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Essay On Mob Mentality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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“I’ve been very mindful that things can change quickly, without warning...” (McCabe 14). Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was greatly influenced by The Great Depression. There are many major historical connections to book, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality and the Scottsboro trials. One of the first historical connections to Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was The Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were laws enforcing strict segregation among Blacks and Whites (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws included laws such as Blacks were not allowed to show affection toward each other in public, Whites did not use courtesy titles when referring to Blacks, and Whites and Blacks were not to use the same public facilities (Pilgrim). People in the …show more content…

Mob mentality is a term used to describe how certain negative characteristics surface when people are combined in large groups (Smith). Mobs usually portray an aggressive image, since people feed off of other’s negative emotions toward the victim of the mob. People were influenced by mob mentality for many reasons. Being apart of a mob alters people’s thinking, since they feel invincible whilst in the middle of a mob (Edmonds). People think that if they are in a group of people they will not be held responsible for the crime being committed (Edmonds). Mob mentality can be seen in To Kill a Mockingbird in many ways. An example of mob mentality in the article, What is Mob Mentality, is when there is a department store sale and loads of shoppers are rushing to the racks, pushing each other out of their way (Smith). This situation could cause snowballing violence and could cause people to get trampled (Smith). In To Kill a Mockingbird, there are a few examples of mob mentality. One of those examples is when the mob of men showed up at the jail to kill Tom (Lee 241). Mob mentality shows how being in a group of people can bring out the worst characteristics of people. Jim Crow and mob mentality are not the only two connections to To Kill a Mockingbird, the Scottsboro trials are as

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One example of mob mentality in the book would be the jail scene(Lee 205). In this scene Atticus goes to the jail to guard Tom Robinson, and Scout and Jem follow him. Farmers and townspeople show up later to try and take Tom and kill him but as soon as things get bad Scout and Jem run into the crowd. As the argument gets heated Scout pics out Mr. Cunningham and tries to talk to him, but he ignores her.

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Despite differences in setting and time period, the conflicts impacting the adolescent characters in To Kill A Mockingbird connects to the effect of mob mentality on teenagers in modern society. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee is a novel told from the perspective of a young girl, Scout Finch, in Alabama in the 1940s. Scout grows to see her small town in a new light as they go through a very important trial. Mob mentality, also known as herd mentality, can be seen through the actions of multiple characters throughout the book. Mob mentality refers to when a person's thinking is mostly influenced by their peers and based on emotions rather than logic.

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Mob Mentality Mob mentality is how people are influenced by others to adopt certain behaviors. Mob mentality works, because when people are in a group, they lose their sense of being a separate individual and become deindividualized. As a result, people may participate in activities they typically do not participate in as individuals. For example, when people applause for a performance, others join in due to the fear of being left out.

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To Kill a Mockingbird is famous for its controversy. In fact, it has been banned from being read at many schools for its use of racial, sexual, and political content, all of these aiding the book’s “big ideas”. To Kill a Mockingbird has many themes. For example, one is about racial injustice. You would think a jury would establish their final decision based upon the facts, but in this book, the jury had already made up its mind once it heard that the case was a white man versus a black man.

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To Kill a Mockingbird Prejudice exists everywhere, but not with everyone. Some people choose to defy it, especially if it seems unreasonable, or immoral. This is found throughout the book To Kill a Mockingbird. In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout learns to defy unreasonable social norms, and unfair ones as well, by the action of adults around her, namely Atticus and Miss Maudie Atkinson. By gardening while wearing men’s overall, Miss Maudie shows Scout that you do not always have to conform to the social norm of women only wearing dresses to be respected.

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To Kill a Mockingbird In chapter 15 of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, the author uses many ways to develop her message about mob mentality and human nature. Harper Lee uses multiple ways to develop her message including repetition and dark and light imagery. Harper Lee is showing us that mobs play a big role in protests in Maycomb County, Alabama. What this shows us about human nature is that humans tend to forget the consequences of what they do when acting in a group and feel almost invincible against punishments. A person that is part of a mob will act differently than they would act on their own.

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n Harper Lee’s story, To Kill a Mockingbird, the sorrowful events of Black Friday and the Great Depression acted as a clear purpose rather than just providing historical context; they are veiled in the story to illustrate how the characters/setting are drastically affected by the economic state of the time being. Harper Lee, the author of the book, uses historical events to connect her novel to illustrate what it was like in that state of time. The Great Depression, Black Friday, Stock Market Crash, and the economic collapse are some of the utmost events that are cited in the story. These events can be connected through the characters and the setting in which they are.

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In recent years, we have had a series of events that have sparked outrage across our world. This outrage sometimes leads to an issue I have in contemporary culture: mob mentality. “Herd mentality”, or more commonly known as “mob mentality” refers to how people lose their self-awareness and moral code when they are with a group of people. Mob mentality usually drives people to do things they wouldn’t normally do, such as jumping someone, Whether it be a large amount of people online harassing an artist or a movement that has been tainted by the aggressive nature of some, herd/mob mentality has become a more prevalent and pressing issue in the 21st century.

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In Harper Lee’s book, the citizens of Maycomb experience mob mentality. One example is, when a crowd forms outside Atticus’s house (Lee 193-195). This shows mob mentality because most if not all

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Social prejudice is shown throughout Harper Lee’s award winning book, To Kill a Mockingbird. Harper Lee powerfully analyses the theme social prejudice, and its effect on people. Such as how the Social prejudice is discrimination based on your status in society. An example of social prejudice would be the Radley family, which consists of Boo Radley, Nathan Radley and Arthur Radley. As they haven’t been out of their house in years people are lead to believe the rumours.

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Scout Finch was able to do this by asking Mr.Cunningham questions about his family. By relating to his family, Mr.Cunningham realized what he was doing and how it was going to affect his family and his life. Perhaps more important than this example is the obvious fact issued when Harper Lee famously writes, “A mob is always made up of people, no matter what” (Lee 210). People fuel a mob like gasoline in a semi trailer.

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Mob mentality is a large, unruly crowd that has a certain goal to accomplish in mind. However, it is also a source of bias, venting, and inclusiveness. All of these sources influence how mob mentality

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In society, there are very few people who have the unwavering dedication to stand up for what they believe. In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, a black man was convicted and accused of a crime he didn 't commit, raping a white women, which is not in anyway tolerable in society. In Harper Lee 's To Kill A Mockingbird, the author used point of view and symbolism to acknowledge how the the several social divisions which make up much of the adult world are shown to be both irrational and extremely destructive. To begin with, the short story To Kill A Mockingbird, used point of view to show how the many social divisions in the world are irrational and destructive. Scout; a first grade student at the time, was telling the story from her point of view and what had occurred from her childhood perspective.

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The Jim Crow Laws are a set of laws that were put in place to separate different races, such as african americans and caucasians. The name Jim Crow was often heard as a black, minstrel show character (Castleman, Tammy). These laws were put in place around 1875 following the easing of reconstruction, to make sure african americans use different public facilities than whites. After slavery was abolished, whites weren 't quite sure why african americans existed, because most whites figured blacks were put on earth to work. Along with new laws, came new problems that people didn 't know how to deal with.

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To Kill a Mockingbird has many of underlying themes such as racism, courage, respect, femininity, etc. But the theme that fits this book most appropriately is innocence and the harm caused to the innocent by evil and bigotry. Examples of this include Jem, Dill, Tom Robinson, Boo Radley. While all these characters have completely different personalities and circumstances they all have one thing in common. All of them were innocent at one point and were harmed by the evil of

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