2.4 TKAM Essay

How setting was used to reinforce prejudice in To Kill a MockingBird

“I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks” Scout Finch, the young protagonist and narrator whose journey we follow as she battles life as a young girl in the racist, sexist, classist South in the 1930s. Prejudice is an underlying theme that flows like poison through Harper Lee’s classical novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Throughout the novel, we vicariously experience the full extent of the shocking class, gender and racial prejudice that thrived in the South during the 1930s. The Great Depression, leaving millions of family struggling and starving, deeply impacted the roots of the town. The growing Jim Crow Laws left the African American community oppressed and suffering. Those who were comfortable are now poor whilst the poor are destitute, “separate but equal” ruled the lives of the black community and woman were expected to serve tea in frilly dresses.

Classism is one of the key foundations of Scouts hometown of Maycomb County, Alabama. The town is built on the founding idea of classes based on financial wealth. Due to the novel being set during the Great Depression, everyone is struggling but this further strengthens the classist nature of the “tired old town”. Jem Finch, brother of Scout expresses the classist views of the town when he says “There are four types of folk in the world. There’s the ordinary kind like us and the neighbors, there’s the kind like the Cunninghams out in the woods, the kind like the Ewells down at the dump, and the Negros”. This discovery from Jem not only shows us the classism runs strong through Maycomb County but that it is so potent that it is widely recognised by the towns young. Harper Lee chose to make Jem a character who displays classism to teach the reader that just because someone is free of one type of prejudice it doesn’t mean that they are free of all prejudice. Scouts family, whilst they are since struggling, are far better off than many of the other families in Maycomb thus placing them in one of Maycomb County’s higher classes. With Scout as our narrator, it gives us an interesting perspective into the life of someone from a higher class. “There was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with” Scout’s description of Maycomb County communicates the financial struggle that the town is in due to the Great Depression. Scout continues her description of her home town by saying “but it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself” The ending phrase “nothing to fear but fear itself” is an allusion to the first inaugural address made by President Roosevelt in the height of the aftermath of the crash. This further connects the fictional town of Maycomb to the very much real struggles of 1933 South. He tried to offer optimism and reassurance to the suffering country. The reference to fear is important to the novel as fear of the unknown and ‘unusual’ is what drives prejudice. Harper Lee purposely included this allusion to help the reader make connections between the setting in the novel and the pivotal time in history. I think that it is really important to note the fear that society is facing today. We are in a scary situation but if everyone does their part in staying safe and staying home then soon we will have nothing to fear and this will all blow over. Personally, I already believe that racial prejudice has already arisen from this pandemic, it is also a time for optimism so in order to prevent class prejudice from arising in the current recession

Racial prejudice is extremely prevalent in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in the 1930s, just after slavery was abolished and the Jim Crow Laws were being enforced. The idealogy of ” Separate but equal” ruled the lives of the black community in Maycomb County leaving them poor and struggling. The Jim Crow Laws were demonstrated throughout the novel but were particularly apparent to Scout and the reader when we were introduced to Tom Robinson. In the court scene, Tom Robinson is announced guilty by an all-white male jury despite damning evidence supporting his case. This just shows a taste of the racial discrimination that the black community had to fight against. The racism further continues when Tom is shot 17 times for an act which would have gotten a white man detained. Atticus explains the racism to a distraught Jem by saying “In our courts, when it’s a white man’s word against a black man’s, the white man always wins. They’re ugly but they are the facts of life”. Lee is teaching us that justice is not blind and that it comes down to personal morality and prejudices. In school, Scout questions the astounding racism in school, when Ms Gates teaches them about equality during the Hilter Scene. After discussing the difference between the dictatorship that Hilter runs and the democracy in the United States, Ms Gates explains “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody. Persecution comes from people who are prejudiced” Ms Gates is blind to the blatant racism right in front of her face, the blacks have been persecuted in America since they were shipped there as slaves in the early 17th century. Harper Lee included this scene to show us the hypocrisy of the racism in Maycomb County, they are all horrified by the senseless slaughter of the Jews but don’t bat an eye at the racial discrimination in their own town. Lee also used this scene to teach us about Scout as a character by showing us that she realises the hypocrisy, which her racist teacher, and oblivious classmates don’t. This establishes a connection between the reader and Scout by making the reader feel a sense of growth with Scout as she draws connections and opinions about prejudice.

Sexism is a prejudice that our protagonist struggles with personally, throughout the novel we fight with her against the societal pressures and norms placed on young women as they grow up. In the 1930s South, women didn’t have much of a role, outside of cooking cleaning and looking after children. Both the sexist culture and the lack of employment opportunities to the Great Depression most of them didn’t have jobs and if they did it would be jobs looking after children such as teachers. Scout is what we would call a tomboy, she enjoys climbing trees, fighting and wearing pants. This was frowned upon by the community, a young woman was supposed to be inside doing what would be considered as girly activities. Eventually, Scouts Aunt who moved in because she decided “it would be best for you to have some feminine influence”. Aunt Alexandra, Atticus’s sister was a stern composed woman was often found chastising Scout for her masculine behaviours. Aunt Alexandra’s role was to enforce the idea that women had no place running around and fighting people, instead, they were supposed in be inside cooking and cleaning or hosting tea parties for other ladies whilst the men were out working. She believed that Scout was going to tarnish the family name by making friends with the wrong people and not showing the appropriate behaviour of a lady. “perhaps that is why she had come to live with us – to help us choose our friends”. Harper Lee included Aunt Alexandra as an important character in the novel to show us not only the requirements and expectations of a lady in the 1930s South but also that the sexism was enforced the strongest by the older ladies in the community. This is still the case for today. It seems that we are trying to fight the sexism and the expectations put on us as women by society when in fact a lot of the time the pressure is put on us by other women for their own financial gain.

In conclusion, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was set in a time where racial, classist and sexist prejudice flourished. The lack of money, employment and resources due to the Great Depression left everyone struggling and fearful which is what allows prejudice to thrive. The racial discrimination enforced by the Jim Crow Laws left the black community starving and powerless. Lee intentionally set the novel during this difficult time period to show the reader how prejudice flourishes in a time of fear and poverty and teaches us that when the going gets tough we need to rally together and love each other rather than forming unfair prejudices and persecuting others based on their financial position, gender or race. Instead of fearing the unknown, we must all embrace our differences and come together to fight as one race, the human race. Because in the kind we are all “just one type of folks. Folks”