How Did The Great Depression Affect The Families In To Kill A Mockingbird

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. The Great Depression started in 1929 and lasted 10 years. In To Kill a Mockingbird, the Cunninghams were one of the families that got hit hard with the Great Depression. In the book Atticus says, “The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them the hardest.”(p.23) The Cunninghams were one of the families that didn’t take favors unless they knew they could pay them in return. That return wasn’t usually in money either. They would pay people back with produce like hickory nuts and turnip greens because they had little to no money to return the favor. I would assume both the Cunninghams and the Robinsons were part of the 50% of the American families that were living below a subsistence level of the bare minimum that a family needs to survive. Although Atticus says the Cunninghams got hit the hardest

During this time period the blacks were being segregated and the were harassed frequently. Some black families during this time had very little opportunities to earn money. one way to earn money was to work for the Federal Writers’ Project. This had them taking notes, graphs, and charts. Although this may true, many blacks like Tom Robinson worked as a farm hand. Farm hand is when you work on someone’s farm.In this case Tom worked for Mr. Link Deas at his farm. As a farm hand he would pick cotton and pecans. These two families were poor but they had respect for others considering their