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How Did Harper Lee Use Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Harper Lee based her novel off of her childhood and her father was a lawyer just like Atticus. As well, Harper Lee never expected To Kill A Mockingbird to become such a success (Lazendorfer). (http://mentalfloss.com/article/62868/11-facts-about-kill-mockingbird). The author of To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper lee, used historical events to establish her novel. Jim Crow, mob mentality, and the issues of racism have relations to the time period.

To begin, one similarity between Harper Lee’s novel and history is the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow was a brutal streak of laws that were contrary to colored people. Many white people believed they were needed as a social control mechanism, to protect white women, and to keep Blacks in structure. A few laws …show more content…
Along with that, it is also can create people to do actions they would not normally do, and they believe they will not receive the same consequences in a group; rather than alone (Smith). Mob mentality is a portion of our history. One way that shows is when two young men were being lynched there were 10,000 people attending, and not one could help. Even the police officers witnessed the lynching but came to conclusion to ignore the horrifying act (“Strange Fruit. Anniversary of a Lynching). In the photo that was taken at the lynching there was even a pregnant women as if it was a casual gathering (Beitler). In Harper Lee’s novel mob mentality is shown. An example of mob mentality in Maycomb is when a group of men gathered at Atticus’ house, and Jem was warned to stay away from the door (Lee 193). This shows mob mentality by the men being in a group, and how they feared for Jem that the men could do an awful gesture. Another fact for mob mentality is when the telephone began to ring and the group of men scattered (Lee 195). Mob mentality is shown when they scatter because it shows they are there to do damage and do not want others figuring out their plan. All in all, mob mentality is in our history and in the novel. Along with Jim Crow and mob mentality there is also

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