To Kill A Mockingbird Black Community Analysis
Examine the ways in which Harper Lee presents the black community in To Kill a Mockingbird
The book was written by Harper Lee during the 1950's in America, and coincided with the rise of the civil rights movement. At this time in history, racism played a very important role in society. There was a lot of racial hatred between black and white people. It is set in the 1930s a small town called Maycomb, in Alabama, one of the Southern States. Although Maycomb is a fictitious place, real places and towns such as Montgomery are referred to in the novel. There are a lot of factors, which explain the attitudes of the people towards each other throughout the book. Harper Lee wrote this book in order to expose the racial suffering that black …show more content…
The reader can also see that Calpurnia sees Jem and Scout as her own children, as it says in chapter 12: " I don't want anybody sayin' I don't look after my children'. She is also one of the few who can negotiate between the very separate black and white worlds of Maycomb. The Finch family also see Calpurnia as an important part of their family, as it says in Chapter 14 when Aunt Alexandra tries to persuade Atticus to fire Calpurnia. He says: " You may think otherwise, but I couldn't have got along without her all these years. She is a faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way they are".
This makes the discrimination that they suffer at the hands to the white community even more unjust. For example they are not given the same opportunities regarding education, illustrated by the visit to the Negro church where only a few can read. As a result they have no opportunity to obtain a decent job and their families are doomed to live in poverty. A good example of this is Calpurnia's eldest son, Zeebo, who can read and write, but he is still only able to get a job as a dustbin man because he is black. In addition when any criminal act has taken place the blame immediately falls on the black
The book was written by Harper Lee during the 1950's in America, and coincided with the rise of the civil rights movement. At this time in history, racism played a very important role in society. There was a lot of racial hatred between black and white people. It is set in the 1930s a small town called Maycomb, in Alabama, one of the Southern States. Although Maycomb is a fictitious place, real places and towns such as Montgomery are referred to in the novel. There are a lot of factors, which explain the attitudes of the people towards each other throughout the book. Harper Lee wrote this book in order to expose the racial suffering that black …show more content…
The reader can also see that Calpurnia sees Jem and Scout as her own children, as it says in chapter 12: " I don't want anybody sayin' I don't look after my children'. She is also one of the few who can negotiate between the very separate black and white worlds of Maycomb. The Finch family also see Calpurnia as an important part of their family, as it says in Chapter 14 when Aunt Alexandra tries to persuade Atticus to fire Calpurnia. He says: " You may think otherwise, but I couldn't have got along without her all these years. She is a faithful member of this family and you'll simply have to accept things the way they are".
This makes the discrimination that they suffer at the hands to the white community even more unjust. For example they are not given the same opportunities regarding education, illustrated by the visit to the Negro church where only a few can read. As a result they have no opportunity to obtain a decent job and their families are doomed to live in poverty. A good example of this is Calpurnia's eldest son, Zeebo, who can read and write, but he is still only able to get a job as a dustbin man because he is black. In addition when any criminal act has taken place the blame immediately falls on the black