...In the chilling, psychological novel, A Time to Kill, John Grisham depicts the natural horrors and effects of racism in Clanton, Mississippi during 1989 when the protagonist, Carl Lee Hailey, plays the part of judge, jury, and executioner. The book begins to unravel as a young, African-American girl, Tonya Hailey, is viciously assaulted by two older men as they kidnap, rape, and then attempt to murder her once they have diminished any innocence that the 11 year old beholds. Clanton becomes shaken by the event as they endure a trial to convict the assailants, Billy Ray Cobb, and James Louis “Pete” Willard once they’ve been arrested while gloating in a roadside bar that ultimately leads to their demise. Carl Lee Hailey, in a fit of pure rage...
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...The Great Depression, a time of hopelessness and uncertainty is the setting of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (McCabe 12). The Depression was a time of devastation and debt for many companies and families all across the United States (McCabe 12). Lee used multiple historical events as her inspiration to write To Kill a Mockingbird. Those events are represented by mob mentality, Jim Crow Laws, and the Scottsboro trials. One of the influences in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were laws created to make white people have more power than black people. One of these laws included that black and white people were to eat separately. If they ever did eat together, white people were served first (Pilgrim)....
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...this was pretty much the normality in day to day life. To kill Mocking bird shows what is was like to live in a time when people were treated terribly because of the color of their skin. This novel also reflects the time at which it was written because in the 1960’s racism against African Americans was still a big problem. To Kill a Mocking bird is a timeless classic because it teaches readers what it was like to live in 1930’s and issues of racism, it relates to the time period it was written in , and it also still relates to issues that are present today. During the 1930’s racism was a very big issue in the south. African Americans were treated extremely un- fair and had little civil rights. They were persecuted and discriminated against because of the color of their skin and no other reason but that. Racist Americans seemed to really think that African Americans were less important and less human then white people because there skin was brown. “Despite the decline of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan, racism was as strong as ever, especially in the Southern states” (Allen). To me this shows that the racist white American was ignorant and honestly stupid to think that a person was less important and less human because their skin was a different color. African Americans in south were severely segregated from the white people , whether it be in a restaurant, a store or just walking down the sidewalk. To kill a mocking shows how un-fairly African Americans were treated...
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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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...Historical Influences in To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a “time of devastation and uncertainty”, also it was a time “bread lines and debt” in the American history (McCabe 12). After the stock market crashed in 1929 there was a height during the time that “ the unemployment rate had reached nearly 25 percent” (McCabe 12). In To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee had many historical influences several from real life events. Harper Lee drew her influences from Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a racial caste system. Jim Crow are a bunch of harsh against Blacks laws (Pilgrim). The Whites did these actions because they disliked any benefit made Blacks including economic and political (Pilgrim). If the Blacks are to disobey then the punishments could be a lynching (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws are seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the laws that you could see was “ Never assert or even intimate that...
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...Historical Paper Historical influences in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird In 1929 the stock market crashed and resulted in nationwide economic distress, called the Great Depression, and it was the setting for To Kill A Mockingbird. During the Great Depression about 1 in 4 people were unemployed in America. Millions of Americans were homeless and jobless (McCabe 12). There were multiple factual events that were significantly influential in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This novel references many historical events, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were cruel laws set up to put...
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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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...In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird Atticus says,"Nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don't mean anything like snot-nose. It's hard to explain ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody's favoring Negroes over and above themselves" (10). Atticus is saying because Tom Robinson is a black man, he's the talking about how black people think they should be over white people and their problems aren't really that bad. This shows racial inequality in the book because blacks people are looked at a lot different than white people in the 1930's. First to Kill a Mockingbird should not be banned in public schools because it teaches kids about racism in the 1930's and how it was bad.Atticus says, "No jury in this part of the...
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...Racism, Poverty, and Violence in To Kill a Mockingbird Maycomb, like other Southern towns, suffers considerably during the Great Depression. Poverty reaches from the privileged families, like the Finches, to the Negroes and “white trash” Ewells, who live on the outskirts of town. Racism violently attacks the people of Maycomb and causes many conflicts throughout the novel which causes violence amongst the citizens. Harper Lee uses the characters involved in To Kill a Mockingbird as symbols of the main themes of the story, which includes, poverty, racism, and violence and these recurring themes influence the actions of the characters in numerous ways. Poverty is repeatedly referenced throughout the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. Many citizens...
