To Kill A Mockingbird Depression

Born into the era of the Great Depression, Harper Lee was brought up during the majority of the economic crisis and spent most of her childhood within the state of Alabama, which is one of the poorest states in America. The novel, also set just after the end of the Great Depression, gives an insight into how the financial instability was treated within then South states. The Great Depression was frightening period and was also a time of political instability, and this led to unfair money distribution, seen within the other families in Maycomb. The main family was the Ewells who lived off the land and hunted off season. The head of the family lived off pay checks from the government and was consequently perceived by the town as the lowest calibre

Another instance where the children learn to have empathy for the Cunninghams, is when their father gets paid by Mr. Cunningham. Instead of getting paid with money, Atticus is paid with goods from the Cunningham’s farm. Scout and Jem are puzzled as to why Atticus would rather get paid in goods instead of cash, but they soon find out why. ”Why does he pay you like that I asked?” “Because that’s the only way he can pay me. He has no money.”(27) Atticus and the kids understand that the Cunninghams don’t have much to give. They understand that they need help, so they have empathy and accept the goods as a form of payment. Through their experiences with the Cunninghams, the children learn to have empathy and acceptance to those who struggle with income.

As the story begins and we start to analyze the characters, Scout comes off as an being unable to grasp the realities of life due to her childlike innocence. We see this through her thoughts and actions. Walter Cunningham has a misfit with Scout in the beginning of the novel that can be an example of both her innocence and intolerance. It starts when Scout's teacher, Miss Caroline, tells Walter to take her money for lunch and suggests paying her back later. Walter refuses and Miss Caroline gets irritated. In attempt to explain why Walter doesn't take the money, Scout tells Miss Caroline the stigma of the Cunninghams. Scout says that Walter can't pay her back because he doesn't have the money; No Cunningham would ever take anything they couldn't pay back. When Scout gets in trouble for talking back, she blames it on Walter and reacted as follows, "Catching Walter Cunningham in the schoolyard gave me some pleasure, but when I was rubbing his nose in the dirt..." (Lee 30). This quote

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.

Even though it was bought by the African community of Alabama as a house of worship with the money they scrounge up white men used the church as a poor man’s casino. Using the prized possessions of the less fortunate as a worthless pastime can make them seem unequal in the eyes of some and like Tom Robinson’s arm it is just a larger disability set in place to stop them from thriving. Another thing that stops them from thriving is when people drop all their problems on

Education for blacks was scarce during the Great Depression. Since most blacks could not read they had a different method of singing hymns: “Jim said it looked like they could sure the collection money for a year and get some new hymn-books.’ Calpurnia laughed,’ Wouldn’t do any good,’ she said. ‘They can’t read’” (Lee 165)1. This quote from To Kill a Mockingbird shows that the African Americans are not getting the proper schooling needed. At the First Purchase Church only a few of the members know how to read, and they are people that, read the hymns.

It's ironic that Mr. Cunningham was one of the people in the mob who wanted Tom Robinson to die, but one of the Cunninghams ended up defending Tom in the trial. For once, they tried to think beyond their prejudice towards black and that due to the events in front of the town's jail. Scout then wants to invite Walter Cunningham to their house, but Aunt Alexandra refuses. She says that people from their family aren't a good influence.

Having heard Atticus talk about how the Cunninghams do not have much money but they always end up paying off their debts in some way, Jem knows that Walter can not help his family's situation. He also knows that instead of fighting with him, he should treat him with respect, (the way that Atticus has taught him). Jem invites Walter home to share their lunch since he does not have anything to eat. “Atticus had promised me he would wear me out if he ever heard of me fighting any more; I was far too old and too big for such childish things, and the sooner I learned to hold in, the better off everybody would be” (Ch 9 P. 1 Lee).

Walter Cunningham: The Cunningham family is one viewed by the public of Maycomb as a step below the townspeople, but a step above the Ewells. They prefer to survive off the land and their own hard work rather than on welfare. We learn much about the Cunninghams from Walter Jr., who is Scout’s classmate. Even though they don’t have enough money for food or shoes, it is known that the family cares about Walter Jr. It is said that on the first day of school, he showed up with a clean shirt and mended overalls, which shows that even though they’re poor, the Cunninghams care about their own and are more respectable than the Ewells.

While many people believe the issues of social class were eliminated with time, there are still problems today, as shown in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird and the article “Is Class the New Race?”. The article says that “It's become more difficult for the poor to move up into the middle class and more difficult for the middle to dig in its heels to stop from slipping into poverty” and the novel states that “Atticus said professional people were poor because the farmers were poor. As Macyomb County was farm country, nickels and dimes were hard to come by for doctors and dentists and lawyers” (Lee 21). This shows how people like the Finches living in a relatively poor farming county, even with their father being a lawyer, are struggling to keep

In the early 1900’s during the great depression, most families were very traditional with many social boundaries. There was lots of racism, segregation, and specific gender roles being played. The Finch family in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee had a harder time in life because they were not the typical Maycomb family.

Throughout the entirety of American history, the division of the people has had and will always have a plethora of factors; however, despite maintaining the world’s greatest economy for the past few decades, the division of citizens among economic class has never ceased to effect the way society functions. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee’s most phenomenal piece of work, is a novel that takes place during the Great Depression, and while mostly everyone had to live off of the scraps they could scrounge up, there were still distinct economic divides. In conjunction with these strong divides, many events that took place in the town were greatly manipulated by financial inequalities among the people. Particularly, the harsh effects of economic division can be seen in the way Walter Cunningham maintains his physical health, the way Walter Cunningham eats with the Finch’s, and the manner in which Scout speaks with Atticus. First off, the effects of economic division are exemplified in Maycomb by the way Walter Cunningham attempts, and fails, to have a sanitary body.

The book does a marvelous job of displaying themes of such, all of which are based off of families in Maycomb. Families like the Finches, Ewells, Cunninghams. The Finches are displayed to be very well educated and live a normal life. They live in a neighborhood and the Atticus works a job of a lawyer. Compared to the Ewells,

In the novel there are many signs that the Great Depression is in effect from setting, plot events, character dialog, and details in the story. The story takes place during the mid-1930s, the height of the Great Depression in the United States. Some events in the story also show the presence and influence of the Great Depression. One event is when Atticus Finch, an eminent lawyer and the father of Scout and Jem, is away for two weeks due to the state legislature calling an emergency meeting. The results of that meeting are told after stating the governor’s intentions, “The

One of the first major examples of how social class affects a society is how Atticus shares how the Ewells are very different in their society. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Scout was talking about what Atticus said about the Ewells. Atticus said the Ewells had been the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day’s work in his recollection” (40). Here Atticus is talking about how the Ewells aren’t structured at all and have no work ethic. Atticus also said “they are people, but