Maycomb In To Kill A Mockingbird

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Maycomb County, Alabama is not only the setting of Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, it also demonstrates the townspeople in a significant way. Throughout the novel the author gives the reader ideas that the town of Maycomb impacts the way the residents live their lives day by day. Characters that express this theme include, The Radley Family, Atticus, Jem and Scout Finch and the Ewells. The question is, does the town make the people or do the people make the town? Every town has a family that is mysterious and most likley looked down upon by the others. It just so happens that in Maycomb that family is the Radley Family. Neighbors have theories about them, young adults spread rumors and children torment them. “According to a neighborhood legend, when the younger Radley boy was in his teens he became acquainted with some of the Cunninghams from Old Sarum, an enormous and confusing tribe domiciled in the northern part of the county, and they formed the nearest thing to a gang Maycomb had ever seen.” (page 12) Although the Radley family has a …show more content…
Atticus, being a lawyer is respected throughout town but brought down by the racism that pervades the county completely. Maycomb is sucked into a dark cloud of racism that affects the way the town and the society are looked upon by the reader. The Finch’s are the minority in town by not being racist and accepting of everybody. “Atticus sighed, ‘I’m simply defending a Negro-- his name’s Tom Robinson. He lives in that little settlement beyond the town dump. He’s a member of Calpurnia’s church, and Cal knows his family well. She says they're clean living folks.” (Page 100) Atticus defends this man although he knows he will not win, he is aware that it is the right thing to do. Unlike many members of Maycomb, the Finch family is welcoming. They propose the good in people. Living in a town full of malignant people they represent the few benign ones
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