Rayah Min Ms. Davis English 1 Honors/Pre-IB 28 March 2023 To Kill a Mockingbird Socratic Seminar Questions 3. In what ways is the 1930s era, with WWII looming on the horizon and the Great Depression in full swing, relevant to the events in the novel? How does what was happening in Nazi Germany at the time parallel relations between Blacks and Whites in the American South? In relevance to the novel, the period of nearing WWII and the Great Depression at its peak shows the racism of the time and that things must get bad again before it gets better. Without the racism of the time the whole plot of the story would have been different and the likelihood of Tom Robinson would be little to none. The 1930s were a swing in racism of many different …show more content…
This particular lesson concerns the larger theme of the novel, prejudice and racism, by showing how the children are being taught to treat others equitably. If the younger generation, Jem and Scout are instructed in the fair treatment of all, the cycle of bias could be broken. This instance is particularly impactful coming from Calpurnia due to her being on the end of such racism. Calpurnia understands how hurtful negative preconceptions of people can be and by teaching the children in ways of equality it shows how she is not prejudiced herself, knowing that the children are not bad because of some of their prejudices and judgment of different people but are brought up in the way. By teaching them equality she is showing them how to be a good …show more content…
If Tom Robinson were not to die the readers would not feel such anger and outrage over how Robinson was wronged. Death is a higher sentence than prison in which it is still extremely wrongful for him to be convicted due to his lack of guilt but his unjustified death has a sense of finality for the readers; with imprisonment there is still hope for the future. Without Robinson’s death, the novel would be less impactful to the readers of the negativity of racism. The readers would feel less moral outrage and feel hope for the wrongs of Robinson’s conviction to be righted and thereby a less severe case. Whereas, his death makes people feel outraged that such an extent of moral injustice was