...stock market crash in 1929 (McCabe). The novel To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during this time, and faces many challenges related to The Great Depression. Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird, used inspiration from these real-life historical events to hook into her novel. Some of these significant historical events include the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials in conjunction with racism. One of the first known influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a collection of unrelenting anti-black laws (Pilgrim). These laws weren’t just simply a set list of rules,...
Words: 988 - Pages: 4
...Did you know there were fourteen Jim Crow laws that impacted the lives of blacks in that time period? Did you also know that there were 4,730 known lynchings? Currently, in the United States the death penalty is not allowed, but it was acceptable to lynch people in that time period. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee used real-life events as inspiration for her novel. There are similarities to Jim Crow, mob mentality, and the issues of racism in that time period. In To Kill a Mockingbird the first connection to America’s history is the presence of the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a way to segregate blacks from whites. Some examples of the laws were segregated buses, prisons, mental hospitals, and reform schools. If...
Words: 821 - Pages: 4
...The Great Depression, a time of hopelessness and uncertainty is the setting of Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird (McCabe 12). The Depression was a time of devastation and debt for many companies and families all across the United States (McCabe 12). Lee used multiple historical events as her inspiration to write To Kill a Mockingbird. Those events are represented by mob mentality, Jim Crow Laws, and the Scottsboro trials. One of the influences in Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were laws created to make white people have more power than black people. One of these laws included that black and white people were to eat separately. If they ever did eat together, white people were served first (Pilgrim)....
Words: 890 - Pages: 4
...influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a set of laws that resulted in inequality between the Blacks and the Whites. The Jim Crow laws were made to separate the Blacks and the Whites (Pilgrim). The Whites felt like they needed these laws to compare their superiority to the Blacks (Pilgrim). By having these laws the Whites could do many things the Blacks could not do which made the Whites feel more powerful than the Blacks (Pilgrim). One Jim Crow law was the Blacks and Whites were not allowed to attend the same school. There were many punishments the Blacks would experience if they did not follow these rules (Pilgrim). One major punishment of these laws were lynchings (Pilgrim)....
Words: 293 - Pages: 2
...own skin color, and there was different schools, churches, and neighborhood depending on ones race. In To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee used different historical references and connections about the inequality between blacks and whites, and some of the struggles faced by both races. Included, are connections to the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and issues of racism during that era. In To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the first connections was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws created inequality between the two races of whites and blacks. There were reasons why people thought the laws were needed. They thought that whites were superior to blacks...
Words: 1371 - Pages: 6
...so they came up with jim crow laws. Jim crow laws sole purpose was to take rights away from blacks and degrade them as humans, the origin of the name Jim Crow goes back to theater around 1830. Jim Crow laws were not only unethical but illegal according to the U.S bill of rights, the Black people did not take these laws laying down and showed civil disobedience in order to try to combat these laws. Many works of literature such as To Kill a Mockingbird make references to Jim crow laws and the impact they had on blacks. The origin of the word Jim Crow dates back to theater when...
Words: 831 - Pages: 4
...They also were still under Jim Crow laws so it made thing a bit tricky down in the South. Jim Crow laws were laws against the African American citizens in America. These laws prohibited blacks from having the same bathrooms, schools, parks, restaurants, and many other public places. Jim Crow south effected not only the blacks but also the whites who did not support it and were on the side with the african americans. African Americans were known as bad people. They were always being accused of raping women, stealing, killing, and many other unlawful...
Words: 625 - Pages: 3
...Historical Paper Historical influences in the novel To Kill A Mockingbird In 1929 the stock market crashed and resulted in nationwide economic distress, called the Great Depression, and it was the setting for To Kill A Mockingbird. During the Great Depression about 1 in 4 people were unemployed in America. Millions of Americans were homeless and jobless (McCabe 12). There were multiple factual events that were significantly influential in Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird. This novel references many historical events, including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were cruel laws set up to put...
Words: 997 - Pages: 4
...In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee she used real life events for inspiration to create her book. Such as The Great Depression, which was a long and severe time in history with death and havoc (Mccabe page #). Many people went through so much havoc losing their jobs or not being able to go to school (McCabe 14). There are three influences in To Kill a Mockingbird the Jim Crow laws, Mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow Laws were an outrageous and wrong gesture (Pilgrim). *must site Pilgrim every time when facts are said about the laws (Pilgrim)* The laws were… The White’s thought they needed the laws because… The Jim Crow Laws can be seen...
