Obstacles In To Kill A Mockingbird

The human race has created a way to measure just about everything that is done in society. Anything that someone can do, whether it’s performing, writing, playing sports, or any activity that is shown to the world can be measured in succes. Music artists and professional athletes can measure their success by how many fans attend their performances and how much of their products they buy. The more they sell, the more successful they’re considered. For writers there is a large similarity in this aspect. The more novels a writer sells, the more their name becomes known and the more successful they are; and this is how Harper Lee arose to fame. She wrote one of the most pivotal, influential, successful novels known to date. To Kill a Mockingbird …show more content…
Ever since America was founded in the late 1700’s, it has always been racist towards any other people that have come to it. However, in the 1930’s the northern part of the country wasn’t completely racial, but the south still followed its old ways. In To Kill a Mockingbird, a man by the name of Tom Robinson is put on trial. His biggest obstacle is that he is a Negro. Atticus Finch is assigned to his case and he tries his best to defend Mr. Robinson and to give him a fair chance at freedom. When kids at school start teasing Scout, Atticus’s daughter, she comes home and complains to Atticus about it. She comes home and asks Atticus if he is a “nigger lover”, and in turn Atticus tells her that this term means nothing. "Scout,’ said Atticus, ‘nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don 't mean anything—like snot-nose.”. (Lee 182) Scout and her brother, Jem, are harassed by several people in their community. Since their father is defending a black man, the residents of the community make sure they know it. Eventually, the people of the community start to insult them and nag at them. "Your father 's no better than the niggers and trash he works for!". (Lee 176) Mrs. Dubose says this to the kids as they walk by on their way to town. These kids just get constantly harassed throughout this …show more content…
With this novel being written in 1960, it was a huge pivotal point in the fight against racism. One thing Lee did that shocked the nation is that she wrote this novel, but she was from the south. A southerner wasn’t supposed to defend a Negro and think of one as equal. The amount of courage it would have taken her to write and publish such a novel is incredulous to anyone at the time. These are three of Lee’s strongest points that she addressed in To Kill a Mockingbird to make as famous as it is