The South’s True Colors
Harper Lee 's most famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a classic book used to show racial prejudice in the “Jim Crow” south, specifically during the Great Depression of the 1930’s . She is able to mirror the actual experience of black people as we are informed about during The Devil In the Grove and the Scottsboro Boys case. The book shows racism through the eyes of a young girl, known as Scout Finch, growing up in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. As readers, we learn how high racial tensions really were and how the social class system prevented blacks from reaching their fullest potential.
Lee demonstrates that blacks have zero authority. They are not offered the opportunities that come with any high-paying …show more content…
The whites see it as a betrayal to defend a black man, where as a select few blacks didn 't want a white man to help solve their problems. When his children go to church with Calpurnia, a woman meets them not far inside and tells them that the white children don’t belong there. However Zeebo, a churchgoer, goes over and is almost a leader of the pack telling the children not to fret, that the rest of the parishioners are happy to see them there. The majority of the blacks are completely open to their guests and invite them in with open arms. This is completely the opposite of what would happen if a black man or woman were to walk into an all-white …show more content…
Her book, although it is fiction, has a tone that creates an undeniable sense of realism. Lee makes the reader feel as if they have been inserted into the Depression-Era south. Throughout the novel, the reader is able to experience how racial discrimination took place in the town of Maycomb. Her depiction of the south is a close representation to what the south was like in that day and age.
We see similar circumstances depicted in real-world examples. As shown in Devil in the Grove, racism ruled in the south for years; whites never allowed for change to occur. It took a black lawyer to march down from the north and show Lake County that things needed to change. Even then, he was not respected as an authoritative figure by the townspeople. Regarding the Scottsboro boys, their white lawyer, Leibowitz, was frowned upon for defending a group of black men, just like Atticus. In the end, it all comes full circle, that no matter what, in the Jim Crow south, a black man 's word meant
Harper Lee 's most famous novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is a classic book used to show racial prejudice in the “Jim Crow” south, specifically during the Great Depression of the 1930’s . She is able to mirror the actual experience of black people as we are informed about during The Devil In the Grove and the Scottsboro Boys case. The book shows racism through the eyes of a young girl, known as Scout Finch, growing up in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama. As readers, we learn how high racial tensions really were and how the social class system prevented blacks from reaching their fullest potential.
Lee demonstrates that blacks have zero authority. They are not offered the opportunities that come with any high-paying …show more content…
The whites see it as a betrayal to defend a black man, where as a select few blacks didn 't want a white man to help solve their problems. When his children go to church with Calpurnia, a woman meets them not far inside and tells them that the white children don’t belong there. However Zeebo, a churchgoer, goes over and is almost a leader of the pack telling the children not to fret, that the rest of the parishioners are happy to see them there. The majority of the blacks are completely open to their guests and invite them in with open arms. This is completely the opposite of what would happen if a black man or woman were to walk into an all-white …show more content…
Her book, although it is fiction, has a tone that creates an undeniable sense of realism. Lee makes the reader feel as if they have been inserted into the Depression-Era south. Throughout the novel, the reader is able to experience how racial discrimination took place in the town of Maycomb. Her depiction of the south is a close representation to what the south was like in that day and age.
We see similar circumstances depicted in real-world examples. As shown in Devil in the Grove, racism ruled in the south for years; whites never allowed for change to occur. It took a black lawyer to march down from the north and show Lake County that things needed to change. Even then, he was not respected as an authoritative figure by the townspeople. Regarding the Scottsboro boys, their white lawyer, Leibowitz, was frowned upon for defending a group of black men, just like Atticus. In the end, it all comes full circle, that no matter what, in the Jim Crow south, a black man 's word meant