Maycomb County is a microcosm of the social structure of America. Discuss how Harper Lee achieves this through her characterisation and social groupings.
Maycomb County is a microcosm of the social structure of America. Discuss how Harper Lee achieves this through her characterisation and social groupings.
The fact that Maycomb County is described as a microcosm, or in other words, a "miniature representation", immediately shows the reader that it is a quaint, closely structured town with a small population. Harper lee shows this by having family and social groupings such as, the Cunningham's, Ewell's, Radley's and Finches.
The book has been set in the 1930's, a time where people feared change and still took to old traditions, like being prejudice towards blacks. People rarely voiced their opinions and followed the majority, which explains why they stood by the justice system, even though it was biased. Blacks were thought of as a minority whose voices were never heard, and had no choice but to stand down to the white people. Although slavery was abolished, it was still very difficult for black people to be accepted into a white mans society, which they had already experienced through generations before. It was highly unlikely for a black person to be given the opportunity to speak out and defend themselves and Harper Lee gives them a chance to stand up by allowing them to talk through a man who wouldn't be ignored, a white man, Atticus Finch.
In order to get the reader more involved in the novel, Harper Lee uses the character of Scout to narrate the story. Scout is six years old and is a likeable, simple character who the reader can relate to easily. When a child is young they have little knowledge of the world and behave how they see fit. Their responses and attitudes are very frank, yet they never mean to cause any intentional harm when voicing their opinions, it is simply their way of expressing themselves. Through Scout's innocent, honest eyes, the reader is given an extremely vivid perspective of the world.
Harper Lee has obviously used Scout as a means of portraying her own childhood, which may have given her ideas on how to present Scout to the reader. She shows Scout as a loyal girl, slowly maturing and learning from her mistakes. Her innocence is shown throughout the book, an example being when she referred to a hermaphrodite as a morphodite. The reader can actually see Scout maturing emotionally and morally, observing human nature and the goings on within the town.
The Family and social groupings in Maycomb are shown like a hierarchy. There is the black ...
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Harper Lee has obviously used Scout as a means of portraying her own childhood, which may have given her ideas on how to present Scout to the reader. She shows Scout as a loyal girl, slowly maturing and learning from her mistakes. Her innocence is shown throughout the book, an example being when she referred to a hermaphrodite as a morphodite. The reader can actually see Scout maturing emotionally and morally, observing human nature and the goings on within the town.
The Family and social groupings in Maycomb are shown like a hierarchy. There is the black community, based in the outskirts of the town where they have less of a voice and are less educated. The only reason they are concentrated on in the novel is because the accused character is a black man. Their jobs pay little and are not considered to be very important positions, such as cooks, dustbin men and minders. They are racially insulted and seen as criminals who do not deserve a fair trial.
Next are the Ewell's, a low class, immoral family who are considered to be "white trash." Even so, when Tom Robinson is accused of raping Mayella Ewell, the majority of the townsfolk side with Bob Ewell because he is a white man after all. Their dialect is very different from that of the higher class people of Maycomb. It is evident that education is not of much importance to them and their use of language shows this, as Mr. Ewell spoke at the trial and said,
"I holds with Mr Tate. Her eye was blackened and she was mighty beat up."
Mayella Ewell is physically and emotionally bullied by her father, yet her efforts to be different have been seen in the book. Scout compares Mayella to a "mixed child" who belongs nowhere. She is not given any sort of affection or educational teachings so she becomes desperate for a man's affection, even if he is a black man, Tom Robinson.
The next family grouping is the Cunningham's. They are hard working farmers who are quite poor. They do not like to accept any social pity from others and refuse to take things they are unable to give back. This is shown in the beginning of the book when Mr Cunningham is paying his entailment to Atticus through bags of hickory nuts.
Towards the centre of the text are characters such as the Radleys, Miss Stephanie Crawford, Miss Maudie and the Finches. These characters represent the upper class. They have more of an education and their way of speech shows this.
Arthur "Boo" Radley is the victim of a proud father, whose prejudices affect his son's physical and emotional health. He is deprived of parental love and is shut out from all other human contact, leading him to become lonely and isolated. Although he attempts to make contact with the Finch children, his older brother Nathan ends any chances Boo has of developing this contact.
The Finches are a good respectable family. They are well educated and have a fine, well known background. Harper Lee portrays Atticus to be a respected, civilised gentleman. He has taught Jem and Scout to be disciplined, well mannered and made sure they are not prejudice, as it is seen as wrong to him. He doesn't believe in racism as Calpurnia, the woman who is his maid, cook and carer to the children, is black. He treats her as part of the family and has done so for many years. When Atticus takes the trial for Tom Robinson, he doesn't care what the people of Maycomb think of him, but is solely concerned about doing the right thing morally. Aunt Alexandra on the other hand, thinks being a member of the Finch family is something you should take pride in. She tells them they should live accordingly, mixing only with people of their status. She also criticises Atticus for letting the children become too involved with Calpurnia, as she is unhappy with them getting too close to the black community.
The prejudice in Maycomb County is very strong. Throughout the book the majority of the people are racist or look down at the black people. They are treated differently and are referred to as "niggers" or "boy" and "girl" disrespectfully. It's almost as if they are not thought of as people, but as objects, or even seen as invisible at times.
The Radleys are considered unsociable and are not bothered by anyone. They never attended church, or socialised with the town folk. Whenever their house is described in the book, Harper Lee uses dark, creepy and uninviting adjectives to illustrate it. Boo is seen as the outcasted "malevolent phantom" of Maycomb who people keep their distance from.
Dolphus Raymond is the man who sat and mixed with the black people and Jem believed he may have liked the coloured folks better than the whites (even though he himself is white). He is an outsider to people, and to have a coloured women and coloured children was thought of as wrong, but he cares nothing of what other people say.
They are prejudice to people who were new to the area, which is shown in the way the children treat Miss Caroline, their new teacher. She is not used to the children's behaviour and mannerisms especially when Walter Cunningham comes to school with no lunch money. She offers him a quarter and is told by Scout that,
"The Cunningham's never took anything from no one".
Miss Caroline was also new to the Ewell tribe until Burris walked out of the class saying "Ain't no snot-nosed slut of a school teacher ever born c'n make me do nothin'!
In conclusion, I think that Harper Lee has described the social groupings and characters of Maycomb in "To Kill a Mocking Bird" very well. It has given the reader the opportunity to really get involved in the character's lives and surroundings. When Harper Lee states that Maycomb had "nothing to fear but fear itself," she refers to the way in which the town was afraid to change it's traditions and it's way of life as a whole. The moral of the story is to teach people that being an individual and following your own instincts is better than going with the majority, especially when you know they are wrong. Harper Lee has shown the reader that judging people when you have no idea of who they really are is wrong because everyone should be given a chance. The Finch's attitude is one to be admired because no matter what people thought, Atticus did what he thought was best and made sure his children followed his example, an example that Harper Lee has passed on to the reader through the book.
