Boundaries of To Kill A Mockingbird To recognize differences in people is a common behavior of humans, past and present. How people react to diversity will alter how society runs. Over 70 years ago, some could recognize the good in variation and the benefit it can give to our culture, but most saw it as their way of life being threatened by the unknown. In To Kill A Mockingbird, the author, Harper Lee, shows a small-minded Southern town in the 1930s struggling with the ideas of change in a familiar world, thus enforcing the barriers set by generations before and causing townspeople’s lives to be changed forever. The boundaries of race, class, and gender are all apparent in Maycomb County. Race is a boundary in Maycomb County. First of all, …show more content…
To begin with, the Cunninghams are a family that exemplifies how money and class can be a near impossible boundary to overcome. While they are a family with commendable values, such as never accepting something they cannot pay back, they can never be as good as some of the other townspeople. This is simply because the Cunninghams have less money than most. Additionally, a family that finds it hard to overcome the boundary of class is the Ewell family. While Bob Ewell has dragged his family into the situation of poverty and recklessness they are in, the children are now trapped in a class that is looked down upon by everyone but African Americans. Nobody in Maycomb County will associate themselves with the children, which becomes apparent in the trial when Mayella is questioned about having friends her own age and responds with “You makin’ fun o’me agin, Mr. Finch?” (208). By Mayella’s hostile and defensive reaction, it can be deemed that she doesn’t have friends. This all shows that the Ewell children have a barrier around them that unjustly isolates them from all the other white people of Maycomb based on their poverty and father. Lastly, boundaries of class are maintained by the women of Maycomb County, particularly Aunt Alexandria. The most important thing to Aunt Alexandria is heritage, which creates an unjust way of judging people based on the actions of those who have come before them. She shows how important silly things can be to those who need another reason to feel they are better than others, therefore perpetuating the social class system of Maycomb. As it has been clearly demonstrated, class is a boundary in Maycomb
Many students believe that Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a commentary on social issues in 1930’s America. However, over time new themes for discussion have grown from the novel. The courage and leadership of characters in To Kill a Mockingbird have become common subjects discussed by today’s students. In this way, Lee’s novel has evolved to meet the changing ideology of humanity. At the time of the novel, standing up against common customs and beliefs was unacceptable, a violation of societal rules. Several characters in To Kill a Mockingbird express outrage at the collective belief system of their community and show resilience in the face of persecution, much as many current leaders face when espousing unconventional views or actions.
To conclude, it is proven during numerous instances found in Harper Lee’s award-winning novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, that societal pressures and the rigid rules and boundaries that society sets can overwhelm anyone of any class, race or background. It is unjust to assume anyone’s character by their set status but unfortunately, negative after-effects immediately take place as soon as one tries to step out of their preordained place. As Mayella Ewell, Scout and Jem Finch and Atticus Finch were the examples of this bitter truth, there are many other characters affected by the societal impacts on everyday life in the novel.
It is acknowledged by many readers that there are many different social classes in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. One of the most obvious social class distinctions is between skin colors, which can be seen through this novel. Since most readers’ focal point of this novel is on the distinctions between skin colors, they are unlikely to pay attention to the difference in social class within the white community. Lee wants to illustrate a contrast in white society and how characters behave differently through the uses of character foil, characterization, and the theme of society inequality in order to emphasize the differences in social classes.
To Kill A Mockingbird displays an environment where one must be inhumane to another in order to become socially compatible. Maycomb has established a hierarchy where social compartmentalisation is the way of life. Men with a profession and a career are superior, while the farmers are near the bottom of the social strata and are considered inferior. No matter which remarkable qualities Negroes possess, they are always s...
In Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird three characters, Scout, Jem, and Atticus Finch, experience the many hardships and difficulties of human inequality in their community, Maycomb County. Scout, the narrator, gives insight to readers about the many different characters of Maycomb, yet two are alike in many ways. Mayella Ewell is a 19-year-old girl who is considered white trash and lacks education, love, and friends. Dolphus Raymond is a wealthy white man who is married to an African-American and has mixed children. Although these characters may seem different, they share many of the same advantages and disadvantages of human inequality.
Strict Social Scrapes in the Segregated South In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a small town in Alabama exemplifies one of the many towns that has clearly defined social classes. Some of these stereotypes are determined by one’s class, nationality, and gender, and the authority that people believe they possess, which leads to conflict. During the 1930’s in the south, Mayella Ewell’s gender and class did not provide her with a voice. However, her skin color outshone her disadvantages, and allowed her to be highly respected, and this also gave her power over all black people.
