How Did The Great Depression Affect To Kill A Mockingbird

The Jim Crow era began in 1890 and enforced laws against blacks, which resulted in segregation between blacks and whites. Expectations of women in the South changed very drastically during this time, and women had to behave in a certain way. In 1849, Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery and later helped more slaves escape. She then became a conductor on the Underground Railroad. Harper Lee was born in 1926. She grew up during the Great Depression when all of these horrible events, plus others happened. Harper Lee wrote To Kill a Mockingbird, which was influenced by the events that occurred in her lifetime. Some of these events included the Scottsboro Trials, the Emmett Till murder, and the Great Depression.
First, Harper Lee had many ways to
The Great Depression was started when “the stock market took a dive on Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929...” (Rosenberg). With the stock market crash on Black Tuesday came “Black Thursday…[which brought] the roaring twenties to a screaming halt, ushering in a world-wide an economic depression” (“History”). The stock market affected many and most of the people during this time. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee uses her main character, Scout, to explain that “there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no money to buy it with…” (Lee 5). Jean Louise Finch is a very smart young white girl, and she goes by the nickname Scout. Her father is Atticus Finch. In the novel, Scout is talking about the Great Depression and being poor. She asks Atticus questions about the topics, wondering if their family is poor and “as poor as the Cunninghams?” (Lee 21). The Cunninghams are a family who Atticus says, “the crash hit...the hardest” (Lee 21). The novel explains the Cunninghams are very poor, and Scout says that “one morning, Jem…[and her] found a load of stovewood in the backyard…[and] a sack of hickory nuts appeared on the back steps…[and then] a crate of smilax and holly. That spring when…[they] found a crockersack full of turnip greens, Atticus said Mr. Cunningham had more than paid him” (Lee 20-21). At the time of the Great Depression many people “...had to deal without money…” (“academic”). The Great Depression put many people in debt, with little food or currency. It made life much harder than it should have