee, an American author, expressed her childhood experiences in Alabama through writing the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. In this novel Harper Lee highlights the prevailing racist attitudes that existed in Alabama in the 1930s. Lee does this by having the parenting style of Atticus, and its impact on his children, stand in contrast to these prevailing racist attitudes. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee conveys that Atticus Finch is a great parent because he is not a hypocrite, he has a sense of fairness and he has good morals and values.

During the civil war, the states had a very vast difference between their views on slavery. The south refused to give up their views of slavery, before and even after the war was fought. This shows that even with forced sudden change in society, it will still take time for years of habit to change. In the book “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, it shows a black man on trial for his life. Some will claim this is a reason why change should occur quickly, but the human mind is not keen to accept such drastic change. So this is why social change should occur slowly, because of the jury, the opinions of the town, and the actions of people like Miss Maudie.

The way and rate that people mature at can be directly attributed to the values and beliefs of the society that surrounds an individual. It is undeniable that society’s perspective on many controversial issues will generally be adopted by the younger generations in a given society. Moreover, the exposure to significant events, coupled with the major influence of family members, can have an enormous impact on how an individual matures. Additionally, family members greatly help each other develop into moral adults by instilling in each other values that will ultimately determine an individual’s character. In Harper Lee’s timeless classic, To Kill a Mockingbird, the constant reiteration of Atticus Finch’s values, in

Outside the town limits, across the old sawmill tracks, lies a building with old paint crumbling off the sides and a cemetery lying right beside it. The brick-hard clay covered the land underneath both the churchyard and the cemetery. There lied crumbling tombstones and some new ones as well. Each one having an assortment of shattered coca-cola bottles, colorful glass, and dozens upon dozens of burnt out candles surrounding them. This was a happy place. The sweet aroma of Negro blossomed in the air, curating a scent of peppermint, snuff, and sweet lilac. It felt welcoming and homely. During the mid-1920s, in the darling town of Maycomb, Alabama, not all people had such a humbleness to them. Many people were not treated with the same respect and kindness as others, as shown in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, shows concerns about social class and how it affects everyone around them. Being different during the mid-1930s was excruciating, even though they were factors that can’t be controlled, and Lee wanted to make a point about that.

In Harper Lees’s masterpiece, To Kill a Mockingbird, moral education is a theme that only seems to bloom within the Finch household and is severely lacking in all of Maycomb County. The main character, Scout Finch, is growing in an environment where manners and education matter, this is a quality that can be attributed to the teachings of Atticus Finch and Calpurnia. In a world that is corrupted by prejudice, moral education is form of behavior that stands out, Harper Lee provides examples of this in Calpurnia’s discipline at home, Atticus’s ethical guidance and explanations for the reasoning behind his defense of Tom Robinson, and Scout’s bewilderment at Ms. Gate’s hypocrisy. Moral education is a theme that plays a core role in the development of the title characters as well as the deterioration of the town’s moral standards.