The Great Depression In To Kill A Mockingbird

The Great Depression In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill A Mockingbird, the characters face many challenging problems. They face racism, learning about courage, and The Great Depression. In the opening chapter Scout states, “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it… There was no hurry for there was no where to go, nothing to buy and no money to it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people. Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself” (Lee 5). It sets the scene in Maycomb, Alabama, a poor town during The Great Depression. The Great Depression happened in the October of 1929 and lasted until 1939.
For the United States, the next ten years would be seen as the longest, darkest chapter in economic history. To Kill A Mockingbird shows how the people in the town of Maycomb dealt with the problems that were thrown at them.
Farmers were poor and had a hard time paying for things. Walter Cunningham was a farmer. He can’t afford to pay Atticus for his legal services, so he pays him in crops when he can. Scout finds out that Walter has to pay Atticus with crops when she sees Walter putting hickory nuts on her porch. Scout asks Atticus how poor Walter is. Atticus then replies,“The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest” (Lee 23 ). Scout then asked Atticus if they were as poor as the Cunninghams. Atticus then tells Scout,“ Professional people were poor because the farmers were poor.” (Lee 23). Since the farmers were poor they had a hard time paying for things. Mr.Cunningham was able to get a WPA job to help him out. WPA stands for the Works Progress Administration, a part of Roosevelt’s plan to combat The Great Depression. He decided not to take the job because his land would go to ruin if he left. Walter Cunningham continued to push through the life on the farm because farming is one of the only things he knows how to do. Another person who was able to qualify for a WPA job was Bob Ewell.
Bob Ewell lives behind the county dump where he raises his children. They live a terrible life of dirt and hunger. His kids hardly ever go to school because he makes them stay and help him get things done at home. After Mr.Ewell took the WPA job he soon lost it due to laziness. Now he has to get relief checks so he can pay for things he needs like food and clothes. But Mr.Ewell ends up spending all of his money on whiskey. Maycomb County also allows Bob to hunt and trap out of season because he doesn’t have enough money to buy food. Scout finds out and tells Atticus “... Another thing, Mr.Bob Ewell, Burris’s father, was permitted to hunt and trap out of season. Atticus, that’s bad.... In Maycomb County, hunting out of season was a misdemeanor at law, a capital felony in the eyes of the populace.” (Lee 34). Atticus has to explain to Scout that he is aloud to because he spends all of his money on whiskey and can’t afford to buy food. In the novel the author says that the economy has no bearing for people like Bob Ewell. Most people believed that because he took money and spent it on something that he didn’t need and he simply doesn’t care. He also doesn’t care about his children’s education and keeps them from going to school. Bob also runs away from his problems or blames them on someone else. One day he comes home and finds Mayella trying to kiss Tom Robinson. Tom gets chased away and Bob Ewell hurts
Mayella. He blames it on Tom because he doesn’t want people to know the truth. Tom Robinson had to go through a trial to prove if he was guilty or not.
During The Great Depression people still believed that African Americans were in a lower class of people and the white people were higher class people. At the trial they proved that Tom was innocent but the jury said he was guilty. In the trial Tom told the entire truth. During the trial he was asked, “ You’re a good fellow, it seems you did all this for not one penny?” (Lee 218).Even though Tom was poor, he still helped Mayella with her chores. He didn’t ask for a single penny because he knew that money was hard to come by. Black people could never win a trial against a white man. The Great Depression made it hard for Tom Robinson to live an easy life. The characters in To Kill A Mockingbird the problems of The Great Depression. They learn how to live in tough situations and make the best out of what you have. People now also have a hard time making money. Even though they need help they learn a new way to live. The characters find a new way to live and learn how to push through their
problems.