Words: 540 - Pages: 3
...Historical Paper “The era can be summed up in two words: breadlines and debt (McCabe 12).” This quote is a great description of the time period the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee took place. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is a book about a young girl growing up in a small town in Alabama. Throughout the book, there are many historical references including the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. One of the very first historical references in To Kill A Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws were a set of laws that were made to separate Blacks and Whites (Pilgrim). They separated colored people from white people and made a mindset among people that white people were better than Blacks (Pilgrim)....
Words: 923 - Pages: 4
...Historical Influences in To Kill a Mockingbird The Great Depression was a “time of devastation and uncertainty”, also it was a time “bread lines and debt” in the American history (McCabe 12). After the stock market crashed in 1929 there was a height during the time that “ the unemployment rate had reached nearly 25 percent” (McCabe 12). In To kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee had many historical influences several from real life events. Harper Lee drew her influences from Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a racial caste system. Jim Crow are a bunch of harsh against Blacks laws (Pilgrim). The Whites did these actions because they disliked any benefit made Blacks including economic and political (Pilgrim). If the Blacks are to disobey then the punishments could be a lynching (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws are seen in To Kill a Mockingbird. One of the laws that you could see was “ Never assert or even intimate that...
Words: 841 - Pages: 4
...The Influence of Historical Events on Harper Lee’s Writing The 1930s were a time of great social upheaval and economic turmoil. The United States was experiencing a drastic change as new ideas and problems arose throughout the country. These problems and ideas not only swayed public opinion, but also influenced action (Rauchway 1). Harper Lee, the author of To Kill a Mockingbird, lived though all of these events and felt their effects growing up while living in the Deep South. Looking at her only novel, it can be concluded that the similarities within it and reality are no coincidence. The Historical events that occurred during Harper Lee’s lifetime clearly influenced her writing of To Kill a Mockingbird as elements of the Scottsboro Boys Trials are undoubtedly evident in the trial of Tom Robinson, the Jim Crow Laws are unjustly in effect towards the African-American population of Maycomb, Alabama, and the deleterious economic hardships faced after the Great Depression are present in the citizens of the town throughout the novel. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird revolves around the trial of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, and the lawyer defending him. This fictional trial is in fact an almost exact recreation of a trial that Harper Lee lived through: The Scottsboro Boy Trials of 1931. Both the fictional and real trials of Tom Robinson and the Scottsboro Boys share several similarities, two of which are the race and crime of the defendant...
Words: 1075 - Pages: 5
...Historical Influences on To Kill a Mockingbird During the 1930’s America’s worst depression was in effect (McCabe 12). This inspired Harper Lee to write her most famous novel To Kill a Mockingbird. Many real life events were used to inspire Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Some of the events she used are the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird was the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a set of laws that were racist and focused mainly towards Blacks (Pilgrim). The laws were most enforced in the south in 1877 through the 1960’s (Pilgrim). Most people made these laws were created because mindset of the creators was that they were superior to all Blacks (Pilgrim). Some of the punishments for committing a crime against these laws were severe including lynching, taking their jobs, or taking their homes (Pilgrim). Jim Crow laws can be seen in To Kill a...
Words: 674 - Pages: 3
...other various events in the 1930’s inspired Harper Lee’s world renown novel, To Kill A Mockingbird. Three events that profoundly correspond to the novel are the Jim Crow laws, mob mentality, and the Scottsboro trials. The first influence on Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird are the Jim Crow laws. The Jim Crow laws are a set of anti-Black laws in order to keep whites on the top of the racial caste system (Pilgrim). The Jim Crow laws vary from ordering Blacks to let White motorists go first at intersections...
Words: 1052 - Pages: 5
...Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow Laws were based on a popular character who was dressed as an old, decrepit, black man. The laws were created to keep white and black people separated. In To Kill A Mockingbird, white and black people lived separately, but they still interacted with each other. Even though they weren’t exactly segregated, many people didn’t approve of the blacks interacting with them. In the 1870’s a law passed that required the segregation of black and white people in transportation (“J im Crow Law | United States [18771954]”). In 1892, Homer Plessy, a lightskinned creole of color was kicked off for sitting in the white section on a train. Homer had light skin, but in the eyes of the government he was black. He refused to get up and go to the black section on the train. The court ruled the law as constitutional, this opened up the way to even more segregation laws. These laws are known as the Jim Crow Laws. During the Jim Crow era, it was illegal for a white man to marry a black woman, or for a white woman to marry a black man (“Jim Crow Laws” To Kill a Mockingbird, ). In Adolphus Raymond is a drunk who is married to a black woman (Lee, 267). But it turns out that he doesn’t even drink (Lee, 267). He drinks so that people will think he married a black woman because he is a drunk and doesn’t know what he’s doing (Lee, 267). The Jim Crow Laws made it to where only white people could own public buildings and ...
Words: 1023 - Pages: 5
