How Is Tom Robinson Treated During The Great Depression

Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird tells the dramatic tale of two children, Jean Louise (Scout) and Jeremy (Jem) Finch, and their experiences in the south during the Great Depression. During their young lives, they encounter and interact with many individuals of various backgrounds, including their wealthy relatives, family friends who are financially unstable, Negroes from downtown, and many in between. The reader first meets the Cunningham family which fits with the poor family friends. They don’t usually pay with money; instead, they use vegetables, nuts, and other things as the trade for outside services. Later on, the children are exposed to southern racial inequality as an innocent colored man (Tom Robinson) is accused and convicted of raping the daughter of Bob Ewell, an impoverished white man, and they sit in his trial and listen to various aspects of his life. Through those events, the children learn not to judge others by their physical appearance or social standards, and how to understand why people act based on their circumstances and past experiences. Tom Robinson, the Cunninghams, and a multitude of others are treated differently because of their economic state and outward image. …show more content…
They barely scrape by with the money that they get from selling their crops. But, the land they live on is fully theirs, and the money from the crops goes towards keeping it that way. Since money is tight, the family does not always pay in the conventional way; they use whatever goods and materials they can round up on the farm in exchange for services from local practices, like Atticus’s. What’s respectable about them is that even though they may not have the means to “make ends meet,” they still find ways to pay off their