To Kill a Mockingbird is an accurate historical representation of the culture of American South during the Great Depression. The Ewell family symbolizes the type of white pride and prejudice toward African Americans and other minority groups. Tom Robinson’s character serves an example of the victimized black man who is found guilty of a crime because of his skin color instead of his actions which would prove him innocent. In this book, the Great Depression has economic hardships of the time period mentioned. Lee’s novel is valued today because it tells what life was like in the 1930s in the American Deep South.
In addition, To Kill a Mockingbird provides us with a wonderful story of overcoming prejudice of all kinds. The racism played towards Tom Robinson when he is merely accused of rape and convicted is the most obvious form of racism. It can be justified that Tom overcame the racist attitude shown toward him by realizing that he would never be accepted in society because of his skin color. He also realized that he would be killed when he tried to escape from prison forever for a crime he did not commit. Another form of prejudice displayed in To Kill a Mockingbird is sexism. In the novel, Atticus is harassed by Aunt Alexandra for not taking another wife. Atticus did a superb job of proving Alexandra wrong in her bias. A third form is ageism. We see that as Jem grows older, he gets a much higher opinion of himself, and begins to consider himself an “adult” and Scout a child. Scout nearly convinces Jem to place himself on the same level as her again. Nevertheless, a core theme of Lee’s novel is overcoming injustice based upon unfounded, random choice opinions. Despite all of the other themes in To Kill a Mockingbird, growing up is the one that speaks to the modern world. Many young people can emphasize with Scout and Jem’s situation. Lee shows us the obstacles we encounter growing up can change us forever. Jem’s tendency to act above Scout because of her