To Kill a MOckingbird

603 Words2 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

The story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in 1932 in the middle of the Great Depression in a deep southern town called Maycomb, Alabama. In this time African Americans were segregated and looked down upon in America and especially in southern states like Alabama. In FDR’s 1932 inaugural address he stated that “We have nothing to fear but ourselves”. He said this because in a time of economical depression there was no hope. With no hope in a society things can start to fall apart and people go crazy. Harper Lee cleverly illustrates this.

African Americans and the poor were the most vulnerable in the Great Depression. Bob Ewell was a piece of malevolent trash who lived by the town dump in a old negro house. When he saw Tom Robinson helping Mayella in the kitchen he beat his daughter for interacting with a negro, then he accused Tom of rape. Mayella being too ashamed to tell that it was her own dad who had beat her went along with the story that Tom Raped her. Atticus Finch proved that Tom was innocent by asking questions to Mayella, Bob...

Open Document