To Kill a Mockingbird Research Paper

Mrs.Alessandrini
May 8,2009
Sometimes these days we lose track of the history of our country and the world. Throughout history there have been many forms of racism against different groups. There were many forms of that here in our country depending on where you lived. In the northeast United States you had the Italian Catholics, on the west coast you had the Chinese, but there’s one thing the whole country had in common. The majority of the US population segregated and was racist toward the African American race. Our current generation never was confronted with the racism in the early history of our country. The only way we can really know is by the written works in many great pieces of literature and our school textbooks. One way that we have been exposed is through Harper Lee’s classic American novel To Kill A Mockingbird. Throughout this report you will be reading the evidence of this, and the comparison of her book and the actual racism of the South during the 1920’s which is the setting of the book.
Throughout To Kill A Mockingbird there’s evidence of the innocence of the kid’s of that time. The racism towards African Americans was in their parents and whether or not their parents taught them that the African American’s were bad people they didn’t know any better. Scout had a good father in Atticus who taught her the difference from right and wrong. She also had Calpurnia the African American maid of the Finch household. Because of the loss of Scout and her brother Jem’s mother Calpurnia is the mother figure of the finch household. (Harold Bloom pg.18) She shows the kids that it doesn’t matter if the color of your skin is dark or white your still the same person. Now during the setting of this book this was not a widely excepted theory in the United States, let alone the Southern part of the United States. Even though the majority of the population in the south were African American, the wealthy whites controlled pretty much the whole region in...