To Kill A Mockingbird Sociological Analysis

1309 Words6 Pages
There are many social factors that contribute to creating one's identity. One of the most prevalent of the many things is social class. This is a key component for shaping how one may view him or herself. It shapes what a person is supposed to do, stereotypically, which while it does not fully prevent people from doing things outside of their zone of approval it can make it very hard for them to achieve goals that are outside of their standard choices. According to the book, the Ewell family, the poorest people in town, are just a bunch of ill raised, uneducated children and their drunken irresponsible father. In the book, Scout states that their father has no job, does not show much effort, if any at all, of trying get one, and uses the little…show more content…
And they are humble because even though any person would gladly give them money to support their children, they refuse to take anything that they cannot repay. They have even begun teaching their children of this at a very early age to make sure that the whole family is in that mindset. This next piece of evidence may, on the surface, seem racially based but underneath the surface it can be related to social class as well. In the story “The Meanings of a Word” the author had offensive language used toward her. And the boy who used it most likely did so because he thought in his mind that he was somehow better than she was. The reason for this being that, in that time, white people viewed themselves as better than any person of color. This created racial slurs that were often used towards those people. And due to this, they were seldom hired for a job that was viewed as only for white people. And generally, a white person’s salary was much greater than a job that a black person of equal education would…show more content…
Another of the most prevalent of the many things is race. This is a key component for shaping how one may view him or herself because in that time people of color viewed as worse than a white person as well as they were viewed as more likely to be criminals. For example, in the story “The Meanings of a Word” the author had offensive language used toward her. And the boy who used it most likely did so because he thought in his mind that he was somehow better than she was. The reason for this being that, in that time, white people viewed themselves as better than any person of color. This created racial slurs that were often used towards those people usually to reinforce their feeling of superiority. And due to their feeling of superiority they were seldom hired for a job that was viewed as only for white people. And generally, a white person’s salary was much greater than a job that a black person of equal education and work ethic would get. White people were on average, higher up on the social ladder than anyone who was not white because no white person of power would let them move up the social ladder. Therefore, the social class of a colored person in that time was automatically less than that of any white person. Next, as stated in the book, the man convicted of rape was Tom Robinson. Even though there was almost no evidence to support this accusation. Yet somehow, a man who was a
Open Document