The Great Depression was “ a time of devastation and uncertainty”(McCabe 12). Harper Lee used many historical events in To Kill a Mockingbird. The Jim Crow laws,mob mentality, and Scottsboro trial.
The Jim Crow laws were one influence for Harper Lee in To Kill a Mockingbird. The Jim Crow laws perpetuated segregation. The Jim Crow laws were appalling. The Jim Crow laws were a set of anti-black laws. For instances Pilgrim states,African Americans were treated as second class citizens. Here are some example of the Jim Crow laws. Black males were unable to shake a white man’s hand or would never be allowed to curse at a white person(Pilgrim). There are two reasons for these laws. Here is the first reasoning. According to Pilgrim,christian ministers were taught that whites were the chosen people. Whites thought Blacks were cursed to be servants(Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws undergirded by the following beliefs or rationalizations. The final reason is they could only vote if there ancestors had voted before the Civil War(Pilgrim). There were multiple punishments for Blacks,if they didn't follow the laws. Some examples of the punishments are they used violence, arrestment, and losing their jobs and homes(Pilgrim). In the image there is a black man dancing with ratty clothes and in the background the animals are in nice formal clothes (V. E).
The Jim Crow laws can be seen in To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. African Americans folks did use courtesy titles of respect when
The Great Depression was a devastating time where millions of Americans lost their jobs and their homes (McCabe 12). Not only did the Great Depression influence the writing of her novel, Harper Lee used other historical events to influence the creation of To Kill a Mockingbird. The Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials are some of the historical events that inspired To Kill a Mockingbird.
The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a set of rules that perpetuated racism and segregation. These rules were sickening and appalling. The Jim Crow laws were made to keep Blacks from interacting with Whites. For example, if a white woman were to fall a black man could not offer her, his hand to help her up because it was considered rape (Pilgrim 2). Many scientists and religious leaders justified these laws. One reason was that scientist thought that black peoples brains were inferior to those of white people. Also, many religious leaders believed that Whites were the chosen people and Blacks were just there to serve them (Pilgrim 2). If you were not following these laws, there were sever consequences. People believed these punishments were necessary to “keep Blacks in their place”. One example is mass lynching. This punishment is when a mob of people would take a black person, accused of breaking a rule, and beat them, torture them, and kill them. The police didn’t just not stop these rampages, often they would participate. The Jim Crow laws can be seen in To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. One of the laws was that a black person could not say that a white person was lying (Pilgrim). This is shown in the book when Tom is accused of calling Mayella a liar, by Mr. Gilmer (Lee 224).
The Jim Crow Laws were first created in the Southern United States to separate black and white people from even the slightest contact. We recognize this many times throughout To Kill A Mockingbird, for example, whenever Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her church. Calpurnia belongs to a black church, however the children are white so a few members of the black church do not want the white children to attend their church. One of the colored people at Calpurnia's church says ¨You ain't got no business bringin’ white chillun here-they got their church, we got ours.¨ (Lee, 158). This resembles segregation and The Jim Crow Laws because it talks about how white people should only go to one church and the black
Racism is the belief that characteristics and abilities can be attributed to people simply based on their race and that some racial groups are superior to others. This has been a problem in our world forever. In to Kill a Mockingbird there are so many racist events and it reflects on the society as a whole till this day. The book setting was the 1930’s in a small county of Maycomb, where most people were racist and discriminatory. People think racism has died off, but it is still a huge problem. People choose to raise their children and teach them that racism is okay and that is how there is still racism today. There are so many statistics out there based on skin color that right there is even racist if everyone is equal why are there polls being taken separating people by the color of their skin?
The books To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men were written during the Great Depression. Both of these books tell a story in which the characters are living through these tough conditions every day, from having no money to being racially discriminated. To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men convey considerable understanding of a turbulent era in American history.
After the Roaring 20s an Economic Disaster struck which is well known as the Great Depression. This made struggles for thousands of people and put them out of work , money, and at the very least food. All though the Great Depression was rarely mentioned in Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, there are multiple instances stating economic trouble throughout the novel. A tumultuous event such as the Great Depression exacerbated tensions in the novel much like socio economic divides influences conflicts today; this is revealed through the analysis of events in the novel as well as present-day issues.
Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the sleepy, southern Maycomb, Alabama. A small town in the grips of 1930’s depression, To Kill a Mockingbird spans a period of three years following young Scout Finch and her family through their experiences with racism and prejudice. Jim Crow laws were a series of ordinances the prevented equal treatment of African-Americans. Beginning with the end of Reconstruction in 1877 and remaining in effect until the Civil rights movement of the 1950s, Jim Crow laws governed where colored people could live, work, eat, enter and exit a building, and use public services. “Jim Crow laws grew from theories of white supremacy and were a reaction to Reconstruction,” explained Andrew Costly of the Constitutional Rights Foundation, “In the depression-racked 1890s, racism appealed to whites who feared losing their jobs to blacks.” Ensuring that freed slaves remained weak and inferior, Jim Crow laws revoked black freedom’s and crippled their rights. And while not explicitly stated, evidence of Jim Crow Laws appears methodically throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. Strongly influenced by elements of racism, the story paints a vivid picture of life in the era of Jim Crow, for both colored and white.
Throughout U.S history african american have faced different types of unjust and unfair rom the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement where black people have either been slaves who tirelessly worked for no pay. Or they were treated as something that was below or better white people
The Jim Crow Laws are state and local laws that segregated the Southern United States. It promoted the “separate but equal” status for African Americans that was established in the 1890. The name came from “Jump Jim Crow” and was often attributed to a song-and-dance caricature of African Americans, which first surfaced in 1832. The Jim Crow Laws affected black and white people by segregating them from one another. This includes things as small as drinking fountains and bathrooms to schools and workspace. It affected people views by making people have no connections to an African American to make it impossible to have any personal experience to sum up the actual people. It is connected to the story throw the way that you don’t
In to Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Jim Crow laws supported segregation and racist attitudes in Maycomb County Alabama.
The Jim Crow Laws were made to enforce segregation. In To Kill A Mockingbird, there is lots of segregation. White people have their part of the town and black people have theirs. White people have their opinions and black people have theirs. It never talked about the Jim Crow Laws specifically, but you could definitely see examples of them.
To Kill a Mockingbird is filled with with segregation and social injustice and this was a time when great depression was a big deal in this time period. During the novel, there was a lot of racial and social injustice happening throughout
Racial discrimination has been around for the last century, and it is still occurring in the modern era, with it a major wave of negative and sometimes positive contribution to the world. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the author demonstrates a very clear definition of racial discrimination through Tom Robinson’s case. To Kill a Mockingbird is a story mostly defined for its significance through Tom Robinson’s trial, a colored man being accused of raping and beating Mayella a white girl and being defended by Atticus Finch a white male, but the end results claims him guilty. In three other sources “Letter from Birmingham Jail” by Martin Luther King Jr., “Montgomery Boycott” by Coretta Scott King, and “The Back of the Bus” by Mary Mebane
To kill a mocking bird happened during a time of despair and during the great depression and this drastically impacted the story in many different aspects. The great depression was a time in the 20th century when the economy crashed and when the majority if not all of the population were in great panic.
The Great Depression impacted the real world, but how does it influence “To Kill a Mockingbird?” The author, Harper Lee created an extraordinary story set in the economically gloomy era of the 1930s. The Great Depression damaged America, as the pinnacle of social inequality revealed. Lee incorporates varying issues in the novel. Lee portrays a fierce realism as she depicts the 1930s, using accurate allusions and plot elements of each concern during that time.