More handpicked essays just for you.
Social class in America and its consequences on society as a whole
Social classes and their influence on society
Social class in America and its consequences on society as a whole
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Society in the 1930’s was very different compared to ours now, for the great depression had taken away jobs and had people suffer by putting them into lower classes, making them poorer. The books To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, and the short story “Marigolds” all take place in the great depression. They each explain completely different stories, yet the same theme, that individuals suffer when they are put into a lower society. Racism and prejudice are huge when discussing the themes of these stories. To Kill a Mockingbird has a lot of racism involving Tom Robinson, a black man accused of raping a white woman. The lawyer Atticus is judged tremendously for taking up Tom’s case, for at that time period white and blacks were never known …show more content…
Mayella Ewell had never really lived, not literally of course, she just had no friends, was beaten by her father, and did not have a good education. She was in the lowest class there could be if you were white. The only class lower would have to be the african american people. That is the class where Tom Robinson stood, so Mayella felt as though for the first time she had control over someone. After the incident the reader definitely knew that Mayella had tried to get Tom to be with her, and then blame him for rape after. During the trial Tom Robinson says, “Yes suh. I felt right sorry for her…” (p.197)This brings an uproar in the crowd for saying your sorry usually mean that person is worse off than you. The classes in society show that Tom is below her and shall never say he’s sorry for a white woman. From this scene you can imagine how lonely and how much of an outcast Mayella is because Tom had the courage to say that in front of everybody. In the book Of Mice of Men, in my opinion Crooks is a very different character from the rest. He is pushed away to his own section with not many things for entertainment. None of the men are mean to him, he just feels as though he isn’t really truly living. An example of Crooks loneliness is how he couldn’t play horseshoe with the white men all because he was black. Racial discrimination …show more content…
Lottie doesn’t have anything wrong with her on the outside for she isn’t in a very low class citizen. She isn't rich, but shes ok. Her son is mentally retarded so that bond between them is lost because of his condition. Her source of happiness is planting marigold flowers because they represent hope and happiness. They grow for her and look beautiful, they are so lively that people notice. Then there’s Lizabeth, a young teen living the life of a poor, depressed, and underestimated child. She can’t handle her life anymore, so she rages uncontrollably towards the marigolds in Miss Lottie's yard. Before that incident which made her more mature, Lizabeth explained to us, “Miss Lottie’s marigolds were perhaps the strangest part of the picture.. Certainly didn't fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard.”(p.79) This gives the reader a visual on how those flowers were perhaps the only good thing physically around Lizabeth and Miss Lottie. Lizabeth's motive was to make everything else feel the same sad way she felt, but her end result was more regretful. Miss Lottie was already sad, she was already depressed, and those marigolds being destroyed put her farther back in her life. Her loneliness was more noticeable than ever, making her relate to Mayella and Crooks
Miss Lottie’s garden grows marigolds, which are often mentioned in the story. In the story these marigolds are like a symbol of Lizabeths innocence. In the end of the story Lizabeth destroys the flowers, and after acts very differently. As the story describes it, “… and as I look back upon it, I know that
In the beginning, the author explains how this young girl, Lizabeth, lived in the culturally deprived neighborhood during the depression. Lizabeth is at the age where she is just beginning to become a young woman and is almost ready to give up her childish ways. Through this time period she was confused and could not quite understand what was happening to her. In the end she rips Miss Lottie’s marigolds among the ugly place in which she lived. The marigolds were the only things that make the place a bit beautiful to the eye. In this scene the marigolds represent the only hope the people had for themselves in this time of depression. This could reveal how the author has experienced a loss of hope in times of need. In her explanation of how Lizabeth had torn up the flowers and destroyed all hope in that time of depression, might explain that she has also destroyed hope in a time of pain and grief. Later she writes, “And I too have planted marigolds.” This could mean she has learned from her experiences and that she has finally found hope and always tries to seek the good within the bad and the ugly. On another note, it could mean she just wants to act out on something, but she can’t, so she writes about her...
Why are different races and social classes treated so differently? Why was education so horrible at some points in time? Two of the characters in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are Jem and Scout. When Jem and Scout are growing up, they find out that many things are not as they seem. Certain people are not treated as well as others just because of the color of their skin, how they live, educational status, or even on just urban legend. At courthouses back then, blacks had to sit in a balcony. Many people in this time were so uneducated that they couldn’t read out of hymn books at church, if they had any. Harper Lee wrote a story to express the different kinds of prejudice and educational problems in the 1930’s in Maycomb County, Alabama.
Three students kicked out of a high school for threatening to bring a gun to school. Why would they? Because people were prejudice against them because other students thought they were “losers”. Moral: You shouldn’t not like a person because they aren’t like you. Prejudice was far much worse in the time period of To Kill A Mockingbird. But, Prejudice is the reason for much social injustice. Three characters named Nathan Radley, Atticus Finch, and Aunt Alexandria show us this in the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird.
Prejudice is a strong word. In the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, a black man, Tom Robinson, was accused of raping a white woman, Mayella Ewell, and was brought to trial. There were distinct views concerning Tom Robinson's innocence – views influenced by prejudice. The townspeople of Maycomb believed in Tom's guilt while Atticus and the children believed in Tom's innocence.
