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Society aspect in to kill a mockingbird
Portrayal of racial prejudice in to kill a mockingbird
Society aspect in to kill a mockingbird
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This novel came out just as people were fighting over school desegregation, and civil rights movements that sought to restore basic civil rights for African Americans. It was a time of group action in the United States during which African Americans and the NAACP’s objective was to fight racism, discrimination and racial segregation that denied them their fundamental and basic rights. Lee was inspired by a catalysing event that occurred in her hometown in the 1930s when she was only ten years old. The trial is famously known as the Scottsboro Boys Case, where nine young black boys were wrongfully convicted of a heinous crime. They were charged with raping two white girls on a train and were sentenced to the death penalty.
The fear of being left out can impact the way people make decisions because they think that if they have the same principles as a certain group, they will be accepted. Mob mentality can also make one's opinions more extreme, leading to the next sign, which is group polarization. When someone is on the fence about where they stand on a certain issue, finding a group with specific views can pull them to one side. If that group already has a collective opinion, they are probably strongly against the opposing argument, so the new person may feel pressured to comply. The fourth sign also relates back to the polarization of mob mentality, with the fourth sign being the suppression of contradicting opinions.
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.
Mob mentality is the unique characteristics that occur in a large group (Smith). Mob mentality causes people to take in the ways of the group, despite their own ideas or concepts (Edmonds). When a large group congregates and is upset about a certain thing, a lead rioter can fling a whole group into a state of rage (Edmonds). Often times, people take part in a mob after a comprehended unfairness to cause destruction and steer clear of recognition (Edmonds). Another reason many take part in a mob is to achieve a group goal (Edmonds).
In the 1930s, there were many conflicts because African Americans were always the ones to get blamed by the prejudicial people who lived in Alabama. When the Scottsboro case was happening, Harper Lee was six years old. So thirty years later, she had written a book based on the Scottsboro case. Nine black men had been accused of rape by a white woman, and in To Kill a Mockingbird, there was one black man who had been accused of rape by a white woman. Harper Lee was inspired by the Scottsboro Boys’ case when writing her novel due to the similarities between them.
It’s an awful feeling knowing that no matter how hard you work, you’ll never earn as much money as your white counterpart. Sadly, this has been the case for hundreds of years for African Americans living in the United States. To Kill a Mockingbird reveals the everyday struggles that African Americans endured during the 1930’s. Many of the events in the novel were based on the author, Harper Lee’s life. Just like Atticus, Lee’s father was also a lawyer.
(Lee, 224) In conclusion, throughout her book To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee shows us how life really was at that time. Racism was causing people to think badly of others that were different from them. She experienced segregation that divided people. She also showed us that we can overcome these things by including a character like Atticus.
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 is when a large group of people believes strongly in an idea or action (Smith). People act differently when they are in large groups and that is why they join mobs (Smith). People think they will not get in as much trouble when performing illegal activities in a large group (Smith). Society longs to be in a large group and wants to feel they are similar to others (Smith). Current examples of mob mentality are being peer pressured into drinking and smoking (Smith).
“Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it.” Harper Lee had used the tragic situation of Tom Robinsons trial to explore many themes including, racism and differences in privilege. “To kill a mockingbird” written by Harper Lee explores many situations linked to the broad idea of racism throughout the systems of Maycomb and differences in privilege in many different ways. The quote that Atticus argues with explains that in Maycomb, all men and things are equal.
“The Great Depression was a time of devastation and uncertainty. After the stock market crashed in October 1929, millions of Americans lost their jobs and homes” this article and quote helped Harper Lee to write the famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird (McCabe 12). The central idea of this paper will focus on historical influences in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird for example, The Great Depression because it was taken place in this time period. All the historical influences covered in this paper will be the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and lastly the Scottsboro trials. One of the influences in Harper Lee’s book To Kill a Mockingbird is The Jim Crow laws.
The popular home team broke out from their tight huddle and separated throughout the field. Their anguished faces concentrated on the last quarter; they are only 5 points up. The earnest and intoxicating energy transfers into the equally tense crowd. The fierce competition begins to boil up into the fans. Someone yells a blind comment within the rage and before anyone knows it, fights break out throughout the crowd.
Mob Mentality in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Passion around a subject can easily stir up a heated crowd. One action or word can cause a group to take up arms against the rival party. The collective opposition can lead to inhumane actions, violence, and the skewing of one’s moral compass.
How does Harper Lee vividly capture the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb county in ‘To kill a mockingbird’? In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird’, Harper Lee conveys the theme of racism and social inequality by setting up the story in Maycomb, a small community in Alabama, the U.S back in 1930s. Lee presents some of the social issues of 1930s such as segregation and poverty in the novel. These issues are observed and examined through the innocent eyes of a young girl, Scout, the narrator.
In the novel, ‘To kill a mockingbird, Harper Lee demonstrates the small, imaginary town, the Maycomb County, as a place where racism and social inequality happens in the background of 1930s America. Not only the segregation between whites and blacks, but also the poor lived in a harsh state of living. As Scout, the young narrator, tells the story, Lee introduces and highlights the effects of racism and social inequality on the citizens of Maycomb County by using various characters such as Boo Radley, Tom Robinson, and Mayella Ewell. Firstly, Harper Lee portrays Boo Radley as a victim of social inequality through adjectives and metaphor in the phrase, “There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten;” ‘Long jagged scar that ran across his face’ tells us that Boo Radley has stereotype about his appearance, which forces to imagine Boo as a scary and threatening person. The phrase, ‘yellow and rotten’ make the readers think as if Boo Radley is poor and low in a social hierarchy, as he cannot afford to brush his teeth.
