Harper Lee Andrew Torregrossa English 2 20 December 2022 To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis between 1929-1939. The Depression began and expanded worldwide after the stock market crash of 1929 in the United States. At the worst point in time, the Great Depression had 25% of the world unemployed. Around 13 million people. The Great Depression greatly impacts the characters in the story To Kill a Mockingbird. This can be seen when there is a steady decline in employment in Maycomb. For Example, Mr. Cunningham has to pay his neighbor Atticus with vegetables from his farm. This is because he has no money to give him. The lack of money and employment that was present in Maycomb brought many problems. In chapter 17, it states “Maycomb's Ewells lived behind the …show more content…
Even the highest class in the Finches could not afford any expensive items. As they were living within the means available to them. At one point in time, right before the depression, the stock market was so high that if you just put your money into it, you would almost always come out with more than what you had. Then one day, it all crashed and the 14 billion dollars that were put into banks vanished. No matter how rich you were before the depression, you lost way more money than you ever gained from stocks. Scout describes the town as old, tired, and suffocating. The Great Depression had a significant impact on the United States and its people, and this is reflected in the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird. The economic hardship of the Depression is evident in the novel through the portrayal of poverty and lack of opportunities in the small town of Maycomb, where the story takes place. The Depression also played a role in shaping the social and political climate of the time, which is reflected in the novel's portrayal of race relations and the tensions and conflicts that arose as a