To Kill A Mockingbird was set in the 1930’s. At this time America were going through a depression. Many people were unemployed and in poverty. Also, at this time America was very racist towards black people. The white race mistreated the black race and they saw themselves as the superior race.
In the first section of the novel, it shows that there are many different classes in Maycomb, blacks being the lowest class. It also shows that Atticus Finch has to defend Tom Robinson ( a black person is accused of raping a white woman ) in court. Section 2, mainly focuses on the court case, where Tom Robinson is wrongly convicted of being guilty of the charge.
To Kill A Mocking bird is the title of the novel. It comes from the old proverb that ‘ it is a sin to kill a mockingbird’. The children first hear this from Atticus when he hands them their air rifles (chapter 10) and says to only shoot the common bluejay and not a mocking bird. Scout is puzzled by this remark and asks Miss Maudie Atkinson about it. Miss Maudie says that:
“Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, they don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird. ”
The wrongs of killing the bird is obvious, but when I was researching this topic, it shows that it becomes a metaphor for the wrongness of harming innocent and vulnerable people.
The story is told from Jean Louise Finch (Scout’s) viewpoint. It is written in the first person. I think Harper Lee told the novel from Scout’s point of view is because she is a child and has no prejudice. She also doesn’t understand racism in the town so this gives Scout the opportunity to ask about it and this can then be explained indirectly to the reader.
Discrimination is shown throughout the book. Though racism is a key discrimination in the novel ,is not the only type of prejudice and discrimination. There is also class prejudice throughout the white society. At the bottom of these classes are the Ewells, uneducated and poor, yet they are still above the black society. Above the Ewells are the Cunninghams. They are poor farmers who were badly hit by the depression. Also, Aunt Alexandra see’s the Finch family higher than others and is telling Scout to be more lady like (to represent the family better).
There is also stereotyping between families – “no Crawford minds his own business, every third Merriweather is morbid, the truth is not in the Delafields, all the Bufords walk like that, “
The majority of the white people in Maycomb are racist but not only are the white society to the black but also there is racism from blacks to whites. Also, any white person who associates with the black society is called a nigger-lover.
Atticus, who is supporting Tom Robinson (a black man) throughout his court case is given verbal abuse throughout the book.
Throughout the novel there are many racist remarks.
Francis (Scout’s cousin) says about Atticus: “He's nothin' but a nigger-lover.”
Cecil Jacobs said : “Scout Finch's daddy defended niggers."
Dolphus Raymond is also another man who associates with the black society as he fathered half cast children.
