Examples Of Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is a courageous tale of leadership and bravery to others. From Atticus helping Tom, to Boo trying to communicate with the kids. Harper Lee used real-life events as inspirations for her novel To Kill A Mockingbird. There are connections to Jim Crow Laws, mob mentality, and issues of racism in that time period. Throughout the book there are many historical references, including the Jim Crow Laws. After reading the Jim Crow pieces, I conclude that Jim Crow was a variety of laws that were against blacks, trying to keep blacks away from whites. Blacks had different places to drink, eat, and go to the bathroom. Some people thought the laws were needed because they thought blacks were socially below them. Examples of the laws

Mob mentality is a dangerous group of people that may cause harm to people and places around them. There are current examples of mob mentality comparable to gatherings after sporting events, or even to inmates in a prison. Mobs can happen anywhere. An example from the text is, “…if a person is in a group that is vandalizing a building, he or she might believe than there is a less of a chance of getting caught than he or she acting alone” (Smith 1). With more people they believe they cannot arrest everyone, so more people join the mob in hopes of not getting punished or arrested. Mob mentality is also part of our country’s past. An example is in the 1930’s two black men were lynched the other was shot, and then hanged. The other man was hung while he was still alive; they had to break both of his arms so he could not escape. As many as 10,000 people came to see the lynching occur, because they thought it was amusing. There were families, kids, and even pregnant women that went to see people that had not been proven to be guilty be slaughtered. If they did not follow the laws they would be lynched, an illustration is in 1930’s blacks everywhere were lynched by mobs of white people. They were lynched for not following their rules, such as being accused of raping a white woman. A photo was taken at a lynching; it shows that during that time period they would do anything to get “justice”. They would even go to

Racism was undoubtedly an insulting and a prejudice concept that we did to discriminate against blacks just because of the color of their skin. It impacted all people, even the whites that wanted to fight back because they realized it was wrong. A few reasons why people tend to be racist are some whites strive to keep their power over the blacks no matter how far they have to go. Along with what Schafer mentioned in his article, “cheated power gives the illusion of shared final decision making authority when, in reality none exists” (Schafer 1). One can see that the whites think they are in the hierarchy, while in reality that just makes them part of the lower class. An example of racism is shown through the Jim Crow laws and the Chinese Exclusion Act. The Jim Crow Laws were against all blacks for laws along the line of looking at a white woman a certain way. While the Chinese Exclusion Act ceased child immigrants from entering the United States. There are several similarities between the Scottsboro trials and the Tom Robinson trial. One similarity is how prejudiced the jury was, everyone thought they were guilty before the trials even started because the color of their skin. Both trials took place in Alabama a segregated area; as a result the jurors were all white. Another reason why they were treated awful is the fact that they were falsely accused. They both ended up being charged for