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To Kill A Mockingbird Societal Expectations Essay

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The Impact that Societal Expectations have on an Individual's Actions To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in the 1930’s Alabama during the great depression. From reading the book, we get taken into the roots of human behaviour and find out some of the experiences that people had back in 1930's Alabama. The book centres around the main character Scout Finch, and through her narration, she shows us how people thought, and what racism looks like at that time. The small town of Maycomb is a place where everyone knows each other and expects everyone to act a certain way. When Atticus, a man who is respected by the entire town, decides to defend Tom Robinson, a black man, the whole town turns on him because he did not do what society thought was right. Societal expectations have a major impact on an individual's actions. An example society expects you to do could be as simple as holding the door for someone else or . It’s a social norm, individuals who have to make a decision will tend to do what society thinks is right even if they have to go against what …show more content…

In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the jury in the Tom Robinson trial had to make a decision. Tom Robinson who was an innocent man, was convicted for a crime he did not do. Atticus proves his innocence with hard facts and it was up to the jury if they wanted to deem Tom Robinson guilty or not guilty. The jury thought about the case for a long time which does not happen often with cases about a black man in the 1930's, but in the end they did deem him guilty. Even though that they knew that he was an innocent man, they proclaimed that he was guilty, because they had to make a decision, and they decided to do what society thought was right. When Tom Robinson knew that there would be nothing that could save him he decided to run, not because he was guilty but because he knew that he would die either

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