Differentiated Parenting among Whites in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird

Abstract

This research is an analytical inquiry into Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird exploring the differentiated representation of parenting with reference to the American society of the 1930. Though the novel is written in 1960, the story is set on the background of 1930s life of South American society and portraits the socio-economic situation prevailing at the confluence of the Great Depression-1929, the New Deal-1933 and the World War II 1939-1945. Indeed, it was the decade when the state had diverted all its attention to regain the earlier vitality of its economy. As the entire nation was politically turbulent in bringing about an economic momentum, it was consequential that the discussion over parenting policy would be back-grounded. At a period of time when the state lacked the presence of the state mechanisms for intervention and sustainable policies regarding parenting, the sole responsibility of parenting the child went to the parents. As a result, a huge gap is observed in parenting and childcare of American society and the Maycomb County has been depicted as a representative example. The novel To Kill a Mockingbird has employed many child characters whose lives are highly influenced by their parents. Starting from the mouthpiece of the novel Scout to other minor characters like Dill, Boo and Walter, the lives of all the children are influenced by the temperament, social, economic, and academic status of their parents. Against one’s anticipation, the black people seem rational as parents and in the contrary, the whites appear mediocre. Despite belonging to the same socio-cultural origin, the manner of parenting even among the whites in Macomb County as depicted in Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird seems incompatible among families. Therefore, the dissimilarity in parenting of innocent children has been seriously analyzed in this study.