Month: May 2015

Another way the novel shows small town life to be is highly segregated by class. Jem’s realisation that everyone in Maycomb hates each other sparks questioning in his mind. As we know, the Finch family were born into a higher class, being literate and not struggling with everyday tasks. This was not ordinary around that time in rural areas because of the impact of the great depression.

From the wall street crash the Cunnignhams and farmers were ‘hit the hardest’. By this they unable to pay with money and often needed to do so in different ways such as with produce instead. Many citizens in Maycomb are displayed as prime examples of people that do not agree that the classes should mix. Contrary to today, where the classes do not necessarily exist as they used to and people can easily escape from on to another as they are judged not by what they were born as but what they have achieved or the material they have to offer. the quote ‘you can polish Walter until he shines but he will never be like Jem’ demonstrates what the people around the time thought about the matter.

Social class is a phrase and subject permanently referred to in the novel, the question of how different groups in society are looked upon and shown is raised by the new adolescence of Jem Finch. Scout and Aunt Alexandra are also involved in arguments over people from different classes.

From the quote in chapter 23 ‘you can scrub Walter Cunningham until he shines … but he will never be like Jem’ Aunt Alexandra’s viewpoint on the mixing of classes is extremely clear. Her belief is that classes cannot be mixed and changed from a person’s birth status. The analogy that Walter could never become like Jem is because the Cunningham’s are poor farmers and were ‘hit hardest be the crash’ (referring to the wall street crash and great depression) and Jem Finch is obviously from a class that is not struggling in basic needs in life such as keeping clean. This is similar to what was seen in the court scenes where Mr Ewell would apparently never become cleaner if the were to be continuously bathed and scrubbed from the dirt that coats his skin. This was said because of his ability to never becoming of a higher class tham what he was. Scout challenges this by asking what were to happen if he were of kin and is replied to that if he were of any relation he would still not be allowed to come over to the finch household because he was filth.

The class on society for the people of maycomb was separated by three groups of people: the ordinary white people, negroes and people struggling by the dump such as Cunningham’s and Ewell’s. Jem comes to the realisation that each of these classes hate each other and would be ashamed to be associated with the other. Ordinar white people would racially discriminate against ‘coloured skin’ men along with the Ewell’s, and the coloured people to not wanted to stoop what they considered to be lower-the dump around the Ewell’s. This vicious cycle would always rely heavily on class and ethnicity to stop people from switching between one and another. The only way presumably to do so would be to completely ignore and destroy the living memory of past family and generations to obliterate what the person was born into. Jem feels strongly about this theory and is beginning to become distraught about what else could be the reason for segration and misfortune in Maycomb and America.

Scout on the other hand is naïve and innocent to all of this so does not understand why a simple request of being able to have a friend come round would be denied due to the inequalities of society. Her position is against as she openly questions what many others have simply accepted for generations. The connotations of trash and ‘polishing of a turd’ are unfortunate, being born as an unaccepted piece of filth

Sparking from the Brown vs Topeka board of education court case, integration was due to take place in schools- ‘Little rock high school’ to be one of the first to mix white and black students. At the beginning of the 1957 term 9 black students, selected as some of the top in the country were admitted into the school in Arkansas. These were named the ‘Little rock nine’. Upon first day entry a large crowd of protesters blocked the gate, to stop the black students from entering. Some of these people came from different states around the South of America to stop integration and the civil right movement by any means possible. They even had support from the national guard with them, abuse was shouted and they were disallowed entry despite the legislation from the senate.

The next day the same happened to the nine. The following day body guards were positioned to force people to let the students in. Although this could be said to be an achievement, the laws set in the North were clearly not being acted upon in the South. 400,000 were due to be desegregated, and even this was only a small proportion of children and students in America. Little Rock high school was also closed down at the end of the academic year meaning all of this progress was ineffective

Harper Lee uses allusion to reference and give further understanding of the current time by talking about Hitler and Jews in Nazi Germany. The hypocrisy of the white community is that they are feeling sympathy for the Jews yet discrimanting against the black people.

This means that both the Jewish and the black people of maycomb can be juxtaposed to each other and also referred to as mockingbirds.

“Jews are the best people in the world and I don’t get how Hitler doesn’t realise” is a quote stated by a white person from maycomb, this is satirising the event.