to kill a mockingbird social pressures essay
Inside the 1930’s, especially in the south, culture centered around a kind of unwritten social code, and to break it is to become shunned coming from said contemporary society. In To Eliminate a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee, many of the characters are affected by these social pressures in various ways. Mayella Ewell provides in to social pressure simply by covering up her “mistake with Ben Robinson, although Dolphus Raymond goes against it and has a completely happy relationship with an Black wife and mixed children.
Mayella Ewell was an incredibly unhappy woman, the lady had no friends, and had to basically be the mother to her siblings. Once Tom Johnson comes along, your woman sees an escape. She seduces Tom and, realizing what she’s done, she structures him for her dad’s beating. During his speech, Atticus says, “She has committed no criminal offense, she has simply broken a time-honored code of our culture, a code so serious that the person who breaks it really is hounded from our midst while unfit to live with¦ your woman knew full well the enormity of her offense¦ she must destroy evidence of her offense (271-2).
Mayella did not do anything illegal, just broke whatever twisted “moral imperatives the town acquired, and learning she’d become cast away if the area found out, the girl “destroyed the evidence by accusing him of rape. Atticus explains to the court, “she minted out by her victim- of requirement she must put him away from her ” he or she must be taken out of her presence, from this community. (203-4). Mayella sensed that Ben wasn’t an individual who could suffer or pass away, just evidence of what she’d done, thus she got no concern testifying inaccurately against him to save her reputation.
Dolphus Raymond was your town “drunk. Everyone thought he was an alcoholic and for that reason had no idea what having been doing using a “colored girl and mixed kids (214). Despite their assumptions, he wasn’t at any time drinking alcohol, simply Coca-Cola. Throughout the trial, Dolphus explains to Scout, “Some folks no longer ” like the way We live¦ We try to offer ’em grounds, you see, it will help folks in the event they can latch onto a reason¦ they could hardly ever understand that We live just like I do mainly because that’s the method I want to live (268). Dolphus explains that in order to get individuals to not assess him, this individual pretends to become drunk, to “give ’em a reason because in any other case they wouldn’t understand. Especially since, regrettably, people tend to hate what they do not figure out.
Social guidelines and challenges ruled the south inside the ’30s. While Mayella provided into social pressures, your woman was in the final unhappy. In addition, she basically authorized the fatality sentence of an innocent man in the process. Alternatively, Dolphus will go against society’s laws and has a correctly happy relationship. They’re both excellent instances of how society can effect ones actions.
one particular
- Category: society
- Words: 513
- Pages: 2
- Project Type: Essay