To kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee explores a person’s loss of innocence, racism in the south and the great depression. Published in 1960, the Pulitzer prize winning story is about Jem and Scout, two children born and raised during the Great depression, a time of economic downfall and racism. Throughout the story, they prove to be quite adventurous and resourceful, they sneak into, and out of, many situations. The school represents and symbolizes many things in the story: racism, the depression itself, and loss of innocence. The school in the story represents racism. During the Great depression and other times around this point in history, racism is widely present. The school, for instance represents racism because of the fact that it is segregated: there are no black kids at the school, only white. It …show more content…
Though it may not seem obvious, the school shows a distinct lack of care for its pupils, they have introduced new systems of learning, people who are not acquainted with the area are chosen to teach there, causing different, more obvious problems with the students. Learning can also be associated with a loss of innocence because ignorance and innocence go hand in hand: the less you know, the less likely you are to try something because you don’t even know of the certain thing, and you know things that make you less innocent in the first place. All in all, the story is based around racism and the Great depression and other such themes. The school represents many of these things, innocence, racism and depression. On the opposite side of the same coin, it could also represent many good things about this period of time, but it exuded these characteristics the most. The school was a great many things: a learning place, a place of refuge from the heat as it was indoors, and also the bad things stated before, all in all, it was a symbol of many things and created many atmospheres in the times it was discussed in the