Provincialism
The 1930s was a time when the U.S. was undergoing major changes. As well as the economic depression which was being felt so sharply; it was the years where clashes between certain ethnic groups occured. The happenings of those days have been reflected upon literature as well. Most of the authors often take racism as their theme, as their main idea. However,"Harper Lee"'s book, To Kill A Mockingbird, was different than the other books because Harper Lee created the theme of "provincialism" which added great variety to his book. The book is about a six-year-old called Scout who is reacting to the provincial events in her town, Maycomb County in Southern Alabama. Harper Lee classifies the types of provincialism in three major parts such as; distrust of others who are different, evidence of different levels of society and finally racial intolerance.Firstly, Harper Lee uses the general attitude of Maycomb people towards some persons who they think are untrustworthy; to show a face of provincialism. The first example is the town's perception of Miss Maudie, an old lady whose hobby is to look after her flowers and keep her garden neat. The town thinks that if she went inside the house to read the bible she might have done something bet
Secondly, Harper Lee shows the reader the various socio-economic groups of people in Maycomb as a part of his theme, provincialism. The town has a caste system where slaves and blacks form the group with the least income, living in absolute poverty. The blacks are socially and racially discriminated and live in a totally segregated area. They use different buses, they have their own schools, they don't have equal rights in the law and they aren't even allowed to use the same water fountains as whites. They are third class people, briefly. In a conversation about the trial of Tom Robinson, a Negro, Mrs.Merriweather tells Scout the following words: "The cooks and field hands are just are just dissatisfied, but they're settling down now, they grumbled all next day after the trial."(p.238) In here Mrs.Merriweather sees the blacks as servants only, as field workers or cooks. That's what mostly can become from a black person. The second group of people is the farmers whose economic condition is slightly better than the blacks; but having a tough time because of the economic depression. When Scout wonders if her family is poorer than the Cunninghams, Atticus answers her: "The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers and the crash hit them the hardest."(p.27) This quote shows the impact of the economic crisis on farmers who are not able to sell the cotton to others. The last groups of people appearing in Maycomb are the educated people and the ladies of the town who spend most of their time sitting and gossiping about the ways of other people. Aunt Alexandra, who comes to stay with Atticus just for a while fits in those ladies very well and becomes a permanent member of all the social activities in Maycomb. She even becomes the secretary of the Maycomb Amanuensis Club. "To all parties present and participating in the life of the county, Aunt Alexandra was one of the last of her kind; she had river-boat, boarding school manners; let any moral come along and she would uphold it; she was born in the objective case; she was an incurable gossip"(p.135) says Scout, commenting on the things Aunt Alexandra does. Yet, Aunt A
Some common words found in the essay are:
Harper Lee, Maycomb County, Miss Maudie, Jacobs Scout's, Negro MrsMerriweather, Cunninghams Atticus, Aunt Alexandra, Cunninghams They're, , Tom Robinson, maycomb county, harper lee, aunt alexandra, whites blacks, tom robinson, trial tom robinson, caste system, trial tom, theme provincialism, defending black, maycomb county people, black person,
Approximate Word count = 1429
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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