TO KILL A MOCKING BIRD CONTEXT

 To kill a mocking bird initially paints Maycomb as “a tired old

town”,people move slowly,days seem longer than 24 hours,and
not,much goes on,but as the novel progresses Maycomb is caught
in a whirling of events and scout is exposed to racism,injustice and
tragedy,all this in a sleepy southern town.
 Turns out Harper Lee’s novel mirrors real events and social issues
of her time.Her context is reflected in her explorations of
prejudice and racism,justice and morality,courage and
heroism,perspective and empathy and gender.
 Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeveille,a small town in
Alabama in 1926.
 To kill a mocking bird delves into social issues of prejudice and
racism that were of critical importance when it was published at
the height of the civil rights movement.This movement saw mass
protests across the US as African americans spoke out to oppose
racial discrimination and fight for equal rights.Yet the oppression
they faced was deeply engrained.
 Until its abolition in 1890,slavery was a major part of the
American life,especially in the deep douth.This region was
dependant on African slaves who often worked on palntations or
as servants,slaves were considered the property of their owners
who were allowed to imprison,abuse and even kill them.By
1860,the deep south had become Americas wealthiest
region,built off the blood,sweat and tears of unpaid slaves,given
one in three southern families owned slaves.It’s no surprise that
the Finch families wealth was also built upon slave labour,when
 Scouts ancestors Simon Finch arrived in Alabama he brought
three slaves,who helped establish his riverside home so much for
his Christian values.Slavery had been abolished years before
Harper Lee’s childhood but racial prejudice and white supremacy
were rampant,Lee grew up during segregration when American
society was separated along racial lines.African americans
attended different schools and churches,white americans lived in
different areas and were even buried in separate
graveyards,segregation was enforced through the jem crow
law’s,these policies allowed white americans to retain power and
ensure that African americans remained second class citizens.
 Segregation era attitudes are pervasive in To kill a mocking
bird,maycomb’s black folk lived separately in the quarters outside
town,when scout and jem visit calpurnia’s church some
churchgoers are shocked and angered by the prescence of the
caucasion children although others are more accepting and treat
the children as honoured guests which hints at the racial
hierarchy of the 1930’s
 The novel’s most shocking depletion of prejudice is Tom
robinson’s trial,theres barely any evidence suggesting Tom
committed a crime,yet because of his race, poor tom has all the
odds stacked against him,even Atticus,maycomb’s best lawyer
can’t protect him from the racism of the all-white jury.After Tom’s
found guilty, Atticus tells Scout and Jem “those are twelve
reasonable men..but you saw something come between them and
reason”,clearly the juries racism prevents them from making a fair
decision,they are blinded by their own prejudices.
 Tom robinson’s trial also exposes the inconsistency between
justice and morality in 1930’s America.During Harper Lee’s
childhood the Scottsboro trial was widely publicized,the case
involved nine African American boys who were accused of raping
two white women in Scottsboro Alabama,the womans claims
were questionable yet the all-white jury found the entire crew
guilty and all except the youngest who was only 12 was sentenced
to death.This case was one of the wrongful convictions where
racial biases in the justice system produced a n immoral result.In
Atticus’s closing statement he declares that”in our courts all men
are created equal”,yet Tom robinson is convicted that same
day,by contrasting or showing a strong difference between
Atticus’s ideals of fairness and the juries biases,Harper lee
highlights how easily justice can be divorced from morality.
 Scout comes face to face with this insight with an angry lynch mob
gathered outside Tom’s jail cell.Lynch mobs were common place
in the 1930’s South,these gangs would take justice into their own
hands,if an African American did something to offend them they
would often torture and kill their victims before displaying them
puclically as a warning to other black people,thankfully lynching’s
were uncommon by the time Lee published her novel,yet the gaps
between justice and morality continue to dominate head lines and
spark debate to this day.
 To Kill a mocking bird also raises questions about the meaning of
courage and heroism,for folks in the 1930’s south,the
stereotypical hero was a white man with a gun,popular children’s
adventure books like the rover boys series depicted boys battling
their adversaries with daring bravery and of course a hot gun or
 rifle,no wonder Scout and Jem can’t wait to get their hand on air
rifles for Christmas.
