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Throughout the 1930s, segregation played a large role in both white and African-American people’s lives. Not only was segregation an issue in the 1930s, it also comes up as a prominent topic in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is made clear in the novel that the white people who live in Maycomb had a higher status than the African-Americans who lived there during the 1930s because of the history of the town. In fact, the stories and experiences written in the accounts that I have read are very similar to the experiences of the character’s in To Kill a Mockingbird. As mentioned above, segregation was a key aspect of the 1930s, and as I see it, it often destroyed people’s healthy relationships with others because of the difference of race. Segregation made life harder and more complex …show more content…
For example, in one of the accounts were written by Virginia Foster Durr, it stated that because of the segregation in the South, children of color couldn’t play with white children. I found it very surprising that even children were largely affected by the opinions of the adults around them who believed in segregation. The separation between African-Americans and white people made it very easy for relationships to be drastically changed and people’s daily lives to be affected by the opinions of others around them. Durr stated that when her aunt saw her sitting on the lap of her African-American nurse, she stated, “‘[And besides] I think it’s terrible that you let her sit in her lap and sleep with her and kiss her and hug her. You know all those black women are diseased” (Durr). Durr, who knew that people made assumptions based on the skin color of one person, was very surprised and upset
Maycomb's racist attitude in To Kill a Mocking Bird is fueled by the events which occurred soon after World War I. After a devastating stock market crash, many employers lost a substantial amount of money and therefore could hardly afford to hire staff. Many resorted to buying slaves; it was cheap and required little responsibility on their part. This event led to the employment of Negroes. The Industrial revolution did not occur in South America since it was only logical to simply buy slaves rather than expensive machinery. The civil war soon followed, and declared that Negroes were no longer considered slaves and if they were unhappy with work conditions they could leave. Few did, since jobs were already dangerously scarce and by about 1930 racism toward blacks was obvious. Negroes were accused of stealing the jobs of white people and this led to a system of separate public transport, schools and even drinking fountains.
The town of Maycomb in the 1930's was split into two sections, the white section and the black section. This was a time of racial segregation, where blacks were not permitted to go to the same schools as the whites.
Students today should be informed about the racials tensions and struggles that black people faced in the 1930s. To Kill A Mockingbird explains the difficulties of the racial divides of that time. In the book there were several different racial
Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place during the 1930’s in the fictional and quiet town of Maycomb, located in Maycomb County, Alabama. The town of Maycomb is described as a tired old town that moves very slowly and its residents have nothing to fear but fear itself. Being in set in the South during the 1930’s the story does tackle racism and inequality for African Americans as racism was becoming more and more prominent in the 1930’s. The fact that the story takes place in a backwater county in Alabama makes the the injustice even more prevalent. The story goes through the early years of the main characters Jem and Scout so the exact time is always changing, however, the more important and intense parts of the story takes place
In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the movie show two themes from social inequality; race, class and gender. Tom Robinson, the man who was accused of raping a young woman, was only convicted base on his skin color. The matter of the subject wasn’t if he did it or not, but of he did it no matter what. The inequality of class was shown multiple time throughout the
How far do you think Harper Lee has effectively shown social class? family groups to be important at this time? The rigid class structure and social stratification of Maycomb County. had a profound effect on the events in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. by Harper Lee. The impact of this class structure was especially evident in the trial of Tom Robins, a Maycomb Negro.
“The worst prisons were not constructed or warped steel and stone. They were carved out of expectations and lies, judgement and corruption.” -Kelseyleigh Reber, If I Resist. To Kill A Mockingbird is written by Harper Lee and was published on July 11, 1960. The book is written about the prejudice and racial discrimination during the early 1930’s. At the same time, slavery has recently been abolished and The Great Depression had begun, when the US economy had crashed into economic recession. The story revolves around a girl named Scout, her brother Jem and their father, Atticus Finch. In Maycomb County, a town located in Southern Alabama, a man named Boo Radley has never left his home and is rumoured to be “six-and-a-half feet tall and dines
The 1930s was a time period in which racial discrimination played a vital role in the lives of minorities.
In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, housing inequality is readily apparent and is vividly described in the description of the “Negro settlement.” Even the fact that the white townspeople call it a settlement makes it clear they do not want it to be part of the town of Maycomb. The inequality goes beyond just the housing, affecting many aspects of how the African Americans are forced to live.
What is segregation? According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “Segregation is the practice of restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence of to separate institutions (schools, churches) and facilities (parks, restrooms) on the basis of race or alleged race.” Segregation was a horrible thing that was going on in the book To Kill a Mockingbird. In To Kill a Mockingbird it shows segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and the Great Depression.
Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community.
Racial profiling was a big problem in Maycomb, and it is still around in modern times. If you had even a small drop of a colored persons blood in you, you were considered completely black to most people in Maycomb. For example, “but around here once you have a drop of Negro blood, that makes you all black.” Jem was telling Scout how hard it was to be mixed in Maycomb. Mixed didn’t have a placed because white people thought of them as black, and black people thought of them as white. They were outcasts to everyone except the Finch family and a few others. Even though mixed people were treated this bad, blacks had it even worse. To elaborate further, “that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes are basically immoral beings, that all Negro men are
With in my research, I found that many children are being taught by their parents that
Maycomb was a “tired old town...there was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see...”. In Maycomb Alabama there were many issues including racial segregation, The judicial system, and growing poverty.
Social differences have changed incredibly in the last decades. The world has known an evolution that no one could have predicted. Aspects such as racism, social class and individual perception have differed drastically and now represent a modern open-minded world. The multiculturism boost our country and our world has known has brought a new wave of cultural, racial and social differences. The world has changed for the better and communities as well as individuals are now more open to differences in others. In Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, the subject of social differences is the main theme for the book. The book adresses directly the major problem of racism per example and deals with it in it's special way. Set in the 1930's, To Kill a Mockingbird examines very closely social differences at that time. Unfortunately, the social differences found in the 1930's are very different than those we face in 2007. To Kill a Mockingbird has become a cultural phenomenon. Students everywhere study this novel referring to concepts that were established over 75 years ago. Obviously, opinions and beliefs have changed and do not apply to our world today. As a result, the social differences in the novel do not demonstrate the differences known to us today and is therefore innapropriate for class study. Today, visual racism is not present, trials are treated equally compared to unfair racist trails and social classes and economical differences are seen in a new way.