“There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County” (5). This quote is from To Kill A Mockingbird, a novel written by Harper Lee, and told in the voice of six-year-old Scout Finch who grows up in Maycomb, Alabama, during the 1930’s. She lives with her brother, Jem, and her father, Atticus, who is a well-respected lawyer who takes the case of a black man that is accused of rape. The 1930’s is not the most fitting or ideal time to grow up because everyone is struggling financially because of the Great Depression. The Great Depression, a ten-year economic decline, lasting from 1929-1939. Harper Lee paints a vivid description of what life was like …show more content…
Jim Crow laws were very common in the 30’s and is viewed throughout the book. Harper Lee, clearly depicts racism and what it was like in the nineteen-thirties.One way the audience see’s racism is through the segregation between whites and blacks. When Calpurnia (Jem and Scouts black housekeeper) bring the children to her mostly black church one of the members overreact. She says, "[y]ou ain't got no business bringin' white chillun here--they got their church, we got our'n. It is our church , ain't it?” (119). This illustrates the resentment towards white community members in segregated Maycomb County. Dolphus Raymond is a man who is aware of prejudice and racism in Maycomb. Dolphus is a white man married to a black woman, but the town does not agree with the situation. Instead of joining in on the racism he would rather be shunned and portrayed as an alcoholic. Dolphus does not drink but he let the towns people think that he’s a drunk. He tells the kids”I’m not much of a drinker, but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that’s the way I want to …show more content…
The culture of the south of the 1930’s is evidently Illustrated. In the 1930’s respect was a huge part of life, and was taken very seriously. Harper shows how important respect is when Scout makes fun of the way Walter Cunningham eat. Calpurnia pulls Scout to the side and says,”there's some folks who don't eat like us," she whispered fiercely, "but you ain't called on to contradict 'em at the table when they don't. That boy's yo' comp'ny and if he wants to eat up the tablecloth you let him, you hear?” After Calpurnia tells her about herself she give her a nice spanking. The stereotypic 30’s woman is expected to very well-dressed and have some sort of etiquette. The women in the novel carry themselves like women from the 30’s. Aunt Alexandra is seen as a typical woman in this time. Scout says “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants.” During the 30’s in the women were expected to tend to domestic affairs. Like the proper lady aunt alexandra,was an excellent cook, often hosted many gatherings and participated in both clubs and societies. Social class is a division of a society based on wealth, intelligence, and background. An average social pyramid begins with the wealthy white families and ends with anyone who was black. This is how the
Racism, in today’s world is not as frequent as it was in the 1900’s. Racism in the 1900’s was incredibly widespread, and the majority of white Americans were racially prejudiced against the people of color. Even though racism was widespread in the 1900’s it is currently grimaced upon and not exceedingly widespread at all. People of color are nowadays not cast off in today’s world, but are accepted like any other person. Racial disparity has been a notorious predicament in associations to moral ethics for long periods of time.
Racism today was way different from the 1930’s. Back then racism was African Americans couldn't do the thing and were separated from the rest of the people. Also, face very harsh social discrimination and could barely do anything about it. Nowadays racism is illegal but it still is happening. But it a different way from the 1930’s.
In the opening pages of her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee wrote these words: “There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with…but it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.” Lee alludes to the seemingly inadequate reassurance that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt provided during his inauguration speech at the onset of the Great Depression, while also describing the melancholy and hopelessness that many citizens felt. This sentiment, however, was not just confined to the United States—the impact of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 had also reverberated throughout Latin America, and
Life in the 1930s was difficult if you weren’t a healthy white man. The further away you were from this “ideal” the harder daily life was. Minorities in this time period were often considered abnormal or less superior and in turn, were heavily discriminated against. This included a wide range of groups- women, African Americans, disabled, elderly, etc.. This topic really helps explore how the world worked in “Of Mice and Men.”
