...Historical Paper “The era can be summed up in two words: breadlines and debt (McCabe 12).” This quote is a great description of the time period the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee took place. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a book about a young girl growing up in a small town in Alabama. Throughout the book, there are many historical references including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. One of the very first historical references in To Kill A Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a set of laws that were made to separate Blacks and Whites (Pilgrim). They separated colored people from white people and made a mindset among people that white people were better than Blacks (Pilgrim)....
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...To Kill a Mockingbird Seminar Essay Guiding Question 2 In To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee explains Scout’s coming of age story through a point of view lesson and a lesson about society. After Scout’s first day of school, Atticus justifies Miss Caroline’s extreme behavior regarding Scout’s early reading skills by claiming “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view(Lee 39)”. At this point in the novel, Scout thinks little of what Atticus says and refuses to believe any justification for how Miss Caroline treated her earlier in the day. However, Scout quickly becomes reminded of this lesson time and time again. At the climax of the novel, Atticus justifies Bob Ewell’s reaction of the court proceedings as “some kind of comeback(Lee 292)” when putting himself in Ewell’s shoes. Scout begins to relax, but is not reassured completely by Atticus’ explanation of Bob Ewell’s bland threats. Scout finally truly understands this coming of age lesson when putting herself in Boo Radley’s...
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...rights one got was chosen and determined by their own skin color, and there was different schools, churches, and neighborhood depending on ones race. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee used different historical references and connections about the inequality between blacks and whites, and some of the struggles faced by both races. Included, are connections to the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and issues of racism during that era. In To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the first connections was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws created inequality between the two races of whites and blacks. There were reasons why people thought the laws were needed. They thought that whites were superior to blacks...
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...Harper Lee used many historical events to influence her book To Kill a Mockingbird. The Great Depression took place throughout the whole book(McCabe 12). The two words that came to play in The Great Depression were bread lines and debt(McCabe 12). Many people had to start getting free meals(McCabe 13). Many students could not even go to college(McCabe 14). In addition to the Great depression more influences were the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws was a racial caste system(Pilgrim). These laws were only used for the colored people between 1877 and 1960’s. One law was that a black man was not allowed to offer...
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...The Diction of To Kill a Mockingbird Diction is used to great effect in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Diction is threaded abundantly throughout the novel to call attention to the separation of various cultural, ethnic, and socio-economic groups. Each individual group, from African Americans to “southern belles” has its own diction and each group uses its own personal diction to defend and represent their own way of life. Diction expresses each group’s tone and character and brings life to the novel. Diction is also used to support the novel’s theme of the injustice of racism, whether it is white against black, male against female, wealthy against poor, or educated against uneducated. One form of diction that takes place in the novel is Jem’s use of the term “mixed child” to describe the son of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, a white man who had children with a black woman. The word choice of “mixed” is not positive (indicating a lack of pureness), and that is exactly how the people treat the “mixed children.” Mixing the white and black bloodlines is frowned upon the same way that mixing the black churches and white churches or schools would be frowned upon. The South is so resistant to change, even a child of mixed color will not be accepted, or given grace of any kind. Diction is also used to reveal social injustice towards females throughout the novel. Scout uses the term “pink cotton penitentiary” to describe how she feels about being forced...
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...The Influence of Historical Events on Harper Lee’s Writing The 1930s were a time of great social upheaval and economic turmoil. The United States was experiencing a drastic change as new ideas and problems arose throughout the country. These problems and ideas not only swayed public opinion, but also influenced action (Rauchway 1). Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, lived though all of these events and felt their effects growing up while living in the Deep South. Looking at her only novel, it can be concluded that the similarities within it and reality are no coincidence. The Historical events that occurred during Harper Lee’s lifetime clearly influenced her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird as elements of the Scottsboro Boys Trials are undoubtedly evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, the Jim Crow Laws are unjustly in effect towards the African-American population of Maycomb, Alabama, and the deleterious economic hardships faced after the Great Depression are present in the citizens of the town throughout the novel. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the lawyer defending him. This fictional trial is in fact an almost exact recreation of a trial that Harper Lee lived through: The Scottsboro Boy Trials of 1931. Both the fictional and real trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys share several similarities, two of which are the race and crime of the defendant...
