How Did The Great Depression Affect To Kill A Mockingbird

The Great Depression took its toll on the real world, but how does it affect “To Kill a Mockingbird”? Harper Lee, the author, created a world-famous story that took place in the 1930s. This was when the Great Depression hit America hardest, but also when social inequality was at its high point as shown by Tom Robinson. Why should Lee incorporate different issues in the main book? Lee tried to make the book as realistic as possible from the 1930s, using accurate allusions and plot elements of each worry during that time. These themes are displayed many times throughout the book, but the Great Depression is one of the main points of how Lee’s work is affected.
With all the commotion going on in the real world, it seems abnormal that Lee would

use a mockingbird as the theme. Through Atticus Finch, she describes the mockingbird as a bird who “sings their hearts out for us”. The Great Depression, at the time, was driving just about everybody crazy. Many were scrambling to banks, trying to retain their lost money, and millions lost their jobs. Since the cruelty of the bank and stock failures drove Maycomb into economic discomfort, the Finches just wanted to use the mockingbird as something to look up to, and something to use or think of as hope for what is to come in the small city in Alabama.
Money is rarely mentioned, and plays nothing but a background to many character’s upbringings.

Walter Cunningham is described as a poor farmer, who cannot pay Atticus in anything but crops for his legal services. The book states that Walter Cunningham could get a Work Progress Administration, or WPA, job, but that his crops would die too quickly. The WPA was created by Franklin Roosevelt to counter the dangers of the Great Depression. Bob Ewell, the man who went against Tom Robinson in defending his daughter Mayella, also secured a WPA job, but was fired due to laziness. As this is a short list of those who the Depression hurt economically, there were many others as

well.
Why does Lee use the Great Depression as the setting of her story?

This is to explain the basis of the world’s problems, and in the 1930’s, the Depression was what shaped America. Lee incorporates other issues,such as slavery, but Lee uses the Depression to connect with readers, and to inform how life really was in the 1930’s. She did not exaggerate how the stock market crash could make or break a family. For example, “...the crash hit them hardest”, was what Lee wrote about the Cunningham’s, forcing Walter to become poor in money, and in crops. Since the market crash, the Cunningham’s have to pay with crops. Many were unemployed in Maycomb, which made it a privilege to be able to work for money, especially if you were African-American. Calpurnia was able to be a cook for the Finch family during the 1930s, and the Finches were still wealthy compared to the rest of society.
Usually, in the 21st century, jobs like orthodontists or surgeons make the majority of the money in America. In the 1930s, this was not the case. Atticus says that “professional people were poor because farmers were poor.” He follows this by saying that Maycomb was “farm country”, and money was hard to come by since the farmers had to pay with their crops. On the other hand, there are a handful of families like the Ewells, who were already poor before the Great Depression, and the Depression wiped out most of the little amount of money that they

had.
“To Kill a Mockingbird” incorporates the Great Depression into literature, even though it is rarely used. The accuracy of the times it was used proved that the allusion was meant to be remembered by many readers. From showing how it affected Walter Cunningham, to Jem and Scout Finch, it is easy for most to understand. Lee takes time inspecting various different issues, such as racism and bias. Although she does scramble ideas around, she connects the allusions well together using the Great Depression as a background and as the roots of Maycomb, Alabama.