FREE ESSAY ON THE HISTORY IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

THE HISTORY IN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

The History in, To Kill a Mockingbird.
The book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, has many different relations to American
history. The book shows good examples of racism, working life, church, and many other
things.
The book takes place sometime in the 1930's. It's about two children named Jem and Scout.
They are very imaginative kids always making up new games and other things to pass the
time. In the beginning of the book they are obsessed with one of their neighbors, Boo
Radley. They think that Boo is a crazy man that killed his parents. Jem, Scout, and their
cousin, Dill, decide to go up and see if they can see what is going on inside the Radley
house. Once they get up to the house they hear a noise and run off, but Jem loses his
pants of a fence wire. The entire first part of the book is all about the kids trying to
find out all about the Radley's.
The second part of the book is about Atticus (Scout and Jem's father) defending a black
man named Tom Robinson in court. Tom was accused of beating and raping a nineteen year
old girl named Mayella. This is the section of the book with the most examples of
American history. Everybody in the town of Maycomb looks down on Atticus because he is
defending a black man in court. All evidence in the case shows Tom Robinson innocent, but
he is still charged guilty because of the all white jury. The actual rapist was Mayella's
father. In the end of the book, Tom is shot so that he wouldn't be found innocent. 
The part of the book that involves the most American history is the court case where Tom
Robinson is found guilty just because he is black. There have been many similar cases to
the Tom Robinson trial during this time in history. Most black men would have a very slim
chance of being found innocent just because of their race, and the white majority.
Another good example of American history in To Kill a Mockingbird, is the way the
churches were run. The white people would go to their church every Sunday and worship
much like the people do today. The real American history is in the black church. In the
black church, very few of the people had the ability to read, so they didn't have any
hymn books. One person would start singing a hymn and the entire church would stand up
and join in, singing and clapping. The people in the black church during that time were
always looking out for each other. In the book, when Tom Robinson was in jail, the black
church began collecting money to help support his family while he was away. If they
didn't collect enough money the first time the tray was passed around, it would keep
going around till the goal was met.
These are some of the big relations between Harper Lee's, To Kill a Mockingbird, and real
American history. It was a good book, and very accurately written to actual American
history.