Subjects:
Harper Lee’s novel ‘To kill a Mocking bird’ revolves around Maycomb a typical rural town of the American South. The story is set in the 1930s a period when racism and prejudice are commonly encountered in everyday life. The novel follows the conviction of an apparently innocent Black man sentenced almost entirely due to his race. It is through this man’s trail we see how harsh Maycomb society is on minorities. During the trial scenes we learn a lot about people’s views and beliefs on other people and the strict codes by which people have to live.
We learn the most about Maycomb Society through the trial. Town trials were big social events in the 1930s. The trial is described as a ‘Gala occasion’ and many people acted as if they were attending a ‘Carnival’, rather than to see a man on trial for his life. The town’s reaction to what is happening tells us a lot about people’s ideology and the general time frame. We learn more about the mutual hatred between African Americans and ‘whites’ in a legal sense. Groups like the ‘Idler’s club’ and the Mennonites enjoyed seeing a Black man’s freedom taken
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Atticus chooses to defend Tom Robinson when no other lawyer would. This is very typical of such a group as it is all a group of white people. Four Blacks give up their seats for them. This she probably does by choice, as she is well aware of the controversy she may create if she was to ride in the front seat with Atticus.
Harper Lees novel portrays themes which are as relevant today as they were at the time of its setting. The children in Maycomb are influenced very much by their relations. Scout’s teacher plays a game of being a sympathetic southern school teacher. The children’s innocence allows them to see through the artificial barrier of colour and to accept and individual for what they are. These prejudice all show the inability of the people to, as Atticus puts it ‘consider things from his point of view’ and the lack of understanding between them. Mayella considering tempting a Black man showed that her view on the Negroes was not entirely the same as the rest of Maycomb. Mayella did not commit a crime, but in fact broke a moral code of society. One reason why he was convicted was because it was a white man’s word against a black man’s one. In fact the children, in stating these characteristics of the Cunninghams and the Ewells did not even realise that they were being prejudiced, they had just been brought up that way.
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