To Kill a Mockingbird: Movie Shows How People Lived During the 1930s and What Life Was Like
To Kill a Mockingbird (1965) is a character-driven story about moral courage. Atticus Finch is an attorney in Makem, Alabama in the 1930s, called up to defend a black man accused of raping a white woman. Because he has integrity he has to truly defend the man, which goes against what most of the people in the town believe is right. The story takes places when "Jim Crow" law was in force down South. Jim Crow laws were designed to keep black people "in their place" and reflected malicious racism during that era. As Atticus puts it in court, all black men were believed to be liars and all black men were believed to be a danger (sexually) to white women. It was a forgone conclusion t
The children don't always understand what is happening in the story, but viewers of the film do understand, which builds a sense of literary irony into the story. People drove cars, but there were still horses pulling wagons around. For example, children played outdoors and made up their own games. "Scout" Finch, a 6 or 7-year-old girl tells the story. The film also shows how people lived during the 1930s and what life was like. The way children were raised in those days comes out in contrast to the way they grow up now. The story is believable because told through the fresh and honest eyes of the children. Girls wore dresses to school, and women wore aprons. That was the way Jim Crow law worked-black men were always found guilty and were often lynched by white men who took the law into their own hands-thus, the narrative is realism. It is educational because based on historical truth, but engrossing and entertaining at the same time-fiction at its best. Neighbors knew and interacted with each other on a daily basis. The story also suggests that not all white people were racists, but few had the courage to fight prevailing cultural views and be called "nigger lovers. hat innocent Tom Robinson, a decent family man, would be found guilty because a white woman and her father had accused him. Innocent black men got the death penalty or were lynched frequently during the 1930s down South.
Common topics in this essay:
Scout Finch,
Jim Crow,
Kill Mockingbird,
Makem Alabama,
Tom Robinson,
jim crow,
Atticus Finch,
jim crow law,
crow law,
black believed,
white woman,
people town,
found guilty,
kill mockingbird,
|
Acceptance Essays
