How To Kill A Mockingbird Affect Society

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The book To Kill a Mockingbird, written by Harper Lee, communicates many different themes in this piece of Southern Gothic literature. The two main characters, Scout and Jem, learn lessons that cannot be taught anywhere else. They notice that some characters are more visible than others. These characters have the ability to be seen and heard, while others are not payed any attention. The forces in this book that make people become invisible are society, differences from those around them, and actions from other characters. The first physical factor that causes invisibility is people’s differences from those around them. To Kill a Mockingbird continually mentions how being Black makes them different from the white people in the neighborhood, …show more content…

First, the location of the novel, the South, changes how they interact with each other. Racism is very evident throughout the whole book, but is most visible during the trial and with older characters. Ms. Dubose, for example, says “Not only Finch waiting on tables but one in the courthouse lawing for a nigger!” Jem stiffened. Mrs. Dubose’s shot had gone and she knew it: “Yes indeed, what has the world come to when a Finch goes against his raisings? I’ll tell you!” She put her hand to her mouth. When she drew it away, it trailed a long silver thread of saliva. “Your father’s no better than the nigger and trash he works for!” (Lee 117) Most of the town dislikes the Finches because Atticus is white and he is defending a Black man. Jem and Scout are learning that it is caused by racism, because they live in Alabama, part of the South. The time period that this story is set in also affects invisibility and how the characters react. To Kill a Mockingbird is in the early 1930s, when the Great Depression was widespread. Atticus says "There is a tendency in this year of our grace, 1935..." (Lee 208). This sets the date exactly; since school is out, so the trial takes place in Summer 1935. The Civil Rights movement also had not happened yet, so there was still a lot of segregation in Maycomb County. Up until the 1960s there were several ‘Jim Crow’ laws to enforce separate facilities for Blacks

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