Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

The reference “Raised by an irresponsible mother during the Great Depression in the Jim Crow south, my father was on his own from the age of 13” shows both the racism and the economic collapse occurred in the nation during the 1930s. The 1930s was a difficult time for most people in America. It was the era of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl, which cost many workers their jobs and many farmers their farms. The 1930s was also a time of pervasive and sometimes violent racial prejudice. Blacks were scorned upon and stereotyped as lazy, evil, and selfish. During the Depression, they were often the first to lose their jobs and the last to regain them. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks and whites, forcing blacks to use different facilities (restaurants, schools, buses) than whites. Despite technically being “separate but equal,” black facilities were often inferior to white ones. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is set in this turbulent period. In this novel, many people are the victims of prejudice and evil. One such person is Tom Robinson, an honest black worker falsely accused of rape. In the court trial, it is revealed that it was impossible for Tom Robinson to have raped the victim, Mayella Ewell. However, due to the racism of the all-white jury, Tom is convicted of the crime despite the clear evidence. As a result of being punished unfairly, Tom becomes depressed and tries to run from prison, but is shot and killed while attempting to escape. This terrible injustice proves a point. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is not a love (agape) story because despite characters’ attempts to communicate understanding, various forms of prejudice occur, and injustice against innocent individuals results.

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...in the town. The ultimate result is innocent people being hurt by injustice. Tom Robinson was an honest, righteous man destroyed by the prejudice and injustice in an unfair society. Harper Lee wanted to teach that there will always be injustice in the world, no matter how much effort individuals invest. It would be better if the injustice never arose in the first place. Because injustice and prejudice can spread so rapidly and virulently, we must always be careful not to introduce additional prejudice in a community. We should also try to stop injustice when it’s still limited, so that it doesn’t spread and become difficult to destroy. Otherwise, the world would quickly become even more unjust, which would be devastating to the innocent people in this world. In order to preserve the world for future generations, we must always be careful of who we are and what we do.