 In 1791,the right to bear arms or to possess guns was included in
the US constitution as a fundamental right,one that still hotly
debates till today,from that time and particularly since the
American civil war,guns have been associated with southern
bravery and heroism,through Atticus Lee offers her readers a
different perspective on what it means to be a hero.
 Atticus teaches the children that “real courage…isn’t a man with a
gun in his hands”,this is interesting coming from a sharp shooter
known as” one-shot finch”,but atticus isn’t interested in
guns,instead he believes that courage is”when you know youre
licked before you begin,but you begin anyway and you see it
through no matter what”,in other words,facing your fears even
though there’s a big chance you’ll lose.In fact Atticus’s role model
for corage is a cranky, bedridden drug addict named
Mrs.Dubose,the way she overcomes her own addiction just before
she dies is inspiring for Atticus,in the same way Atticus bravely
defends Tom robinson with the knowledge that he’s probably
licked before he begins,it’s a memorable lesson for anyone who
decides to take on any formidable opponenet like an addiction or
an entire justice system,if you win that’s fantastic,if not you’ll
likely pave the way to someonelse who will,either way all you
need is a sharp mind not a gun.
 Through Aticus’s teaching’s,Scout learns the value of perspective
and empathy qualities in short supply make not only is the town
riddled with racism,the novel takes place during the worst
economic recession in history,”The Great Depression”,when the
 New york’s stock exchange crashed in 1929,the US economy
spiraled,people stopped spending and investment fell causing
business across the country fail and lay off their workers,by 1932
98 million American were living in poverty.
 Harper Lee reveals the hardships of the great depression through
character’s like Walter Cunningham,Walter’s family is poor,he
comes to school barefoot and never brings lunch,when he joins
the Finches for dinner,Walter piles food on his plate and pours
molasses all over it,Scout is shocked and calls Walter out but is
then called out by Calpurnia,but as Atticus explains to
Scout,farming families like the cunninghams were hit hardest by
the Great depression,with no money or food to go around many
become well nourished,Walter isn’t stuffing his face with syrup
out of greed,he’s starving.
 This is an important lesson for scout,she learns not to judge other
so quickly,later when she see Walter’s father with the mob
outside Tom Robinsons cell,Scout telS Mr Cunningham that his
son is a real nice boy and asks him to say hi from her,Not only
does Scout develop some empathy but her innocent kindness
brings the gang to their senses and they head home.Through
mome nts like these,Lee positions perspective and empathy as
antidotes to social and economic problems of her time.
 Being female was another challenge in the 1930’s South,women
were expected to conform to strict expectations and had few
oppurtunities than men,they’d only recently been granted the
right to vote and they weren’t allowed to serve on juries in case
their feminine sensitivity affected their judgement,seems rich
coming from the men,but women weren’t always so boxed
 in,during world war one,the loss of male workers allowed many
women to enter workplaces,women worked in factories and
construction and some even joined the armed forces,but when
the war ended women were ushered back in to the domestic
sphere just when wearing were trousers was getting comfy,so by
the 1930’s traditional expectations of womanhood returned,even
as children middle and upper class girls like Lee had strick
behavioural codes than boys,they were expected to behave
politely,wear dresses and eventually become ladies of society
dedicated to their husbands,children and their community.
 Lee encapsulates these expectation in Scout’s aunt,Aunt
Alexandra she represents the ideal southern woman,she’s
conservative,family oriented and determined to exert some
feminine influence over Scout,she relentlessly nitpicks Scout’s
boyish clothing telling her to wear dresses and act like a lady,but
Scout has different aspirations she wants to have adventures and
make real change in the world.
 During Tom Robinsons trial she wishes she was the governor of
Alabama for one day,she’d let Tom robinson go quick.Scouts
characterisation or depiction undoubtedly mirrors Harper Lee’s
experience growing up as an opiniated tomboy in a conservative
southern community,yet societal change over the following
decades allow Lee and many more women to study at university
and persuade career,after all Lee went on to write a novel that
has impacted america’s cultural landscape forever.