In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the story is set within the early 1930’s in the small town of Maycomb County. During this time period the Great Depression was beginning to present itself. The Great Depression caused several disadvantages to western societies, such as the stock market crashing, which caused bank failure, unemployment, and excessive amounts of debt. Not only was the Great Depression relevant during the early 30’s, but so was racism and segregation. Throughout the Great Depression, African Americans were hit harder than any other racial group; they were at the bottom of the food chain. As long as whites had jobs no one cared who else had to suffer to stay alive, but this all changed when President Franklin D. Roosevelt
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Specifically, discrimination can be seen when characters speak about Boo Radley, who is depicted as psychotic, much like an antagonist. One is able to see this when Jem, Scout’s brother, is describing him to their friend, Dill: “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” This quote is a depiction of the guilty prejudice shown within the town of Maycomb; it was common to see that characters within the story saw what they wished to see, exaggerating and gossiping until the truth became nothing more than a blur. An example of this is how Miss Crawford, the Finch's neighbor, tells Jem about how gruesome and how much of a sinister oddity Boo Radley is by telling false tales about Boo, such as one in which he stabs his own father with a pair of scissors making him “insane”. Yet, in reality, Boo is not a criminal, but someone with a disability, and due to this he is perceived as a monster even though he is one of the few protagonists within the
Specifically, discrimination can be seen when characters speak about Boo Radley, who is depicted as psychotic, much like an antagonist. One is able to see this when Jem, Scout’s brother, is describing him to their friend, Dill: “Boo was about six-and-a-half feet tall, judging from his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch, that's why his hands were bloodstained – if you ate an animal raw, you could never wash the blood off. There was a long jagged scar that ran across his face; what teeth he had were yellow and rotten; his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time.” This quote is a depiction of the guilty prejudice shown within the town of Maycomb; it was common to see that characters within the story saw what they wished to see, exaggerating and gossiping until the truth became nothing more than a blur. An example of this is how Miss Crawford, the Finch's neighbor, tells Jem about how gruesome and how much of a sinister oddity Boo Radley is by telling false tales about Boo, such as one in which he stabs his own father with a pair of scissors making him “insane”. Yet, in reality, Boo is not a criminal, but someone with a disability, and due to this he is perceived as a monster even though he is one of the few protagonists within the