Sierra Moore
Block-2
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 …show more content…
Mob mentality is the physiological effect of being in a group of people who are emotional about something (Edmunds). According to Edmunds, mob mentality is the reasoning behind why people drop their inhibitions while in a mob. This behavior reveals itself when people are in a particular environment; such as large groups of angry people, sporting events, evacuations, even in prisons (Smith). As Smith explains, mob mentality can cause people to do make destructive things for multiple reasons. Some of these reasons are anonymity and hysteria (Smith). People often felt that if they did something as a group they would not be held responsible as an individual (Smith). Mob mentality made many appearances in To Kill A Mockingbird. One trait of mob mentality is that people act differently when they are a part of a mob (Smith). In To Kill A Mockingbird this trait is seen where Mr. Cunningham changes his attitude whilst in the mob (Lee 205-206). Yet another trait of mob mentality, according to Smith, is that the people in the mobs are often gathered because they are emotional about the same thing. This is seen in the novel where the town gathers in front of the Finch home and Mr. Heck Tate is talking to Atticus (Lee 194). Along with mob mentality, racism also affected this …show more content…
Racism played a significant role in the Scottsboro trials. The Scottsboro trials were a very long series of unjust trials (Anderson). Racism is where people are biased or prejudiced towards one race more so than others and is evident most everywhere (Schafer). Racism can occur for many reasons; including an individual's or group’s self-esteem, desire to be the most powerful/significant, need for structure, or purely out of dominance (Routledge). Racism occurred in novel numerous times. Anderson goes on to say that racism was very evident in the Scottsboro trials. The two girls who accused the Scottsboro boys were inspected by a doctor, and he said there was no evidence of rape (Anderson). In the novel Tom Robinson’s accuser was never even taken to a doctor, and she even took back her initial accusation of having been hit in the face (Lee 234, 247-248). Another initiative to be racist, according to Routledge, is to boost one’s self esteem. In the novel Harper Lee the depicts the Ewells as very racist, but also very low in the social caste. Lee even goes on to say, “All the little man on the witness stand [Mr. Ewell] had that made him any better than his nearest neighbors [the Negroes] was, that if scrubbed with lye soap in very hot water, his skin was