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Poverty In To Kill A Mockingbird By Harper Lee

752 Words4 Pages

The novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” written by Harper Lee, is a coming-of-age story following the journey of two children, Scout and Jem Finch. The novel takes place in the midst of the great depression, consequently making poverty a prominent theme of the story. This focus on poverty opens up space for the reader to question the financial stability of their own time and region. An example of this can be poverty -- the inability to provide basic needs including food, clothing, and shelter, due to lack of money -- in Philadelphia in the past few years. The reader is likely questioning the following things: the amount of impoverished people, who those people are, if they have jobs, if they are homeless, if poverty is a cycle, and if the problem has improved or magnified over the last 10 years. …show more content…

Although the majority of the community is completely oblivious to all the unfortunate people living on or under the poverty line, they do exist, and there are loads of them. According to WHYY’s news articles, there are about 350,000 Philadelphia residents in the state, or around 22% of the state’s total population. WHYY says, “Out of the top 10 most populous cities across the United States, Philadelphia has the highest poverty rate.” (Cooper). These statistics pique the wonder of who the majority of these people are. The Philadelphia Inquirer says “...The share of Black and Hispanic residents in poverty is more than two times higher than among the white residents.” (Orso.) Out of those few hundred thousand people, over 53,000 of them are active participants in the workforce. That is only about 15% of the impoverished population that works. This leaves the door open for wonder about the housing situation of the impoverished. If only that small percentage of poor Philadelphians are working, how many of them have

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