ipl-logo

Social Coexistence In Maycomb

764 Words4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird takes plays in a fictional town called Maycomb in Alabama and is the county seat of Maycomb County. The main character Scott grows up in 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” (Lee 6). The Great Depression hit the American South compared to the North harder, owed to its dependency on the cotton prizes and agriculture. Even before the stock-market crash 1929, the South was the poorest region in the United States. The narrator describes the leisureliness of the town, as “people moved slowly then (.…) There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with” (Lee 6). …show more content…

Especially poorer whites feared that, following Claudia Johnson argumentation, the “breakdown of the class and, especially racial boundaries” (Threatening Boundaries 4) would deteriorate their standard of living, which is the case in Maycomb’s society as especially the family of the victim is considered “white trash” (Lee 33).
3.1.1 Social Coexistence in Maycomb
Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird is segregate in its diverse class stratification and reflects the social, economic and political atmosphere in the United States at that time. The wealth belongs to a small white upper class, the rest is divided into different classes and increments, but poor whites feel they are in competition with blacks for a decent living and the whites-only advantage was their skin color. Generally, there is the idea that segregation results in discrimination, but Deborah Kenn argues that “indeed, discrimination is one of the most powerful enforces for segregation” (2). This discrimination starts with the low income of blacks, followed by housing prizes and segregated education. In Maycomb there is a small place almost outside the town where the cabins of

Show More
Related
912 Words | 4 Pages

To kill a mockingbird was a political statement, yet it was not meant for the public to so widely see. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the award winning novel by Harper Lee, many important topics are touched upon with themes such as family and justice, however, the most prevalent theme is racism and Harper Lee manages to touch upon it many times. Race in Maycomb County helps to determine social class and power, it also creates an unspoken set of rules regarding code of conduct and how many people interact in their relationships, both interracial and not. In Maycomb County race is a major determining factor in a person’s positioning in the social hierarchy.

Read More
220 Words | 1 Pages

The town of Macomb functions as a character with its own personalities, rather than merely a backdrop for the novels events in a multitude of ways by displaying traits, changes and developments more commonly endured by cognitive individuals opposed to an unanimous object. Maycomb encompasses elements of a character by establishing the fact that Macomb is stitched up by people who bring individuality and spark situations to determine the towns demeanor. There are several extraneous quotes illustrating the Macomb population and making it evident that Maycomb exemplifies human traits by conjuring all of these people into the towns sociology and preferences, just like how a character is influenced by several different sources, helping make who

Read More
983 Words | 4 Pages

Melissa Cervantes Mrs. Pearson English 10C 12 May, 2024 Literary Lenses Paragraph Imagine living in a town where racism, unfairness, and rumors are everywhere, well this is the reality where To Kill a Mockingbird takes place. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, topics such as social inequality, racial injustice, and moral growth are explored and demonstrated by the Finches, Tom Robinson, and Boo Radly. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird, the finches are a very important family. The finches, mainly Atticus, present a strong perspective on the social inequality going on in Maycomb.

Read More
553 Words | 3 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird is a book that takes place in Macomb, Alabama during the Great Depression. As a result of the Great Depression most of the residents of Macomb are poor with the exception of the few wealthy people. Although this may be true there were families in this book that had it the worst out of most of the families. The families are the Cunninghams, the Robinsons and the Ewells. The Great Depression affected many families in the South.

Read More
791 Words | 4 Pages

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in the small fictional town Maycomb of Alabama during the Great Depression. Due to the location of this town, most of the townspeople are related in a way and have become familiar with one another. This provokes a social hierarchy to be developed based on wealth, race, and history and multiple forms of prejudice emerges. As we see Jem and Scout mature, they witness the injustice that is brought upon the Cunninghams, Tom Robinson, and Arthur “Boo” Radley. As social division continues to prevail, prejudice remains unresolved because discrimination has become a part of the social mores deeply embedded in Maycomb.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

In Maycomb, both white people and people of color hold animosity to each other. So the children in the town with both a white and black parent are treated differently because society can’t put them in a box “‘ They don 't belong anywhere. Colored folks won’t have 'em because they’re half white; white folks won’t have ‘em ‘cause they’re colored, so they’re in-betweens, don 't belong anywhere. ’”(Lee 161)

Read More
1737 Words | 7 Pages

There is social, gender, and racial inequality shown throughout the chapters. The characters and community displayed in the book are extremely prejudiced and racist while the book demonstrates that some people are considered more worthy than others based on their skin color, their gender, or their place in society. Maycomb is a small town, which stimulates a lot of gossiping between the neighbors, and a lot of classing others into groups based on their family name, their wealth, their race, and the things spoken about them. Boo Radley is the perfect example of a victim of social inequality. He is shut out by his family and community due to his mental disability and is discriminated against and blamed for all the problems that happen around Maycomb.

Read More
146 Words | 1 Pages

Maycomb's black people are always persecuted by discrimination, and are forced to live in a society where they can be easily killed, imprisoned just like how mockingbirds are shot by people. The author, touches a subject on racism, addressing to the readers

Read More
1649 Words | 7 Pages

In the time period of this book it was rough for many people. A big part in To Kill a Mockingbird is racism. They are living in Maycomb, Alabama in the early 1930s during the Great Depression. Maycomb was an old town in the south living on a residential street.

Read More
1048 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, the entire town of Maycomb accepts and contributes to maintaining the racial status quo. The narrator, Scout, tries to make it seem as though Maycomb, Alabama is a better place than other southern states in the United States. Although, they tolerate racism just as much as any other southern state. Some characters are aware of this, like Atticus Finch and Dolphus Raymond and others are not. Dolphus Raymond even states “Things haven’t caught up to that one’s instinct yet.

Read More
711 Words | 3 Pages

Aaron Feagin English 9GT Ms.Brooks May 30, 2023 Social Commentary in To Kill a Mockingbird Imagine you live in a time period where racism was widespread, you live in a poor neighborhood and in the south. How would you think you would grow up as a vulnerable child in these conditions? To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee takes place in the 1930’s in a poor neighborhood in Maycomb Alabama. This time period happened in a time with many openly racist people and also happened during the great depression.

Read More
773 Words | 4 Pages

The black community as a whole was the mockingbird in this novel due to their selflessness while working hard and remaining peaceful even with the injustice surrounding them; the ‘white trash’ attempted killing the mockingbird. Due to the social hierarchy in Maycomb, black people tended to work for richer white men disregarding the fact that it was more often than not unfair. These

Read More
665 Words | 3 Pages

The novel To Kill A Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, a small town in southern Alabama during the Great Depression. The social expectations are very different now than they were in the 1930s. Social expectations are certain behaviors deemed acceptable or normal by society. In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee argues that a setting can affect social expectations. One event that shows that a setting can affect social expectations is when Scout tells about the Radley house and how different it is from the rest of the town.

Read More
858 Words | 4 Pages

Though most of the town Maycomb feels negatively and discriminates the African-Americans, characters like Atticus show us how one person can impact his surroundings if he has high morals. Although he couldn’t change the mindset of the other town residents , he made sure that his own children didn’t discriminate people, purely on the basis of their skin colour. Racism can be seen even in the first few chapters of the book. These racist comments by nonracist children typify the culture in which they were growing up.

Read More
740 Words | 3 Pages

Racism, family background, and wealth are the three main forms of social inequality that appear multiple times in To Kill a Mockingbird. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee proves that the Negroes are not respected at all simply because of their skin color. They are so disrespected and looked down on to the point they have their own little community out of the town away from the white people. Although, the colored are racists towards the white people in Maycomb.

Read More

More about Social Coexistence In Maycomb

Related Topics

Open Document