TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD ESSAY
What does To Kill a Mockingbird tell us about prejudice in Maycomb in the 1930’s?
The prominent theme of the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is the portrait of prejudice, in a small southern American town called Maycomb in the 1930’s.
Maycomb is believed to be a replica, of the town Monroeville where the author Harper Lee grew up. Her knowledge of the society in Monroeville (Maycomb) enables her to hit the reader with more impact; she can portray her views on prejudice and discrimination with stronger force and focus. She gives a realistic representation of people’s attitudes in the Deep South in the 1930’s.
Slavery had been abolished in America after the civil war of 1861-5 this gave black people equal rights. But their freedom made life harder for black people initially, white people (especially in the south), found it hard to accept them as an equal in their society, so they remained segregated.
This is shown in the novel, the black community has its own part of the town, on the outskirts, near the town dump. Also they have their own church, First Purchase African M.E. Church paid for from the first earnings from freed slaves. ‘Negroes worshipped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekdays’, this shows blatant disrespect for the black community. This segregation is also evident in the courthouse, white people sit in the courtroom, where as the coloured people had to sit in the coloured balcony, they were only allowed to enter the courtroom, when every white person had gone in and taken their seats.
Being in the midst of the economic depression of 1929, poverty swept the country, the white community saw black people as competitors for jobs, they also believed they desired everything they possessed even their women.
The Ewells are considered ‘white trash’, by the Maycomb community, they are very poor, uneducated and like the black community live next to the town dump. Since slavery had been abolished there wasn’t a great difference in how people see the lower class white people and black people. Mayella Ewell accuses Tom Robinson a local black man of raping her, the white people automatically deem Tom ‘guilty’, simply because of his colour. Even though the Robinsons, regularly attend church and it is said ‘they’re clean-living folks’. Tom is found guilty even before he is tried. This is all in keeping with the attitudes of people in the Deep South in the 1930’s where the black community were still victims of prejudice. Atticus Finch Maycomb’s lawyer and conscience, takes on Tom’s case and embarks on the unenviable task, of ensuring he gets a fair trial. Atticus is the main character in the novel; he is a man of great integrity, he shows great courage, tolerance and he believes you never really understand a person ‘until you climb into his skin and walk around in it’. Harper Lee uses his character to express her moral philosophy. Atticus also becomes a target of prejudice for defending a black man; he is called a ‘nigger lover’. He also bravely stands up to the lynch mob, who turn up at the jailhouse for Tom Robinson, Atticus refuses to step aside and let them take him, the men get very agitated and begin to threaten Atticus, it takes an eight year old girl (Scout) to calm the angry mob, she sees Mr Cunningham, in the crowd and begins to talk about his entailment Atticus is helping him with, also Walter his son and how he came to dinner one day. This seems to stop the men in their tracks and they all leave. The next day Scout questions Atticus ‘I thought Mr Cunningham was a friend of ours’. Atticus explains that he still is, ‘Mr Cunningham’s basically a good man’, but last night he was part of a mob, but he was still a man.