The 1930's was a time of change for the blacks of the United States of America. However, this change was not all for the better. The main change for blacks during this period was that many of them migrated to the North, which in turn, caused many other situations, which included
Gender roles are another cause of social divisions and inequality the Harper Lee teaches about. Scout defies gender roles and she is looked down upon by many of the women in her community for doing so. Scout’s Aunt Alexandra is one woman who looks down upon scout for this. “Aunt Alexandra was fanatical on the subject of my attire. I could not possibly hope to be a lady if I wore breeches; when I said I could do nothing in a dress, she said I wasn’t supposed to be doing things that required pants,” (108). Aunt Alexandra believes ladies are not permitted to be taking place in activities that require pants. She disapproves of how Scout likes to participate in activities she sees as unladylike. This shows the inequality in this society due to gender roles. Another woman who challenges Scouts appearance as a lady is her neighbor Miss Stephanie. When Aunt Alexandra has a
The character Dolphus Raymond shows the readers inequality Whites show towards African Americans throughout the Great Depression. Dolphus Raymond’s life shows the reader that him and his family are discriminated from the other families in Maycomb. In Dolphus’ earlier life, he married an African American woman and had “mixed” children; in the book it stated his children have no true home, “Colored folks won’t have ‘em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em because they’re colored,” (Lee, 1960, 214). The discrimination in Maycomb is highlighted by the creation of Dolphus Raymond’s kids; they do not belong in any community during this time period. Neither Dolphus or his family can fit into a perfect way of life. The
In the year of 1959 numerous things happened, as well as several things being released. It could surprise younger people of our generation; the way things worked, what happened, and even how many things were priced. Though the US abolished slavery in 1865, (and in 1870 African American men were given the right to vote though it was not until almost a century later that this was fully recognized across the US.) the US was still a fairly racist place, an example is that it white and black people lived in their own little area(A white street, and vica versa). This was not enforced by any law obviously so a black family could very well live in ‘white’ neighborhood. It would just earn lot attention, and controversy from other people.
In To Kill A MockingBird, Injustice is detracted in the lifestyle of everyday lives of coloured folks in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. The segregation; distribution of resources; the pursuit of happiness are clearly demonstrated in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. The time area is during the Great Depression (Lee), the folks in Maycomb, was a small community with interesting people that keeps the town lively.
The number one thing that society is best at is tearing one’s life apart for the most ludicrous reasons. In this great novel that Harper Lee had written, To Kill A Mockingbird, she had made it pretty clear that the story took place during the Great Depression in the 1930’s. It was clear that it had taken place during this time because of how she had explained the setup of things. Nobody in the town she lived in had a lot of money, and as she had explained, she just grew up in a small, poor town. Of course, the Great Depression had played a major role in this factor, though. As Lee had explained in the beginning of the book, ‘“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it… There was no hurry,
In this article there was affect that affected the whole story. This affect had to do with the great depression and racism back in the 1940s. People did not like black people. They would separate them from there color and the blacks had less rights
Do many Americans know what happened in the 1930s? Many know about the racism that was long ago but they don’t know what was going on at the time. Racism is discrimination against another race, racism in the 1930s affected colored people and was unfair. The government made it equal by segregation.
The Differences in Racism In the 1920’s racism was very open and the treatment of white men and white women were different than the treatment of black men and black women. The majority of racism happened in the south, while also across the nation. With the “KKK,” (Ku Klux Klan) who originated in Tennessee in 1866, The Klan employed various methods for terrorizing and intimidating the group is completely against blacks and the “KKK” was at first just a social group, but when blacks started gaining more and more rights, that social group became murderers and was the most feared organization in the U.S. The “KKK” is also still here till this day in some places in the United States but they are not as broad as they were back in their prime.
Racism is bad now, but imagine it in the 1930’s. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, showed what could happen when racism is involved in the world. A southern town in Maycomb, Alabama was suffering through the Great Depression. A six year old girl, Scout Finch, told the story about her family and growing up in Maycomb. Her father, Atticus was an attorney trying to prove a black man innocent of raping a white woman, but the trial ran on. There were many examples of racism in the book, including when Calpurnia, the family housekeeper, took Scout and Jem to an African-American church. Next was when Scout realized how ignorant their neighbor Mrs. Dubose was. Along with them, Bob Ewell was very racist in the book, creating lots of tension between the characters.
Racism is a disturbing and brutal topic. People over look racism because they don't feel that their opinion is going to affect the community. The question often asked is “How has racism changed” and “Has racism gotten better or worse?” I am on the fence with this particular topic. Today, we have no more segregation in the United States, this means no more separate water fountains, bathrooms, schools, blacks don't have to sit at the back of busses, etc. Although, there has been more brutal acts of racially motivated acts against all races. Obviously there's still racism, it’s not just going to disappear, it’s always going to be here. It’s all about people’s opinions, it’s not like a fact that can be proven wrong. Racism has changed in many different ways since the 1930s.