Setting of Maycomb

The setting of To Kill a Mockingbird, by Haper Lee, is set in in the 1930's in a small, fictional town in Alabama called
Maycomb. Maycomb, located in Southern America, and is based on the name of Harper Lee's home town
Monroeville. After the American Civil War the abolition of slavery had changed the legal postion of Blacks in
American society. This freedom initially made Blacks' lives much harder. The Whites now saw the Blacks as potential
competitors for jobs, particularly in the hard years of the Great Economic Depression during to which To Kill a
Mockingbird is set. It is also said in the book that the town was so small that Atticus, a lawyer and a father of two, is
related, by either blood or marriage, to most of the people living in the small town. Since the Cunningham's were
farmers, the Great Depression hurt them the most. This is why they are very poor and they can only eat what they
can catch.

Period: set in the 1930's Timeframe:1933-1935 Locations: Fictional town named Maycomb

Atmosphere: Maycomb is its own little world that doesn’t know what’s happening elsewhere but they don't really
care. Few people throughout the years move there nor few people leave. Most families that have lived in Maycomb
have been around for generations, and family reputations have entered into the local traditions that have been
going on for many years.

In the novel we find out about alot of the family history and the background of Maycomb by young Scout Finch, who
is the narrator of the book. Scout, Jem and Dill share many of their stories about the Mystry Man (Boo Radely) who
lives in the house nearby to the Finch Family. As the days go by the children find many mysterious presents in a small
hole of an old tree at the Radley place, leading them to become even more facinated with the mysterious Boo
Radely.

Background of Maycomb: The County of Maycomb was divided into strict social classes. There were the black
people (negros), living in their own section of Maycomb, the Ewells, which were a class unto themselves, and the
middle class of Maycomb County. Because of the great differences in the classes, Tom Robinson never had a chance
of being set free, since he is of a "lower" class in the eyes of most of Maycomb county's citizens as he is black in
colour.

Racial segregation

Racial segregation, the practice of restricting people to certain circumscribed areas of residence or to separate
institutions (e.g., schools, churches) and facilities (parks, playgrounds, restaurants, restrooms) on the basis of race or
alleged race. Racial segregation provides a means of maintaining the economic advantages and superior social status
of the politically dominant group, and in recent times it has been employed primarily by white populations to
maintain their ascendancy over other groups by means of legal and social colour bars. Historically, however, various
conquerors—among them Asian Mongols, African Bantu, and American Aztecs—have practiced discrimination
involving the segregation of subject races.

Racial segregation has appeared in all parts of the world where there are multiracial communities, except where
racial amalgamation has occurred on a large scale, as in Hawaii and Brazil. In such countries there has been
occasional social discrimination but not legal segregation. In the Southern states of the United States, on the other
hand, legal segregation in public facilities was current from the late 19th century into the 1950s. (See Jim Crow law.)
The civil rights movement was initiated by Southern blacks in the 1950s and ’60s to break the prevailing pattern of
racial segregation. This movement spurred the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which contained strong
provisions against discrimination and segregation in voting, education, and the use of public facilities.