Throughout the 1900’s segregation, racism, and the Great depression played a huge part in how people lived their lives. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee used real-life events to connect with the events that happened in the novel. She made connections with the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first connection made through To Kill a Mockingbird and real-life events in history are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were unfair laws that separate blacks from whites. Whites were considered more important than blacks, and blacks were considered second-class citizens. There were punishments put in place if any of the Jim Crow laws were broken/ violated. In the image that represents the Jim Crow laws the …show more content…
Mob mentality is how people act in large groups of people. One of the main reasons people act the way they do is because they follow in other people’s footsteps. For example if a group of people do something violent then they will feel like the will not be caught as easily. That is why with lynching’s people would watch because they knew that they probably would not be caught. In the article “What is Mob mentality” it says that when people see a full restaurant people are more likely to go to that restaurant (Smith 1). This represents Mob mentality because the others are following what the people before them did. Another example of Mob mentality is in the image of the lynching it shows a large mob has gathered to watch (Beitler). The mob represents that everyone thought it would be worthwhile to watch because other people were watching it. While listening to the radio diaries someone said, “the crowds kept getting larger as the day went on” (Strange Fruit: Anniversary of a Lynching”). This shows how everyone wanted to see what was going on and the more people that were gathering at the lynching the more interesting it would become to others. Mob Mentality is present in real-life and in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird. One day Scout and Dill pressured Jem into running and touching the Radley front door. This shows mob mentality because Jem was being pressured into something he would not normally do if others were not around. Before the day of the trail a large group of men found Atticus at the jail and they confronted him about defending Tom Robinson. They were trying to change his mind about helping Tom, but since Atticus would not do that they were planning on hurting him. Before they could cause any harm to Atticus, Scout jumped in and saved the day. Scout broke up the mob and somehow convinced the mob to leave without her even knowing what could have happened. This represents Mob