ipl-logo

How Did Harper Lee's Impact On To Kill A Mockingbird

967 Words4 Pages

The time period of the 1930s included The Great Depression, Jim Crow laws, and the Civil Rights Coalition, leaving hardships and crime in their wake. Harper Lee’s famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird that was published on July 11, 1960, gives the readers an insight of what it was like for her growing up in a small southern town in the 1930s. The events she witnessed growing up as a lawyer’s daughter during this time had significant influence for the best-selling novel To Kill a Mockingbird that won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, and became an Academy Award winning film in 1962. To Kill a Mockingbird has a strong theme of believing the good in everyone, no matter the circumstances.
Harper Lee’s father, Amasa Coleman Lee, was a lawyer. The fact that …show more content…

The poor farmers were hit the hardest during this time, forcing the women to get out of the home and work to make ends meet, while the better off families did not have to endure as much. Another influential highlight of this time period in Alabama was the Scottsboro Case. In the 1930s, there was ample attention towards the “Scottsboro Boys”, nine black youths falsely charged with raping two white women in Alabama. No crime in American history-- let alone a crime that never occurred-- produced as many trials, convictions, reversals, and retrials as did an alleged gang rape of two white girls by nine black teenagers on a Southern Railroad freight run on March 25, 1931. This case depicted the extent of barbarous treatment of blacks. One of the main events in To Kill a Mockingbird is Atticus Finch’s case involving a black man, Tom Robinson, and a white female, Mayella Ewell. She was known for being part of one of the most disgusting families in town and accusing Mr. Robinson of raping her after she asked him inside the house to help her with a chore. Since she was white and Mr. Robinson was black, no matter what was said, the jury would take the white persons side of it due to the discrimination of blacks during that time. With Lee being the daughter of a well-known lawyer in the county it is evident that she was aware of the happenings of the Scottsboro Case enough to have been the influence of the Robinson Case in To Kill a Mockingbird. During this time period blacks had no authority and often looked over no matter the circumstances. The townspeople were against

Open Document