Economic Disparity In To Kill A Mockingbird

Jan Lopez

Mrs. Herrick

English 2 Honors Pd 4

16 January 2018

To Kill a Mockingbird: Essay #1

Throughout history, an individual’s status in society would have been determined by one’s affluence. Discrimination based on one’s level of wealth are one of the fundamental values acknowledged in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel resides amidst the prevalence of segregation and economic declination of the American Great Depression, thus instituting a difficulty in one’s survivability. In conjunction with this time of calamity, Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird instills an apparent disparity of economic classes that is distributed amongst its characters throughout the Alabama town of Maycomb. This notion of economic disparity is manifested

A black man named Tom Robinson was incarcerated for being accused of raping a white woman. It is believed that his unrightful incarceration was due to the community’s inherent prejudice of his automatically being guilty. Tom’s arrest consequently led to him abandoning his family that ultimately led to the family’s lacking of a father figure for financial support. Because of Tom Robinson’s arrest, it is known that the Maycomb’s First Purchase African M.E. Church was providing for the Robinson family. During a Sunday mass, Father Revered implores that he collect ten dollars before the conclusion of his session, saying, “Nobody leaves here ‘till we have ten dollars” (162). In addition to the financial plight of the Robinson family, the wife of Tom Robinson, Helen Robinson, is unable to find work. According to Calpurnia, Helen Robinson is unable to find work due the heinousness of her husband’s crime. Calpurnia says, “Folks aren’t anxious to have anything to do with any of his family” (164). It can be deduced that it does not necessarily involve race as to why Helen is unable to find a job, but it is merely due to the severity of her husband’s crime. In its entirety, the Robinson family is unable to sustain themselves without a job and is solely depending on the collections of their church in order to

In manipulating these factors, Lee has been able to impart the nuances in treatments in reflection to one’s financial state and color of skin. An individual’s advantages and disadvantages as to their poor economic class is exemplified through the Ewell’s exemption from obeying the law, Walter Cunningham’s naivety in dining etiquette, and the Robinson’s dependency on another to