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...To Kill a Mockingbird is a coming-of-age novel that is set in the early 1930s in a small and sleepy Southern town called Maycomb. It was written by Harper Lee and published in 1960. The novel deals with childhood innocence and the conflict between good and evil in many different situations. Throughout the novel, the reader follows the childhood of a young girl called Jean Louise "Scout" Finch who lived with her family that included her father, Atticus, her brother, Jem, and their black cook, Calpurnia. Scout is the narrator and the protagonist of the novel and the reader is able to perceive, through her narration, a child's perspective of the world and the prejudice that exists within it. One of the themes that is prominent in the novel is black racism. The writer made that notable through the lifestyle of Maycomb, its citizens' notions and the case of Tom Robinson. These cases helped to shape Scout's opinion of the real world and her understanding of the dark and cruel sides of it. The theme also plays an important role in understanding and analyzing the novel as a whole. As the novel is a depiction of the writer's childhood, it elaborates to the reader the various aspects of real life in the United States of America during the 1930s and helps them get a view of the racial discrimination that shaped the American society at that time. That...
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...couldn't care for oneself or even provide for others. These breadlines would be handing out foods by charities, missions, and churches to feed others. The sorrow faces of those who were in line show that the Great Depression was a huge hit for them if they had to wait in line for food. This photograph can show the desperation of the men who had to wait in the breadlines for food since they had no food to eat. Second, I know that this is from a reliable source because it’s from a eduation.com source. Provides a website...
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...was jim crow? Article? It suprised me how one race could segregate another race in many ways that was not necessary. Colored people had to face complications every time they were in public, such as talking to a white person or riding the bus and they even had to attend different schools, public restrooms, and churches. They were treated as if they were still slaves. As i was reading this i asked some questions to myself like why did the color of a person's skin matter to people back then and still some people today. Another question i had was how many states had these laws. The worst part of these laws was that colored people could not even resist them. They had to deal with external conflicts when they resisted the system, they risked losing everything, even their lives. 2.What are your thought about the novel in general?...
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...others for being black. In Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird, it shows that fictional texts showing racial discrimination and the negative effects of it can be influenced by real life. Some similar events happen in the non-fictional articles that relates to racial discrimination towards negros, such as Tom Robinson and Calpurnia. They are discriminated by whites. The two negative effects of racial discrimination in the novel and article are violence and segregation. One negative effect of racial discrimination is divisiveness, and it is shown in the article “What Price Diversity?”. Blacks and whites have separate facilities even though it is used for the same purpose. They have separate schools for the different races even though it is used for the same purpose. So your race determines what school you can attend. This article states, “Separate education facilities are inherently unequal” (“Diversity” par. 2). The phrase “separate educational facilities” means that there are schools just for whites and another school just for whites. “Are inherently unequal” means that the schools that are for whites, are better than the school blacks are attending. In To Kill a Mockingbird, blacks and whites have separate facilities that is used for the same purpose. Segregation is one of the negative effects of racial discrimination, but violence is also another one. Segregation is a negative effect of racial discrimination in the novel, To Kill A Mocking Bird. Whites do not believe that...
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...Imagine being back in the Great Depression and being accused of something that did not happen and being found guilty. This is what happened to Tom Robinson in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel, Harper Lee used real life stories as a guide to help her write her novel correctly and accurately. The novel is tied to a few stories such as, Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. One of the first connections to America’s history of racism in To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. To begin, Jim Crow was a racist system that promoted inequality between the races. A bountiful number of people believed the laws were necessary to keep black people in their place. In addition, they used the Jim Crow...
