How Does Lee Use Historical Events In To Kill A Mockingbird

n Harper Lee’s story, To Kill a Mockingbird, the sorrowful events of Black Friday and the Great Depression acted as a clear purpose rather than just providing historical context; they are veiled in the story to illustrate how the characters/setting are drastically affected by the economic state of the time being. Harper Lee, the author of the book, uses historical events to connect her novel to illustrate what it was like in that state of time. The Great Depression, Black Friday, Stock Market Crash, and the economic collapse are some of the utmost events that are cited in the story. These events can be connected through the characters and the setting in which they are. The Great Depression acts as the environment/setting for the events in To

She did this so that when she was writing the characters, it wouldn’t be difficult. Also since the characters were real people, they can show what the 1930s were really like. For example, Lee’s father is Atticus in the story because Lee’s father was also a lawyer and defended a somewhat similar case in which both managed to lose both of their cases. As reported by David Wright, “Like Atticus Finch, Lee’s father was a lawyer and a member of the state legislature. Though he never defended an African American man charged with rape, he did defend two black men charged with murdering a local merchant.” Wright also reports, “Like Atticus, Lee’s father lost the case; the men were hanged in the Monroeville jail.” These citations and quotes explain how similar the characters are to real-life people during the state of time which helps the reader grasp what the 1930s was really like. These findings demonstrate how Lee used people she knew from her life and was able to create characters that would truly resemble what the Great Depression was really

In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, the Cunningham family is mentioned to have been hit the hardest during these rough times mostly because they were farmers and unfortunately, most farmers during this time were losing all of their possessions. The narrator, Scout, mentions, “The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them the hardest. (Lee 245).” As observed by Edward Quinn, “By mid-November, the loss had mounted to more than $30 billion. Three years later, the figure had risen $75 billion. People who had been riding high in the “boom market” found themselves back at the starting line.” Due to investors losing vasts amount of money, the suicide rate had increased dramatically causing even more grief for families and all of America. This citation describes the significance of how the events of the “Stock Market Crash” and “Black Friday” by going in-depth about how much money was lost and how people were suffering severely through this rough