Harper lee’s book, to kill a mocking bird, is a classic story which represents morals and the fight against prejudice and discrimination. Although the setting of the book took place in the 1930 's, the release of the novel could not have come at a more significant time. Published in the 1960, I feel that to kill a mockingbird was heavily influenced by the ongoing societal shift of standards and perceptions. Change was escalating quickly, people fought to change basically every way of life. In the 1960’s, the Civil Rights Movement was well on its way toward significantly revolutionizing how the U.S. related to race. In 1954, in the case of Brown vs. the Board of Education the Supreme Court ruled that separate was not equal, …show more content…
The case of “Tom Robinson” helped shape the idea of good and evil in the minds of readers. How when a black man, which was clearly innocent, is convicted as guilty by white jurors solely due to the color of his skin. This book proved the true and saddening “evil” in racism. The point of this book was to teach people not to discriminate against anyone based on their skin color, gender, or even disability. This is also where Boo Radley comes into play. The community of Maycomb have an unsettling fear of Boo Radley and his family. Because of their differences, they end up being shunned from the community. Although they have lived together for years, they can’t come to accept him for who he is. Ultimately, because of their baseless fear, neither Boo Radley, nor Tom Robinson were ever given a fair chance to prove their innocence to the …show more content…
As Scout and Jem both mature later in this book, they realize that life isn’t as pleasant as they once believed. The reason I feel that this theme is a reflection of what was happening in the world at the time is because in the past people naively shut their eyes to injustice, feeling as if it were just the way of life and there is nothing that could be done about it. However the maturity of the generation was the Civil Right Movement. People envisioned change and therefore made it reality. No longer would they sit around and watch helplessly as crimes took place right before their eyes. The loss of innocence is learning new ideas that shake you into realizing that your old ways were flawed. In the book, Jem realizes that people are not as kind and understanding as he had once believed. He loses his innocence when he sees the injustices of the town after the trial. He learns that a lot of people are trapped in their ways and the reason why people feel such hatred for African Americans is because they refuse to accept their