Every day when Tom walked by Mayella’s home, he helped her since he felt sorry for her. During Atticus’s speech at the courthouse, “And so a quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman…” (Lee 204) If Tom Robinson felt sorry for what her father has ne to her, he wouldn’t attempt to harm her. When he stood on the witness stand, he described the story in his own words, Tom remarked, “She reached up and kissed me ’side of th’ face…” (Lee 194) Tom didn't follow Mayella and kiss her, however she kissed him. Since this is against the rules of society, she made it have the appearance that he disturbed her so she wouldn't be in trouble for kissing a black
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the Early 1930’s. The 1930’s was a decade of racism,pain and struggle. However, this decade soon became the new beginning. To escape the horrendous reality of being unemployed and unable to provide for their families, many turned to entertainment to escape the hardships and realities that they were going through. Many families went to church regularly to ask for forgiveness and to hope that things would change for the better. Many churches seen about a 5 percent increase in the amount of members attending church when the Great Depression had started. Also, the 1930s was a time where there was a lot of tension between the races. Discrimination against blacks was not yet illegal, and therefore
Loneliness is the central theme in the novel Of Mice and Men. Many of the characters show signs of being lonely, some more than others. Loneliness haunts Crooks deep inside. Crooks accepts things the way they are though. Crooks does not talk to the other men and they do not talk to him. This causes the greatest amount of loneliness in Crooks out of all the characters. Rejection can cause most people to become crazy, as it
When Tom said in the trial that he felt sorry for Mayella (a crime worse than rape in the jury´s eyes) - the lowest class showing superiority for a class above themselves. The white community was frightened for their own position in society; the only reason Tom was found guilty was to maintain the traditional hierarchies.
“Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men… Therefore, agape makes no distinction between friends and enemy.” Martin Luther King Jr.’s “An Experiment in Love” emphasizes the importance of understanding and compassion, and the equality of all men on earth, for “all men are brothers.” To Kill a Mockingbird, set in the 1930’s, similarly examines these ideas during the time of the Great Depression, when many families were unable to find work and therefore became impoverished. It was also a time when racism was largely present. In many situations, racism was taught to one’s children, and then to the next generation. When ignorance is taught to children by their own parents, it is not uncommon that those children will continue
To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in a rural southern town in the 1930s, when racism was commonly accepted. Blacks were
Crooks expressed feelings of loneliness through out Of Mice and Men. Crooks? loneliness is caused because he is black, at the time the story took place there was racism. Since Crooks is black he wasn?t able to socialize with the white men. When Steinbeck describes all of Crooks? possessions, it shows that Crooks has been at the ranch a long time and that his possessions are all the he cares about. In Crooks? room, Lennie comes to talk to him. Crooks is cautious at first, this was from the years of racism that Crooks endured, he learned not to associate with white folk.
Lizabeth associates much of her childhood with the vision of “acid, sterile dust . . . the dry September . . . and grassless yards” (Collier, p. 748). The use of this specific imagery relates the effect that poverty had on Lizabeth’s mentality and the role it played in shaping her perspective. A part of that effect is her inability to understand beauty amongst ugliness. This is exemplified in Miss Lottie’s marigolds. Lizabeth describes the marigolds as “the strangest part of [Miss Lottie’s yard]” because “they did not fit in with the crumbling decay of the rest of her yard” (Collier, p. 751). Lizabeth’s preoccupation and apparent disgust with Miss Lottie’s marigolds is a reflection of her unfamiliarity with beauty. It is not until she is familiarized with the beauty present in the marigolds that she understands the fault in her perspective. As a women looking back on the events of her childhood, an older Lizabeth recognizes her fault, yet also states “one does not have to be ignorant and poor to find that life is as barren as the dusty yards of [her] town” (Collier, p.
Towards the middle of the story, Lizabeth, her brother and the other neighborhood children rush over to Miss Lottie’s to throw pebbles at her flowers that she so deeply cared for. The children flung stones at the blossoms and Lizabeth with her “expertly aimed stone cut the head off of one of the blossoms” (Collier 146). This sent the other children into a stone flinging frenzy and ended up destroying all of the blossoms. Miss Lottie became enraged and began to cry over her ruined flowers. Lizabeth never thought of the repercussion this would have on Miss Lottie and the love she had for her flowers. She did this for her own entertainment without thinking about who she could hurt. After the stone throwing incident, Lizabeth continued to stay with Mrs. Lottie and yell insults at her, because she was “mad with the power of inciting such rage” (Collier 146). For the second time Lizabeth was not concerned with Miss Lottie’s feelings in the slightest and only taunted her and called her cruel names to entertain herself. Lizabeth’s actions and words presented to readers just how selfish she was in her
Scout's perception of prejudice is evolved through countless experiences in Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird. Written in the nineteen thirties, To Kill a Mockingbird promotes the understanding of self-discovery through Scout, an intelligent and outspoken child living with respectable family in Maycomb County, Alabama. Throughout various encounters in the novel, Harper Lee causes Scout's perspective to change and develop from innocence to awareness and eventually towards understanding.