In the book To Kill a Mockingbird the two families, the Cunninghams and Ewells are displayed as two completely different families. On one side there are the Ewells, a dirty, lazy and uneducated family who is contempt of the law. Then there is the Cunninghams, a polite, educated and law-abiding family. The Ewells have been the disgrace of Maycomb and because of this, the Cunninghams are the favorable of the two. Upcoming information in this essay will prove that the Ewells may be kicked out of Maycomb.
Growing up in a prejudiced environment can cause individuals to develop biased views in regard to both gender and class. This is true in Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, where such prejudices are prevalent in the way of life of 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The novel is centered around the trial of a black man who is accused of raping a white woman. The narrator, a young girl named Scout, is able to get a close up view of the trial because her father is defending Tom Robinson, the defendant. The aura of the town divided by the trial reveals certain people’s prejudices to Scout, giving her a better perspective of her world.
The Ewells are “ the disgrace of Maycomb for three generations. None of them had done an honest day’s work in his recollection” (Lee 30). They had lack of education, no parental guidance and no morals. The Ewells had not gone to school for no more than a day and takes the rest of the school year off. They were “members of an exclusive society made up of Ewells” (Lee 30). They were looked as below the normal because Mr. Bob Ewell would “spend his relief check on green whiskey his children have a way of crying from hunger pains (Lee 31). Mayella is the oldest sibling of the Ewells and is responsible for taking care of all her brothers and sisters while her father is either drunk or in the swamp. Nonetheless, they live in the dump, with little
The novel To Kill A MockingBird is primarily based on the problems associated with prejudice and cultural bias during the 30’s. These themes that are explored by Harper Lee allow’s a greater approach to referencing belonging and most of
The book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee contain a very engaging family who are the Cunninghams. The Cunninghams are very poor; they are people who live in the woods. They are a family who depend highly on crops. Walter Cunningham, the 'father' of the family has to work hard on the cultivation of crops because crops is the only form of wages for them. The Cunninghams have no money. Their only way to survive is through paying others with their crops. The Cunninghams are not main characters in the book, but they are characters who 'brought out' other characters' personality. Harper Lee displays that there is a lot of prejudice going on in Maycomb by putting the Cunninghams in the book. "The Cunninghams [were] country folks, farmers"(21) who are very honest people in Maycomb, they "never took anything they [could not] pay back"(23), but they are unfairly mistreated by part of the society in Maycomb.
To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around human behavior and the boundaries that it facilitates. The boundaries of the quiet little town of Maycomb, Alabama are constantly tested by the games that people play. In each game, distinctions evolve. The distinctions become the rules of the game, of life, and from them, different boundaries form for each new character. With each new drama, characters and distinctions change, as do the boundaries which form them.
"Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among stones"- Charlotte Brontë. Nearly every problem and unfortunate mishap in Harper Lee's, To Kill A Mockingbird, has been somehow revolved around prejudice or discrimination. Many different forms of prejudice are found throughout the novel, with racism, sexism, and classicism the most common. The residents of Maycomb have discrimination running through their veins and were raised to be racist and sexist, without realizing. They see nothing wrong with judging other people and treating people that they find inferior harshly. Prejudice is a destructive force because it separates the people of Maycomb, both physically and mentally.
Everyone wants to be accepted for who they are, but accepting other people’s differences can be extremely hard. Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is all about accepting people for their differences. The acceptance of other races is explored when Jem and Dill find out the Mr. Raymond, the town “drunk”, is married to an African American woman by choice. Scout learns a lesson of accepting people when Walter Cunningham comes over for dinner. Finally, the story of Boo Radley teaches children to accept those with mental disabilities. As our protagonists learned more about the other characters they find it easier to accept them, and they learn that people are not what everyone else makes them out to be.
Sum up, the social relationship between these people here, this old town Maycomb is complicated and pretty tense. This novel has taught us so much, thanks to Harper Lee – one of the greatest writers of all time. It has opened our eyes wider about racism at that time and compared it to nowadays it has become so much better. People are equally, no matter what skin color you are, what religion you have, or where you’re from, what you’re appearance looks like, we are all equal, and we are all the same – human. So instead of treating badly to one another we should all united and make the world a better place.