The Role of Family in To Kill a Mockingbird

Introduction

Family plays an important role in the story of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Whether it is the absence of family or the bonds of family, characters tend to develop from the feelings that come from those relationships. At a time when people experienced economic hardship and racial tension, a man by the name of Atticus Finch tries to stand up for what he believes is right. Atticus is the lawyer of Tom Robinson, a Black man accused of raping a white woman, and family is what keeps Atticus together during and after the aftermath of the false rape accusation.

This essay will show how the relationships between Atticus, Jem, and Scout Finch help shape the plot and demonstrate the resiliency of people during times of racism, economic hardship, and struggles with morality. Aunt Alexandra, the sister of Atticus Finch, will serve as the anchor for the concept of family in the novel.

The Great Depression and Poverty

To Kill a Mockingbird takes place during the Great Depression, from 1933 to 1935. The setting, the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, demonstrates the effects of the Great Depression and how it affected the hardest-hit Americans — farmers. The story begins with the narrator and protagonist, Jean Louise Finch, also known as Scout. She is a six-year-old girl who lives with Jeremy (Jem), her older brother, and their father Atticus. Atticus is a widowed, middle-aged lawyer who raises Jem and Scout with the help of a Black maid named Calpurnia. Although the family experiences difficulties growing up during a rough economic time, they manage to pull together and survive, while giving readers a glimpse of rural life and poverty.

A key example of poverty during the Great Depression is illustrated through Atticus's client. The poor farmer has no money to pay for Atticus's legal services and so offers crops as payment. In the first chapter, Mr. Cunningham leaves a bag of hickory nuts on the porch of the Finch property. Scout discovers him and calls him out. As the narrator explains: "Later, a sack of hickory nuts appeared on the back steps. With Christmas came a crate of smilax and holly. That spring when we found a croker-sack full of turnip greens, Atticus said Mr. Cunningham had more than paid him." (Lee 32)

Scout and Jem do not understand why the farmer leaves food at their property and ask whether they are poor. Atticus explains why Mr. Cunningham keeps leaving food, opening the reader to the realization that the characters are living during a tough economic time: "The Cunninghams are country folks, farmers, and the crash hit them hardest. Atticus said professional people were poor because the farmers were poor." (Lee 32) The Great Depression left many families with little to no money to feed themselves or pay for services like lawyers. Lee uses Mr. Cunningham effectively as a way to introduce poverty into the story and to convey the broader economic struggle of the era.

Another important example of poverty in the story is found in the characters of Bob Ewell and Mayella Ewell. Bob Ewell serves as the story's main antagonist. He is the town drunk who spends whatever government money he receives on alcohol. He is the driving force behind Mayella's false rape accusation against Tom Robinson. Because of the lack of human connection and affection in Mayella's life, she flirts with Tom, provoking Bob's rage.

When the trial begins, it is Mayella's testimony that allows the all-white jury to condemn Robinson despite the mounting evidence in his favor. Here one sees how the bond of family, as experienced by the Ewells, carries over into its destructive effects on the Finch family and on Tom. Because so many people lived through economic hardship during this era, many carried their anger and resentment outward, expressing it in ways that hurt themselves and others. Bob expressed it through drinking, and Mayella through her support of her father's false claims.

The Great Depression brought out the worst in the Ewell family. Their impoverished state leads them to make choices that ultimately contribute to Tom's death. However, not all families behave like the Ewells. The Finch family rises to the occasion and provides readers with a tale of morality that offers humanity hope of doing the right thing even under incredible odds — odds made worse by the racial tension that permeated much of the United States, particularly in Alabama.

Race and Jim Crow Laws

Race played a key role in the events of To Kill a Mockingbird. Many white Americans who suffered during this period found a scapegoat in Black people. Someone like Bob Ewell, who drinks to escape his existence, sees a Black man like Tom Robinson as a convenient target, accusing him in the hope of landing him in jail. Thanks to Jim Crow laws and the enforced separation of Black and white Americans, his accusation holds in court even in the face of faulty evidence.

