"'Mockingbirds [do not] do [anything] but make music for us to enjoy. They do [not] eat up people's gardens, [they] do [not] nest in [granaries], they do [not] do [anything] but sing their hearts out for us. That [is] why it [is] a sin to kill a mockingbird'" (Lee 90).
Scout's Home in Maycomb, Alabama
Mai Do
In the town of Maycomb, Alabama, Scout Finch lives with her father Atticus and brother Jeremy, surrounded by the Southern social attitudes that define African Americans as dishonest and unmannerly. Segregation is a daily occurrence, and while the whites of Maycomb treat their African American neighbors with utmost disrespect, the African Americans "[step] back and [take] off their hats; the women [cross] their arms at their waists, [presenting] weekday gestures of respectful attention" (Lee 119). White women gather to decide on methods to assist an African tribe they deem barbaric, and yet do not look to improve conditions of African American life in their own town. Their husbands fight for a justice that is the assurance of innocence for only whites, destroying whatever and whomever may obstruct their way. Their children have African American caretakers yet grow older only to treat their caretakers and their African American kin as if they are convicted criminals.
In Maycomb live merciless hypocrites alongside tolerative, unaggressive endurers. For generations, the African Americans of Maycomb have accepted their role in this community out of fear, and only now does one brave man voice the injustices that oppress the people of color who work so hard to survive.
In Maycomb live merciless hypocrites alongside tolerative, unaggressive endurers. For generations, the African Americans of Maycomb have accepted their role in this community out of fear, and only now does one brave man voice the injustices that oppress the people of color who work so hard to survive.
Sources:
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1960. Print.
Header Photo: Sherman, Paul. Mockingbird on Post. N.d. Photograph. WPClipArt. Comp. Paul Sherman. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1960. Print.
Header Photo: Sherman, Paul. Mockingbird on Post. N.d. Photograph. WPClipArt. Comp. Paul Sherman. Web. 5 Dec. 2013.