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...Racism, the Destruction of Humanity Greed, arrogance, anger, and ignorance are destructive forces in our world that may destroy our humanity, beat down our beliefs and wreak havoc on our morals. But none is as powerful as racism. Racism is the worst kind of prejudice in society, as illustrated in To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, what befalls Tom Robinson and his family, it can ruin Bob Ewell’s lives. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Tom Robinson and his family are the most apparent victim of racism. He is guilty by raping a white woman but actually he is innocent. Everyone is blinded by his color and has already decided to put him into the jail. Obviously, he gets an unfair trial. In the court, Mr. Gilmer, the lawyer who defends for Mayella Ewell, treats Tom without any respect. Even though Atticus finds much evidence that proves Tom is innocent, no one listens to him. Tom is a nice man and he only wants to help others, however, his kindness becomes his murderer. After his death, his wife Helen Robinson needs to raise their children by herself. But no one feels sympathy for her and even no one is willing to offer her a job. Is appearance so important that can destroy our humanity? We are going to lose our selves because of racism. Atticus defends for Tom in order to protect the justice. However, he and his children are disliked by the town people. Jem and Souct get troubles from school. Everyone teases them and no one is willing to make friends with them. Furthermore...
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...“It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird” (119). The story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee was taken place in the 1930’s, when the Great Depression was taking place. Although that was a big event that was happening at the time, it was not the only one. Prejudism was also a big issue. African Americans had to deal with many obstacles, some being their living situation and prominently the way they were treated. Resources were not as open to blacks as they were for whites, therefore their homes and churches were not as up to date. In the novel, when Calpurnia takes Jem and Scout to her First Methodist Church, the children noticed it was quite different from their church. Unlike the white’s church, this one “was unceiled and unpainted within” (159)....
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...THE GLENCOE LITERATURE LIBRARY Study Guide for To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee i Meet Harper Lee at the same university. In 1949, however, she withdrew and moved to New York City with the goal of becoming a writer. While working at other jobs, Lee submitted stories and essays to publishers. All were rejected. An agent, however, took an interest in one of her short stories and suggested she expand it into a novel. By 1957 she had finished a draft of To Kill a Mockingbird. A publisher to whom she sent the novel saw its potential but thought it needed reworking. With her editor, Lee spent two and a half more years revising the manuscript. By 1960 the novel was published. In a 1961 interview with Newsweek magazine, Lee commented: Writing is the hardest thing in the world, . . . but writing is the only thing that has made me completely happy. To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate and widespread success. Within a year, the novel sold half a million copies and received the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Within two years, it was turned into a highly acclaimed film. Readers admire the novel’s sensitive and probing treatment of race relations. But, equally, they enjoy its vivid account of childhood in a small rural town. Summing up the novel’s enduring impact in a 1974 review, R. A. Dave called To Kill a Mockingbird . . . a movingly human drama of the jostling worlds—of children and adults, of innocence and experience, of kindness and cruelty, of love and hatred, of humor...
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...Free Press. Vermont is one of the most homogeneous states in the country. According to The United States Census Bureau: “The total percentage of black people in Vermont in 2015 was 1.3% whereas the total percentage of white people in Vermont was 94.8%.” In Vermont, people who are not white stand out and are sometimes not accepted. Similarly, discrimination occurs in the book To Kill A Mockingbird, which takes place in the 1930s when racism, discrimination, and hatred were more visible. Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird tells the story of the main character Scout and her brother Jem dealing with the discrimination that separates their town of Maycomb. Lee reveals the theme of being an individual in society by depicting characters throughout the book who strive to find equality in a conformist community to teach the reader that discrimination is still occurring even after the Civil War. Harper Lee shows the theme of being an individual in society through Calpurnia not being accepted at her own church when she brought white children. Calpurnia is one of the many characters in To Kill a Mockingbird that is distinctly impacted by either racial discrimination or social class profiling. Calpurnia is a black housemaid working for the Finches. Calpurnia is not allowed at Jem and Scout’s church because she is a person of color, although she is allowed to bring them to her black church. Calpurnia knows the community of the black church will not be accepting of her decision. In Chapter...
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