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How Did Harper Lee Use Segregation In To Kill A Mockingbird

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What is your take on racism and segregation? This essay is about how Harper Lee’s society were shown through her characters while writing To Kill A Mockingbird.

The society shaped and influenced Harper Lee to write To Kill A Mockingbird by teaching her how people can be different from one another. For instance, in the text it states, “In the south, Jim Crow laws mandated segregation in all public facilities from 1876 until 1965, and therefore sanctioned discrimination against black people throughout Lee’s childhood” (Shmoop). To sum up, when Harper Lee was growing up in Alabama there was segregation and people treated different races differently. I interpret this to mean, that since Harper Lee grew up when there was segregation, she wanted to tell people who didn’t grow up around segregation, how it was like. For example, on page 269, …show more content…

For instance, on page 228, “The varmints had a lean time of it, for the Ewells gave the dump a through gleaning every day, and the fruits of their industry made the plot of ground around the cabin look like the play-house of an insane child” (Lee). In other words, the Ewells lived near the dump, and took whatever was usable from it for their house and property. The evidence highlights that, Bob Ewell was not rich and depended on whatever he could find in the dump for his property. For instance, on page 361, the text states, “‘ I thought he got it all out of him the day he threatened me. Even if he hadn’t I thought he’d come after me’” (Lee). That is to say, Atticus thought Bob got all his anger out and if Bob hadn’t, Atticus thought Bob would come after him. It seems to me that, after the trial Bob was angry at Atticus for taking Tom’s side and trying to pin it on him. To sum up, both of the pieces of evidence show that Bob got very aggressive because the trial didn’t go exactly the way he wanted it to

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