...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 Influences on To Kill a Mockingbird During the 1930’s America’s worst depression was in effect (McCabe 12). This inspired Harper Lee to write her most famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Many real life events were used to inspire Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of the events she used are 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 are a set of laws that were racist and focused mainly towards Blacks (Pilgrim). The laws were most enforced in the south in 1877 through the 1960’s (Pilgrim). Most people made these laws were created because mindset of the creators was that they were superior to all Blacks (Pilgrim). Some of the punishments for committing a crime against these laws were severe including lynching, taking their jobs, or taking their homes (Pilgrim). Jim Crow laws can be seen in To Kill a...
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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 unhappiest people in the world are those who care the most about what others think. (C. JoyBell C).” Society has been around for the longest of times, ever since the first person was on Earth. New people join society everyday, and it changes constantly. the unrealistic standards set by society are what cause the issues people face. In To Kill A Mockingbird, society is the main villain of the characters in the novel, a villain they struggled to overcome. It has a grasp on the characters that they fight to release from their mind. Opinions are altered due to the negative effect society has on the characters. They are blinded by society and influences their views to believe what is correct or incorrect. Society has a role in everyone’s life,...
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...success with mockingbird I sort of hoped someone would like it enough to give me encouragement." Harper Lee never wanted success from her books. She just wanted encouragement, to keep writing. Harper Lee’s life was full encouragement and success. Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville Alabama.She is the youngest out of four children she grew up as a tomboy in a small town. Her mother also suffered from mental illness, rarely leaving the house. It is believed that she may have had bipolar disorder. Lee stood apart from the other students , she couldn’t have cared less about fashion, makeup or dating. Instead, she focused on her studies and writing. Lee was a member of the literary honor society and Glee Club (Biography.com Editors). Harper Lee was a very talented young lady she inspired a lot of people. Harper Leeś real name is Nelle Harper Lee , the book she wrote To Kill a Mockingbird once had beat the bible . To Kill a Mockingbird made Harper Lee fabulously wealthy ,but she led a most frugal life. Did you know that William Faulkner was one of her most famous authors. Harper Lee initially wanted Atticus Finch to be played by Spencer Tracy in the movie version of Mockingbird. ( The New York Times )...
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...Scottsboro case all nine men stood before a white jury. Both trials were racist and unfairly convicted. In 2005 Lee stated that the Scottsboro case served “the same purpose” as the trial of Tom Robinson did in the novel, which was to expose the long standing prejudices and stereotypes of the South. ( www.biography.com ) Harper Lee was young when the trial took place, that's what most strongly influenced her writing. Harper Lee wrote the book from Scouts perspective because younger people interpret things differently then older, and she probably had a lot of opinions and view she wanted to put into place through the characterization of Scout considering both Lee and Scout were about the same age when these trials were happening. In “To Kill a Mocking Bird”, Scout is influenced by a numerous amount of people. Atticus does not hide Scout from all the bad things that go on during the book. He emerges Her into the real world as if she was older. We see many times how Atticus affects Scouts life. She learns more from Atticus the she does from school, such as not to judge others based on what they may look like and how poor they are or what she hears about someone. Atticus explains to her that racism is a problem in Maycomb, and ironically Scout grasps the lessons that Atticus try's to get through to her when most adults that live in their town fail to see the problems that arise from racism. Scouts most important discoveries are learned from Atticus and his own morals this lets scout...
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...other various events in the 1930’s inspired Harper Lee’s world renown novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Three events that profoundly correspond to the novel are 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 are a set of anti-Black laws in order to keep whites on the top of the racial caste system (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws vary from ordering Blacks to let White motorists go first at intersections...
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...Block-2 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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...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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...The Great Depression was a period in the 1930’s where poverty had reached an all time high after the stock market crash in 1929 (McCabe). The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during this time, and faces many challenges related to The Great Depression. Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, used inspiration from these real-life historical events to hook into her novel. Some of these significant historical events include the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials in conjunction with racism. One of the first known influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a collection of unrelenting anti-black laws (Pilgrim). These laws weren’t just simply a set list of rules,...
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...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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...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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...The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a set of laws that resulted in inequality between the Blacks and the Whites. The Jim Crow laws were made to separate the Blacks and the Whites (Pilgrim). The Whites felt like they needed these laws to compare their superiority to the Blacks (Pilgrim). By having these laws the Whites could do many things the Blacks could not do which made the Whites feel more powerful than the Blacks (Pilgrim). One Jim Crow law was the Blacks and Whites were not allowed to attend the same school. There were many punishments the Blacks would experience if they did not follow these rules (Pilgrim). One major punishment of these laws were lynchings (Pilgrim)....
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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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...“Liberty means responsibility. That is why most men dread it” (George Bernard Shaw). In the early nineteen hundreds, To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, takes place. This novel shed light on racism and prejudice situated in a beautiful small town called Maycomb. Directed by Robert Mulligan, To Kill a Mockingbird was created to have a similar feel to the novel, but missed vital scenes and characters. Christmas at Finch’s Landing was a scene not shown in the movie, missing Atticus’s own relatives calling him names and what Scout and Jem had to go through. “‘Scout’s got to learn to keep her head and learn soon with what’s in store for her these next few months’’’ (Lee 116). Reading To Kill a Mockingbird shows how Atticus taking Tom Robinson’s case has changed people, solely because Atticus is defending a black man. Also, people are feeding false information to the idea that black people are bad. In contrast, nothing was shown about this during the movie. Therefore, Christmas was not spent at Finch’s Landing and Scout never punched Francis. Scout, Jem, and Atticus have to...
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