How To Describe The 1930s
There are many words to describe the 1930s, but equality was not one of them. From injustice lynching and kills of blacks to the stock market crash of 1929 that lead the United States into the Great Depression. The 30s plausible could be the worst years in US history. In “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee, she uncovers all the hardships there were living during that time period. The story takes place in Maycomb a small town in Alabama and is narrated by the main character, a little girl named Jean Louise “Scout” Finch. Scout lives with her older brother Jem and her widower father, Atticus Finch who is a lawyer in Maycomb with a set of high moral standards. Maycomb is suffering through the Great Depression and the town’s air is polluted
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People in the 30s lacked integrity because they would have a harsher punishment than needed. Lynching and murders of black people were occurring because after the civil war when the black community had their freedom. People felt that they were getting away with having too much freedom and had to be controlled. Mississippi had the highest lynching rate between 1882-1968, then Georgia and lastly Texas, most lynching took place in the South. Henry Smith was a 17 year old boy who was accused of raping a young white girl “supposedly took the young girl to a pasture outside of the city, assaulted, and murdered her, covering her body with leaves and staying beside her throughout the night” (The History Engine). Smith was tied up on a ten foot scaffold and was tortured for approximately an hour in front of 10,000 people and then had kerosene poured on him and lit on fire. People lacked integrity because they believed if local government was not going to do anything about it. They would just take the law into their hands and kill an innocent boy because there was no evidence to sufficiently prove that Henry had raped her. There is a fine line between good or bad behavior and knowing what those principles are, is, morality. Harper Lee used what was happening during that the ‘30s to create this novel to show the struggles and injustice the black community had to face and in some cases still do today. In the darkness of 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a light for many struggling to survive during the Great Depression. He gave the people hope in his First Inaugural Address he once stated, “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”. Many people looked up to him because they knew he was honorable and would anyways do the right thing. Roosevelt’s integrity gave people hope because he was honest and was not afraid to tell the truth to the public, even if the truth was scary. Just like how Atticus
People in the 30s lacked integrity because they would have a harsher punishment than needed. Lynching and murders of black people were occurring because after the civil war when the black community had their freedom. People felt that they were getting away with having too much freedom and had to be controlled. Mississippi had the highest lynching rate between 1882-1968, then Georgia and lastly Texas, most lynching took place in the South. Henry Smith was a 17 year old boy who was accused of raping a young white girl “supposedly took the young girl to a pasture outside of the city, assaulted, and murdered her, covering her body with leaves and staying beside her throughout the night” (The History Engine). Smith was tied up on a ten foot scaffold and was tortured for approximately an hour in front of 10,000 people and then had kerosene poured on him and lit on fire. People lacked integrity because they believed if local government was not going to do anything about it. They would just take the law into their hands and kill an innocent boy because there was no evidence to sufficiently prove that Henry had raped her. There is a fine line between good or bad behavior and knowing what those principles are, is, morality. Harper Lee used what was happening during that the ‘30s to create this novel to show the struggles and injustice the black community had to face and in some cases still do today. In the darkness of 1930s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt was a light for many struggling to survive during the Great Depression. He gave the people hope in his First Inaugural Address he once stated, “Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself”. Many people looked up to him because they knew he was honorable and would anyways do the right thing. Roosevelt’s integrity gave people hope because he was honest and was not afraid to tell the truth to the public, even if the truth was scary. Just like how Atticus