To Kill A Mockingbird Community Analysis

A community, otheriwse known as a group of people that typically share common goals, interests, and beliefs, is a very powerful thing. Community played a very large role in To Kill a Mockingbird, and has continued to be of importance to this day. Fitting into the community plays a vital part in a person's life. Belonging to the community can, quite literally, make or break someone. Thus, what factors play a role in one being accepted into a community? Race, gender, family name, social standing, and financial status are important elements that determine whether one is accepted into a community, where one stands in the community’s universe of obligation, what community rules apply to one, and how one is disciplined if those rules are broken.

However, does ones literal location in the community reflect ones actions and affect ones life? In To Kill a Mockingbird, there is a great deal of relation between the characters setting and their actions. The most obvious example would be that most all of the characters live in Maycomb, a racially segregated town. Many of the people in Maycomb are racists, simply becuase they have grown up in and live in a town where people of color are looked down upon. This racism that they have aquired while living in Maycomb often influences choices they make. An example of when Maycombs racist streak was shown was when the all white jury convicted a clearly innocent black man, Tom Robinson. Looking at Maycomb as a whole, this seems to be the most obvious relationship between a characters setting and their actions. Neverthless, if one digs deeper into the county of Maycomb, many more examples of the realationship between a charcter and their setting can be found. A very prominent example of this is the Yule family. The Yule’s live behind a dump, and their actions often reflect this. Mr. Yule beats his daughter, Mayella Yule lied about a man raping her, and Mr. Yule even tried to kill Jem and Scout becuase their father fought against him in the rape trial. Undeniably, there is a strong connection between the charcaters and their setting in To Kill a Mockingbird, which helps the reader to get a better understanding of each