Comparing The Environment In To Kill A Mockingbird And Night, By Harper Lee

The environment and the people around shapes who one becomes. Sometimes it is a good influence, but sometimes it could be a bad effect on someone. The contextual environment and social codes affects who a person become. In the book To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and the book Night by Elie Weisel, each character is affected by everyone. The environment affects everyone in the book To Kill A Mockingbird because of all the laws, the conditions going on and who we are forced to act and look like. Along with in the book Night, the laws were incredible. The social codes in each book is race and gender. The characters in each book be affected by this because of the huge racial issues going on at the time and the gender issues were just as bad.

One of the biggest social codes has been race. For instance, the To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout was not really around black people so she did not understand all the pain and abuse that they went through compared to the white people. Atticus says “ You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view… until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it” (chapter 3). This quote and what Atticus is telling Scout is that she does not understand the people around her very well, especially the black people until she climbs into their skin and walk around in it. Race shapes who a person becomes by showing them what is happening around them and how people are being treated. If the person is exposed to race like Scout was in To Kill A Mockingbird, then maybe if she notices more, she will be able to do something about this problem and it will make her a better person. There was also a big problem with race in Night. Race definitely shapes who a person becomes. In Night, the Hungarian police are yelling at the Jews saying “ Faster! Faster! Move you lazy good-for-nothings!” (chapter 1). This shows that the Jews were treated very poorly because of their race. Race shapes who a person is because if they are getting treated badly, then they will think badly of themselves and will be like that for the rest of their lives. In To Kill A Mockingbird and Night, The

Gender is a huge social code that affects us all. Gender was used against Scout in To Kill A Mockingbird throughout the book. Aunt Alexandra says “It would be best for you to have some feminine influence” ( ). Aunt Alexandra said this to Scout because she does not think that scout is very ladylike. Gender in Scouts society shapes who she will become because most adults would probably force her to be more ladylike like other women, but scout does not want that. Gender in Night was different. All males who could work were separated from the women and that would affect who one becomes. When they were getting separated, a soldier yelled “Men to the left! Women to the right!”( ). This shows that gender had a huge impact on who the person will be because men were forced to work and women were sent somewhere else and would not work with the men. Men had to work to try to survive, while the women were most likely going to be killed. Gender definitely shapes who a person will become with what they had to go through to survive, especially in the book Night. The gender social code will shape who a person becomes by what they are forced to look or act like, or what they have to do, especially in To Kill A Mockingbird and