Setting | TKM | Joseph #2

Setting—

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in Maycomb, Alabama during the Great Depression during the mid 30’s. Scout lived in the South and in a time where African Americans were discriminated against. Many people were poor and jobless. Scout’s father, Atticus, was a lawyer and although he has a good occupation, he is poor because the people he works for are poor. Maycomb at the time was a peaceful place where parents would do their thing and children would, like always, play in the neighborhood. There is a house down the street that is rumored to be owned by a crazy man that does disgusting things such as eating rodents and having a distorted appearance. This is sort of what Scout’s neighborhood looked like throughout the novel. There are a couple of scenes taking place throughout the town such as the county jail and the courtroom. The setting suits the story plot well because it was a regular neighborhood, something most can relate to, in a different time period. I feel that the setting has a great impact on the storyline as a whole because, Alabama, at the time, was a place where racism was still prominent and makes readers have sympathy towards the characters such as Tom Robinson who had basically no chance of winning the case because no one believed he was telling the truth just because Tom was black and they citizens would rather trust an old white drunkard. In my opinion, it is these kinds of settings that attract me to read further into the story because controversial topics such as racism were big moments in American history and I would love to learn more about these big moments. All in all, the Southern neighborhood setting was appropriate for To Kill a Mockingbird.