To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird

Historical Fiction Essay: To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird, which takes place during the 1930’s, reflects what life was like during that time.   The story takes place in Maycomb, Alabama, a small town where everyone knew each other.   Scout Finch is a young girl that narrates the story.   Scout’s father, Atticus, is a well-respected attorney.   Jem is her brother.   Dill is the children’s friend that comes to Maycomb each summer.   The children focus on Boo, an unseen mysterious neighbor.   Tom Robinson is a hard-working, poor Negro who is put on trial for his life.   Bob Ewell is an alcoholic on welfare, fired from the Worker’s Progressive Administration. Mr. Ewell accused Tom of raping his daughter Mayella.   Atticus defends Tom in the trial.   During the trial, Jem and Scout deal with many insults from prejudice people.   Tom is convicted even though Atticus proved that Tom could not have hit Mayella due to his crippled hand.   After the trial is over, Jem and Scout are walking home at night from a Halloween party, Ewell attacks the children.   He breaks Jem’s arm.   Boo saves the children by killing Ewell.   This ends the children’s fear of Mr. Ewell.   The story ends with a closer relationship between Atticus and his children.
Ongoing Jim Crow laws limited the black’s power and prestige in society.   They affected how a black lived his life.   Interactions among the blacks and whites were established by these laws.   For example, blacks had to use different restrooms and separate drinking fountains.   Blacks had to sit in the back of trains and buses. They had to attend separate schools.  
Harper Lee took her inspiration in writing To Kill a Mockingbird from the Scottsboro trial of 1931.   Between the Scottsboro case and the trial of Tom Robinson, many similarities are found.   Both trials took place in the 1930’s in Alabama.   The accuser was a lower class white woman in the book and in the real trial.   The charge was rape involving a black man...