Setting

To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in southern Alabama. The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States. For parts of the deep South like Maycomb County, the Depression meant only that the bad times that had been going on for decades got a little bit worse. These rural areas had long been poor and undeveloped. Black people worked for low wages in the fields. White farmers were more likely to own land, but they were cash poor. It was common for children to go to school barefoot, and to suffer from ringworm and other diseases. Although automobiles had been around for some years, most farm families still depended on horses for transportation and to plow their fields.

Scout's family, the Finches, belong to the elite of local society. Atticus Finch is an educated man who goes to work in a clean shirt. The family owns a nice house and can afford to hire a black housekeeper. Still, the Finches are well-off only in comparison with the farm families who live in the same county. They, too, have little money.

Activities Tasks

1. The story is set in a small town in southern Alabama during the Depression of the 1930s. 
1. What aspects of the story seem to be particular to that place and time? 
2. What aspects of the story are universal, cutting across time and place? 
2. What kind of town is Maycomb, Alabama? What does the author's physical description of the town of Maycomb tell you about the people who live there? Notice especially the description of the town in Chapter 1.
3. Describe the background provided by the town of Maycomb to the events in the story. (Provide general observations concerning the town's geography and life style, the beliefs and values of the inhabitants, and the social class structure.)
4. "Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself". 
1. Explain the meaning of this observation in considering the nature of the general 'character' of Maycomb.
5. Setting can reveal character.
1. How does the description of the Ewell household contribute to our understanding of the Ewell family's role in the novel?
2. Choose another household described in the novel and discuss how it reflects their character.
6. One function of setting is the creation of atmosphere.
1. Describe the different levels of atmosphere Lee creates through her descriptions of the Radley house?
2. How is response to the African-American community affetced by the descriptions of their church, cemetry, and Quarters?