To Kill A Mockingbird 1930 Analysis

Of Mice and Men and To Kill a Mockingbird have much to say about their 1930s setting, the Great Depression. Destitution, displacement, and separation from the characters are common themes throughout both novels. The rampant racism and racial segregation also add to the problematic quality of life during this time. In consequence, isolation deteriorates people’s situations. Lee and Steinbeck reflect these issues back onto their characters. Ranch hands are victims of economic depression. Tom Robinson and Crooks are examples of the harsh life that blacks had endured in the 1930s. Boo Radley and Mayella Ewell encounter isolation caused by their own parents and siblings. Describing in detail the terrible conditions characterized by those living during this period elicits the reader's sympathy. In addition, such emotions of loss and loneliness, both physical and

Much of what they endure is biases and evils we no longer have to deal with in our current society; or, if we do, we undergo in a lesser form. And yet we are able to both sympathize and empathize with what these characters suffer, perhaps because we suffered them ourselves or because we simply cannot imagine going through them. The era of the Great Depression and the age of racism are the two key factors and what really allow us to feel for those who lived in the past. The prevalence of injustice and the striking way it is presented, give us a connection to what was like then. And it is irresistible not to feel compassion for those living in such circumstances, not merely because we can imagine ourselves in those situations, but also because our worlds could not be further