This post was written by my son Derek as a writing assignment. For another review by Derek you can go to Farenheit 451
In
her book to To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee uses a rape case
to express the relationships among four different people groups in
the southern town, Maycomb:
the white middle class, the white country folk, the poor whites, and
the black people. The story is told through the eyes of
nine year old
Scout Louise who lives in the middle class.
The
middle class does not usually associate with the white farmers. When
Scout tries to invite a farm boy over for dinner, her Aunt Alexandria
disapproves, saying that those type of people are unclean and would
not fit in with the neighborhood kids. Many of the middle class kids
share the same opinion. In school, the teacher comments on a farm
boy's poverty, and lack
of having enough food, while the rest of the class show indifference
saying that it is normal for him.
The
middle class and the white poor families treat each other with a
little more hostility. The town kids show contempt toward the poor
kids when they show up to school only on the first day just to get
attendance. The impoverished blame everyone else for their troubles,
instead of the poor parents who do not take care of their
families. Because of the irresponsibility of the poor parents, the
town folks do not respect them.
Because
her father Atticus is not racist, Scout Louise holds no hatred for
the poor black community, unlike the rest of the white populace.
Though the separate white communities are different from each
other they choose to stick with their race and defend a cruel white
poor father in a court case where he is unjustly condemning a black man.
After the rest of the white groups help the impoverished white man
win the case, they tell him to crawl back into his hole where he came
from.
In
conclusion, Harper Lee tries to show the lines that seperate of all
the different communities. Middle class, poor and country whites and
the black people. The white communities treat each other
differently, with either indifference or disdain.
However, these differences between the white groups are overlooked
when they have to choose between a guilty white man and an innocent
black man. They side with the guilty white man. Even though
they all despise him they believe they must stick with their skin
color even though they know what he did was wrong. To Kill A
Mockingbird provides an insight into these racial and class
relationships in a Southern town in the 1940's.
