To Kill A Mockingbird Setting

Whether it is a poem, novel, short story,picture book, or any other work of literature characters tend to be influenced and shaped by the setting, or time and place, in which he writing takes place. In Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, the setting is in the small town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930’s. In the novel, readers can interpret that Maycomb is a racist, slow moving, poverty stricken town from Lee’s writing style and the character’s emotions. The setting is significant because throughout the book, it advances the story line or events that take place and the character’s actions or feelings. When the townspeople say Atticus “shouldn’t do much” (Lee 100) and children are “taught ugliness by unthinking adults” (Pearce), the reader understands that certain people …show more content…
The story line is developed by this because they plan on making Boo Radley come out of his house for the first time in an extremely long period of time. Poverty is also a big issue for the people of Maycomb, Alabama, many of the residents are poor and can’t afford food or warm clothing. Audiences understand the hardships of the location and time period when Walter “didn’t have any lunch” (Lee 26.) The theme of poverty in the book thickens the plot because the Ewells family, a family living in poverty without a mother, accuse Tom Robinson of rape, an African American gentleman. The author, Harper Lee, beautifully makes sure to have the poverty and the racism tie in all together, hand in hand. The major concerns in this small Alabama town are an effect of the time period and location. The people in Maycomb have specific personalities and morals that are specific and unique to their own town. Viewers can grasp this by the way the plot unfolds, as a result to the setting. The setting in To Kill A Mockingbird is crucial to Scout’s actions and the reader's understanding of the author's