Jim Crow laws existed in the United States decades before the Great Depression. However, it was during the Depression that Jim Crow extended its reach into key government programs, entrenching racial inequality at a national level. As Tischauser notes: "Jim Crow senators and representatives ensured that racial restrictions and inequalities limited every important government program established during the Great Depression, from the New Deal job programs to Social Security to the minimum wage legislation of 1938. Social Security excluded coverage for every category of employment in which African Americans made up a significant part of the U.S. workforce." (84–85)

Violence against Black Americans also intensified during this period. As Kirchmeier records: "Into the early twentieth century, lynchings continued to average two to three a week with marked increases during the 'Red Summer' race riots of 1919 and during the Great Depression." (127)

Race played such a pivotal part in the novel that even with clear evidence of Tom Robinson having a mangled left arm — rendering him physically incapable of harming Mayella in the way described — the all-white jury still votes to convict. Tom's subsequent shooting as he attempts to escape from jail underscores the depth of racially motivated hatred in society at the time. It was only through love and family that the main characters of To Kill a Mockingbird managed to bear such tragedy. Family provided a source of strength and stability that Atticus Finch needed in order to continue forward.

Family Bonds and Moral Values

Atticus Finch is a moral and upright man. He accepts crops as payment for work done for Mr. Cunningham. He takes on Tom's case when Tom is falsely accused by Bob Ewell. He even shows genuine appreciation for Calpurnia because she cares for his children. All of this allows readers to understand the kind of man he is and the values he strives to uphold.

These values are passed down to his children, Jem and Scout. Scout, in particular, is deeply troubled by the racial inequalities she witnesses throughout the novel. During the trial, for example, the children are required to sit in the colored balcony of the courtroom, where they watch firsthand as their father attempts in vain to persuade the jury of Tom's innocence. It is through Atticus's determination that his children witness what it means to fight for what is right and to pursue justice for another person, even when the odds are against you.

The novel functions as a study of how Scout and Jem come to understand the complexity inherent in social codes and how these configurations of relationships shape and dictate those codes. As Bloom observes: "In the aftermath of the court case, which is a moral victory and legal defeat for their father, Jem and Scout discuss the heart of the matter, the postlapsarian fragmentation of the human community." (42) Neither Jem nor Scout can fully account for what they observe — society's division of human families into hostile camps. Such isolating distinctions produce differing responses in the Finch children. Scout comes to see her experience as a means of grasping reality rather than the Eden-like innocence she had known before the trial. These reactions together represent a reassessment of what family means and what aspects of family drive people toward particular conclusions.

Conclusion

To Kill a Mockingbird is a work of complexity and, ultimately, morality. The Finch family works hard to try to help Tom Robinson, a Black man falsely accused of raping a white woman. Although the all-white, all-male jury returns a verdict of guilty and Tom is shot and killed in the aftermath, the story demonstrates what the strength of family can accomplish — for better and for worse. The Ewell family's bonds enabled Bob to build a case against Tom, and Mayella's testimony helped seal Tom's fate. In this way, family is shown to be a force that can serve destructive ends as readily as redemptive ones.

For the Finch family, however, the arrival of Aunt Alexandra represents something different: support and comfort brought in during and after the Robinson trial, serving as a grounding force for Atticus and his children. While Calpurnia had acted as a mother figure for Jem and Scout, Aunt Alexandra left her husband and the family homestead to live with her brother and his children. Scout did not always welcome her aunt's presence, but having Aunt Alexandra there provided a sense of normalcy and stability that allowed Atticus, Jem, and Scout to move forward after the events of the trial.

Racism was and remains an ugly part of American society. The Great Depression intensified that racism because so many people were impoverished and desperate. Yet even amidst the ugliness and the tragedy of lives lost, there was something worth holding on to — something that came through in the form of morality and family. The Finch family fought for what was right, even when that fight led to nothing for Tom Robinson. That struggle, that perseverance, is what makes them endure as characters in Lee's novel and as a testament to what families can be at their best.

Works Cited

Bloom, Harold. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Chelsea, 2013.

Castleman, Tamara. CliffsNotes, Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Hungry Minds, Inc., 2000.

Kirchmeier, Jeffrey L. Imprisoned by the Past: Warren McCleskey and the American Death Penalty. Oxford UP, 2015.

Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. HarperLuxe, 2010.

Meyer, Michael J. Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird: New Essays. Scarecrow Press, 2010.

Tischauser, Leslie V. Jim Crow Laws. Greenwood, 2012.