how did racial segregation and discrimination influence the writing of To Kill A Mockingbird?

Answer 1

Because the book deals with the grim reality of small town poverty in the South. People from outside the South really have no idea how desperate things were here, especially during the Depression. So the white community in Southern towns was divided between those who knew that a grave injustice was being carried out, and the hardscrabble poor whites who desperately clung to their position in teh community. TKAM intertwines all these elements into what was really a masterful novel.

Answer 2

I don't think it really did, all that much. The book was about 2 kids growing up and being raised by their father. He is an attorney. The whole trial and the falsely accused are just plot devices. Discrimination and segregation were a fact of life in Alabama during the timing of the story but I bet even if there was no such thing as legalizied discrimination and segregation in the South, the story would still be told but different plot devices would be used. The story is essentially a slice of life story, with the backdrop of a trial. The film version focuses more on the racist and segregationist ways of many in the South.

Answer 3

Tom Robinson's trial in the novel was based on the Scottsboro trials in which nine black boys were accused of raping two white women in Alabama. Later one of the women denied the rape occurred. This served as a classic example of racial discrimination in our justice system.

Answer 4

The injustice of society which she saw in her daily life was obviously crucial to the way in which Harper Lee wrote this book.

Answer 5

Did you read the book?

Check out some historical information about the time the book was written and its topic:

http://library.thinkquest.org/12111/SG/SG5.html