To Kill A Mockingbird: Chapter Analysis

Maycomb was a “tired old town...there was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see...” This sentence sums up a lifestyle analogous to daily life in the south during the Great Depression. The stock market crash, Great Depression, and Jim Crow south all contributed to the tired ways of small southern towns. Minute towns and crowded cities across the United States suffered immensely during the Great Depression. This period of time remains marred by the evident poverty of the country and racial inequality and segregation. This chapter in history began on October 28, 1929. The stock market plummeted, impoverishing thousands. However, a few days prior, the market dipped slightly; people panicked, racing to sell their stocks. This rush of people attempting to sell their stocks caused the shares to lose value, quickly. Purchasing
A vast majority of the country was impoverished. Hopelessness stifled the country. Next came the salary cuts, and firings. Women began working outside of the home to help make ends meet. Women became nurses, school teachers, or worked in factories. Also, they began working harder inside the home, they sewed their own clothes and canned vegetables, too. Sometimes they opened boarding houses, or laundries. In spite of their best efforts made to sustain themselves financially, families often became homeless. These families were forced to live in shanties. These shanties were constructed from spare wood or metal; some were tent-like. They referred to groups of these shanties as “Hooverville” because the current president Hoover did nothing to stimulate the economy. Farmers had been suffering previous to the depression. Farming income shrank. During the Great Depression, the south became a dust bowl; including a severe drought that made agriculture practically impossible. Considerable amounts of debt imposed upon the majority of