To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee - Reflection

To Kill a Mockingbird Reflection

Written in the late 1950s to early 1960s, To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways reflects the state of its society. The Civil Rights Movement was occurring at the time, a fight for human freedom, extending the rights of full citizenship to individuals regardless of race, sex, or creed and the slowly emerging concept of equal rights for all. Although set in the 1930s, it has come to my attention that the book strongly mirrors it¡¯s context and was greatly influenced by the values and beliefs of the people at the time.

To Kill a Mockingbird in my opinion doesn¡¯t represent a true 1930s. It contains many main characters such as Calpurnia and Atticus who have morals and personalities that I felt out-step the time period. These qualities seem to originate from the essence of The Civil Rights Movement instead. In the 1930s an African American woman wouldn¡¯t have had so much power over white children like Calpurnia had over Scout and Jem, and people like Atticus who were sympathetic to the African Americans would have had none of the support Atticus had with Heck Tate, Mr. Underwood, just to name a few, the way he did.

Perhaps I feel this way because of the novel¡¯s overall focus on casting Atticus as morally correct and racial prejudice as something terribly immoral, which were rather new concepts introduced to America during The Civil Rights Movement. The insights into the lives of the African Americans, contrasted with the more flawed white community (with its many not so pleasant members such as the Ewells) in Maycomb, cast a warmer light onto the black community. This representation I think reflects the changing views of the people in the novel¡¯s context and the challenge against racial prejudice that was the core of The Civil Rights Movement. In the 1930s there would have been nothing wrong with what today we recognise as ¡®racial prejudice¡¯, in fact it would have been the other way around with showing prejudice as the morally correct thing to do for a proper white person.

Though prejudice to African Americans was still very much an issue throughout the novel¡¯s context. This can be seen through the likeness of Tom Robinson¡¯s trial and the Mississippi Burning trails. In both these cases I noted that a white person¡¯s word has prevailed over a black man¡¯s based on the notion that one race is superior than the other.