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...Throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee discusses the effects of discrimination and the toll it takes on people. Through examples of sexism, prejudice, and racism, from the townsfolk of a small town in Alabama, she shows the readers the injustice of many. The victims of discrimination serve as the ‘mockingbirds’ of the story, as said by Atticus,“Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit ‘em, but remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” (Lee, 94). In essence, this story demonstrates the loss of innocence of many, especially Scout who is affected by sexism and racism most of all. By far, one of the most evident forms of discrimination present in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. It impacts the actions of every single character in the book and formulates...
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...Did you know there were fourteen Jim Crow laws that impacted the lives of blacks in that time period? Did you also know that there were 4,730 known lynchings? Currently, in the United States the death penalty is not allowed, but it was acceptable to lynch people in that time period. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee used real-life events as inspiration for her novel. There are similarities to Jim Crow, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. In To Kill a Mockingbird the first connection to America’s history is the presence of the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a way to segregate blacks from whites. Some examples of the laws were segregated buses, prisons, mental hospitals, and reform schools. If...
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...Influential Themes in the book To Kill a Mockingbird The history of the world has lots of social problems that still exist in the world today. We deal with an extensive amount of racism all around the world; therefore, it is still a struggle for the world to learn how to live in peace and harmony. Harper Lee’s book, To Kill a Mockingbird, captures many themes, but the most influential life lessons deal with racism, perspective, and morality. Racism is one of the most influential themes in the book. Lee explains very well about the problems of racism in the south; in other words, the theme of racism in the book teaches an important message that all people need to learn. Atticus says, “Remember it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the...
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...Racism, Social Class, and Gender Issues: A Look Into 1930s Maycomb, Alabama. The film, To Kill A Mockingbird directed by Robert Mulligan, portrays a message of racism, social class, and gender issues faced by southern towns post Civil War era. The 1962 film adaptation of the classic book, To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee was masterfully captured being placed on the American Film Institute’s list of greatest American movies of all time and taking home many countless awards. The black and white portrayal from text to film is exquisitely captured turning pages to picture while reveling a heartbreaking reality. Through camera, lighting, and sound Robert Mulligan creates a mood to communicate the vision of Harper Lee. The film takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the 1930s. Robert Mulligan illustrates the story of the lives of Scout and Jem, children growing up in this small town with their friend Dill who stays for the summer. The youngsters become infatuated with getting a glimpse of Boo Radley the unseen hermit of a neighbor. This summer also entails issues facing, their attorney father, Atticus Finch. Atticus Finch defends Tom Robinson, an African American man falsely accused of raping a white woman from town, Mayella Ewell. The children catch wind of the trial and for the first time witness evil realities of the world. Jem and Scout, Atticus’s children become the targets of Bob Ewell, the father of Mayella Ewell. Bob Ewell tries to kill them one Halloween...
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...“Fighting racism and Oppression” “I am a Muslim”, a line that has been very hard for me to say due to its negative connotation ever since the 9/11 attacks and beyond that. Ever since the day of 9/11, I have been in fear to show who I am, what ethnicity I am, and what religion I practice. Due to the cause of the attacks, people had the wrong perception to what being a Muslim really is, for people thought it was battle against Muslims and not a battle against terrorists. In Zayn Kassam,” Can a Muslim be a Terrorist?” He answers, “Sure, why not, I wonder, for so can a Jew, a Hindu, a Sikh, a Catholic, or, indeed, a member of any faith (776).” Another example of unfair assumption that is portrayed is in George Orwell’s, “Shooting an Elephant,” for in his essay he was a white British police officer that was hated by the Burmese people, because of the British rule over Burma, and the assumption that white people are violent and hateful. In addition, because of the British rule the Burmese people assumed that all British officers and British were alike due to their unfair ruling. In this essay the narrator George Orwell was assigned to go kill and what it seems to be an untamed Elephant, but due to his conscience he would feel resentment if he was to kill an Elephant, because of his non-violent and none hateful nature. Furthermore, he is in a situation where the people of Burma expect white man to do rampant, but on the contrary he does not feel that there is a need to kill the elephant...
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...Scout and Jem were also exposed to African Americans affected by more than segregation, because racism permeated their everyday life. For example, “The only church in Maycomb with a steeple and bell, was called First Purchase because it was paid for from the first earning of freed slaves. N-words worshiped in it on Sundays and white men gambled in it on weekends” (Lee 157). A place that is considered sacred to African Americans, is home to a white man’s sacrilegious, and shameful behavior. The work ethic and beliefs of African Americans were not respected, and they were attacked because other members of society believed they were somehow inferior. African Americans in Maycomb were also subjected to racism in all aspects of life, “the Ewells...
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