Similarities Between Of Mice And Men And To Kill A Mockingbird

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Recommended: Comparing To Kill a Mockingbird to Its Movie Version

The two novels To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men are better understood and more comprehensible with a bit of background knowledge of the 1930s. For example, racial injustice/ inequality in America in the 1930s can help the reader view these two novels from a different perspective; such as the laws, customs, and racism which took place back then. To begin with, these two very engaging novels have many similarities. They both share themes of courage, prejudice, racial injustice, and loneliness. They also both share topics that have to do with Jim Crow Laws and “mockingbird”- like characters such as Lennie, Boo Radley, and Tom Robinson. Some characters throughout these books show the trait of courage such as: Atticus, Mrs. Dubose, and …show more content…

After the stock market crashing in 1929 America went into “The Great Depression” era. People were challenged in everyday life and acquired a great number of struggles (loss of income, unemployment, starvation, and homelessness etc). During this hard time, some of the many Americans who struggled were families who starved and became homeless. Young children even had jobs to support their needy families. This wasn’t the only struggle of many, in western United States there also was a drastic drought known as the “Dust Bowl”. Although the 1930s were a rough time to go through, the people struggling still made the best out of their situations and still looked to things that made them happy like listening to comedy radio broadcasts and going out to the movies. Money was definitely tight back then but simple activities helped to make people less miserable and seemed to help them temporarily forget or push aside the hardships most Americans were going …show more content…

They both get involved in conflict having to do with white women. According to Mayella Ewell in To Kill a Mockingbird: she states, “I went in the house to get him the nickel and I turned around and ‘fore I knew it he was on me. Just run up behind me, he did. He got me around the neck, cussin’ me an’ sayin’ dirt---I fought’n’hollered but he had me round the neck. He hit me agin an’ agin---” (241). Mayella is accusing Tom of raping her when really he was just passing by and decided to help her; because of how little anyone ever cares or helps her being the oldest with only an always drunk father and disrespectful siblings. I feel like Mayella sort of betrayed Tom because he is completely innocent and was just passing by normally, decides to help her, and then she accuses him. This also is an example of a “mockingbird”-like character because Tom did nothing wrong and Mayella pretends to be the victim knowing no one would believe Tom’s side of the story because of his race so she accuses him of something he didn’t do. Now this ties back to the topics of racial injustice and prejudice because of Tom being black most people back then would expect a black man like him to be untrustworthy and unsafe or threatening. This is unfair to Tom because he is nothing like that; the people on Mayella’s side are just too caught up in this

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