Egalitarianism In To Kill A Mockingbird

can be evaluated that his “raising” was in the late 1890’s. In this time period, race relations were poor and levels of racial-based violence were greatly elevated. A number of race-crimes occurred in the 1890s, including the 1st Omaha Race Riot (1891), the Wilmington Race Riot (1898), and the Newburg, NY riot (1899). (EXPLAIN WHAT EACH ONE OF THESE ARE) It can be interpreted that during this period of time, many white families had felt varying degrees of animosity to African Americans. This likely would have applied to Atticus’ upbringing, as he was raised in the South, where the majority of race-based violence occurred. Thus, Mrs. Dubose was correct in voicing that he is “going against his raising”. When Jean Louise brings up this topic to Atticus, however, he takes the moral stance and voices that he is indeed a “nigger-lover”. He says that he “[does his] best to love everbody”. However, hiis propensity for egalitarianism is completely erased in …show more content…
Do you want them in our world?” By this, Jean Louise is completely shocked and the image of the hero Atticus is further shattered in her mind.
It is insightful to evaluate Atticus in Go Set a Watchman and examine how Harper Lee had refined him into the character he is in To Kill a Mockingbird. It is known that Harper Lee’s own father was a lawyer, and was largely the inspiration for Atticus Finch. It is known that Harper Lee’s father had once been a segregationist who opposed school integration during the period of time that Harper Lee had been working on Go Set a Watchman but later changed his mind and believed in integration sometime during Harper Lee’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird. His initial stance in the 1950s had been described by his friend Mr. Shields to be that of “a Deep South Southerner [who] agreed with the status quo: birds of a feather flock together,