To Kill A
Mockingbird
Introduction to the Novel
Year 11 General English, 2021
, Social Context of the Novel
Although in 1864 President Abraham Lincoln 1864 – black slaves freed &
had signed the Emancipation Proclamation,
freeing black slaves, and the South had lost South lost Civil War
the Civil War, not until almost a hundred
years later were efforts made to obtain equal Almost 100 yrs later – efforts to
rights for the nation's blacks. Consequently, obtain equal rights for negroes
during the time of the novel, blacks in the
South, who had not been slaves for over sixty Blacks were seen as “2nd class
years, were nonetheless "second class"
citizens. There was absolute segregation of citizens” though they were
the whites and blacks, and blacks were “free”
relegated to the performance of menial jobs,
often as field hands or housemaids and Absolute segregation of blacks
cooks. Often treated as lazy, incompetent and whites
inferiors, the blacks in the South suffered the
harsh and often brutal indignities at the Negroes – menial jobs (ie. field
hands of the "superior" whites. Lee clearly
portrays this social structure in the novel, hands / house maids)
specifically with the case of Tom Robinson,
accused by Mayella Ewell of rape. A white - treated as lazy,
man (or woman's) word was never incompetent, inferior ->
questioned, the assumption being that blacks
were shifty, untrustworthy liars. suffered harsh treatment from
Consequently, Atticus tells Scout, he cannot “superior” whites
possibly win the case for Tom Robinson, but
that there is "no reason for us not to try to
win."
Mockingbird
Introduction to the Novel
Year 11 General English, 2021
, Social Context of the Novel
Although in 1864 President Abraham Lincoln 1864 – black slaves freed &
had signed the Emancipation Proclamation,
freeing black slaves, and the South had lost South lost Civil War
the Civil War, not until almost a hundred
years later were efforts made to obtain equal Almost 100 yrs later – efforts to
rights for the nation's blacks. Consequently, obtain equal rights for negroes
during the time of the novel, blacks in the
South, who had not been slaves for over sixty Blacks were seen as “2nd class
years, were nonetheless "second class"
citizens. There was absolute segregation of citizens” though they were
the whites and blacks, and blacks were “free”
relegated to the performance of menial jobs,
often as field hands or housemaids and Absolute segregation of blacks
cooks. Often treated as lazy, incompetent and whites
inferiors, the blacks in the South suffered the
harsh and often brutal indignities at the Negroes – menial jobs (ie. field
hands of the "superior" whites. Lee clearly
portrays this social structure in the novel, hands / house maids)
specifically with the case of Tom Robinson,
accused by Mayella Ewell of rape. A white - treated as lazy,
man (or woman's) word was never incompetent, inferior ->
questioned, the assumption being that blacks
were shifty, untrustworthy liars. suffered harsh treatment from
Consequently, Atticus tells Scout, he cannot “superior” whites
possibly win the case for Tom Robinson, but
that there is "no reason for us not to try to
win."
