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Social Issues In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Caused by the prosperity during the 1920s, and flourished by the stock market crash in 1929, the lives of many were ruined (Shindo 538). Harper Lee shows the effects of the Great Depression in her novel, To Kill a Mockingbird. The novel introduces the social status of the townspeople in a fictional town called Maycomb, in Alabama, whos lives had been flustered by the Great Depression. Rigid social divisions throughout Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird exhibits the social hierarchy during the Great Depression in the 1930s. The story takes place during the peak of the Great Depression from 1933-1935. The economic hard times caused by the Great Depression had affected the entire town (Telgen 296). “‘The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, …show more content…

Although the dilemma of social injustice has always existed, the Great Depression had further divided people from one another. During the Great Depression, most native-born white Americans suffered greatly, but many of America’s most visible racial minorities suffered the most. African Americans and other races not only experienced greater hardships than whites, the most able-bodied among them were competing for far fewer jobs, because of their race (Williams 789). No matter how hard African Americans and other races worked, they were guaranteed no higher position than the whites, because of the social inequity that disunified everyone. Even though there were relief programs designed for different colored Americans, they still maintained pay differentials, racial employment systems, and other forms of discriminations, which shows social injustice during the Great Depression (Williams 790). Although programs tried to create an equal level of justice between people, nothing could stop the unfair treatment between the different races. Social divisions are revealed to be irrational and destructive because of the unfair treatment of people by the color of their …show more content…

The Great Depression, caused by the hardships in the 1920s, further separated the people on social levels. Harper Lee shows this in her novel, which took place during the midst of the Great Depression. Social injustice was shown because of the unfair treatment of the colored Americans against the white people, no matter their working ability. The Cunninghams mainly showed the social problems caused by the stock market crash because of all the hardships they faced as a result of the crash. Finally, the Great Depression not only caused economic problems, it also greatly separated the townspeople from one another, causing social

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