To Kill A Mockingbird, A Story of Racism in the South

The book is one of the masterpieces which was written in the second half of the 20th century. Harper Lee sheds light on the racism of the 1930s in the USA. Since in the past there were many plantations in the South, landowners needed many slaves to cultivate crops such as cotton, tobacco, rice, and indigo as a result of which the South became the land of slavery while the North later went to war against the South. Thus, unfortunately, there have been many tragic racist situations that happened in the South until this era.

To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the books that reveals this kind of stories. We read the book through a little kid's mouth (Scout). In the book, the main event is Tom's being accused of raping a white woman. Particularly, at that time, if any black was charged with raping a white woman, there was no possibility that man could be considered innocent. In the history of the USA, an event similar to this incident happened in 1955 although the book specifically talks about the 1930s. 14 years old named Emmet Till was accused of flirting with a married white woman, later in consequence of this he was killed and thrown into a river by her husband and brother-in-law.

When it comes to the book, according to the evidence, there was no possibility that Tom could do such a thing because he couldn't use his left hand while the right part of Mayella's face and body were bruised. As a white attorney, Scout's father asked to take the case as a result of which he became the target of criticism as well. As a little kid, Scout couldn't understand his father's being sided with a black man but later on she also became aware of the heavy racism in the south.

The title of the book was chosen intentionally by Harper Lee to refer to all of the innocent characters in the book because Mockingbird is one of the beautiful songbirds and it does not harm or disrupt anything but rather it creates beauty itself. In the book, many of the characters become the target of criticism or evil. Especially, Tom's life was turned upside down after he was stained by a white woman, people caused innocent Tom's death consequently they killed the Mockingbird.