Social Inequality In To Kill A Mockingbird

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The fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama in the 1930s is filled with the usual small town stereotypes. There is Miss Stephanie Crawford who is the town gossip, the Ewells who are the “white trash”, and Boo Radley the town legend. Most importantly the African American community are seen as trash, with no lives or family, and only born to work. In To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Tom Robinson is falsely accused of raping Mayella Ewell after Bob Ewell claimed to have seen him mistreating her. The narrator’s father, Atticus Finch, chose to defend Tom Robinson even though it was seen as a bad thing to defend, let alone be seen with a black man in Maycomb. The jury and court were filled with white people, and Tom Robinson was found guilty even though the two witnesses’ testimonies …show more content…

In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Lee uses setting and point of view to highlight the social inequality in the African American community and the outcasts. The novel being set in Alabama in the 1930s emphasizes the social inequality because of the history of racial tension towards the African American community. During the trial, Mr. Gilmer is questioning Tom Robinson on why he would do work for Mayella Ewell and not ask for money, Tom responds, “Yes, suh. I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of’ em-’ ‘You felt sorry for her, you felt sorry for her?’... The witness realized his mistake and shifted uncomfortably in the chair” (Lee 264). Back in the South in this time period, it was seen as a very bad thing for a black person to feel sorry for a white person. Because of where Tom lives and the current inequality in his town, he knows he has made a mistake and those who are racist will use it to find him guilty. Lee uses this setting to help the reader to understand that even though slavery had been abolished, they were still seen as less in society and not

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