In Which Ways Does Harper Lee Use "Outsiders" In "To Kill A Mockingbird"?

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In Which Ways Does Harper Lee Use “Outsiders” In “To Kill A Mockingbird”:-

The Novel To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Harper Lee; one of the younger generation of writers. She was born in 1926 in a town called Monroeville, Alabama. As she grew up she joined a university and began writing her book based on her own background experience. Harper Lee set it in a town called Maycomb; a quiet village just like the one she lived in. Although this place did not exist Harper Lee used her knowledge from her town to create this novel. She based the characters on people in Monroeville and used Scout to narrate the book. Scout was made to be very much like Harper Lee because they both are similar ages and have a similar background making it easier for her to tell the story. It’s easier to tell the story because she can describe how prejudice, intolerance, injustice, and courage was built up in her time and reflect it onto Scout.  

At this time in the American South there was a lot of civil rights made by the people because of the War in 1861-5 making black people’s rights minimal. Although the War took place 70 years before the period in which the book is set it’s still strong in their mind and making their beliefs very moral. The black people in America in the period when the book was set were very outcast and looked upon very differently from white people. The black people came to America because of the slave trade and were divided into the Southern states because of the issue of slavery. As time passed the Northerners became very unwilling to overlook what they felt to be the evil of slavery in the South. Southerners justified their practise by arguing that the black race was naturally inferior. They told the Africans’ that they were very lucky to be American Slaves because of the Christianity and civilisation introduced to them. The slave system suffered from brutality and the Southerners thought of them as children who were very ignorant. Because of this the white people thought upon themselves as superior beings and gave a very disliking attitude towards the black people, which has been observed in the book.

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      In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee uses outsiders to make a social comment about what society wants and what society rejects. Without outsiders in this novel there wouldn’t be such an in-depth, intriguing, characteristic, real life novel. In this book outsiders work well because they can make us intrigued and because they’re not insiders people rarely know much about them. Myths and rumours are made up about them, which can change as they are passed down from people giving a sense of mystery about them because no one knows them well enough to tell the truth. ...

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