In the mid-1900s, the world was a very different place from the one we know today. People held far more radical views, and there was a far finer line of what was socially acceptable. Nearly everyone was a ticking time bomb, ready to go off on anyone whose views differed from their own.
In a short excerpt from “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Harper Lee’s stylistic devices characterize Maycomb as a small, oppressed southern town in the 1950s, whose people are just as miserable as the town itself. In the passage, Lee begins by describing the atmosphere of Maycomb.
The town of Maycomb is a gloomy place. As the townspeople go about their everyday lives, they are forever under the fiery eye of the sun, their only solace the “sweltering shade of the live oaks.” The live oaks represent the rich and powerful people, who live an idealistic existence at the top of the social hierarchy.
The live oaks cast a shadow over the poor townspeople, forcing them to grovel in their impoverished living conditions. On the town’s sidewalks, “grass grew” like an incurable infection. The alliteration conveys the depression growing in the townspeople’s hearts. They grow more unsatisfied with their destitution with each passing day.
The townspeople are pulled in carriages to their chores by their “bony” mules. The diction indicates the severity of their depression. They are impoverished, both physically and emotionally.
Maycomb is a melancholy town. The inhabitants are constantly at work, and “suffered on a summer’s day.” The alliteration expresses the pervasiveness of the townspeople’s heavy sorrow. They work only to survive; they no longer find any joy in their lives beyond just living.
The people move throughout the “tired old town,” searching for anything noteworthy to distract them from their abysmal living conditions. The personification implies that Maycomb is a living antique.
There is not much left of the town itself, but the town is some people’s only possession. Despite the dismal atmosphere, some of the townspeople find hope in their surroundings. There is a “vague optimism” to the citizens of Maycomb. The oxymoron signifies that underneath the depression, Maycomb is a town of hope. Maycomb represents perseverance.
Lee creates a heavy-hearted atmosphere in Maycomb. It is common knowledge of Maycomb’s denizens that a “day was 24 hours but seemed longer.” The hyperbole suggests the constant pressure on the townspeople’s shoulders.
They seldom have any breaks and are constantly struggling to support themselves and their families. The wives also constantly find themselves under pressure, “and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.”
The simile conveys how the wives have no time for vanity, and can only focus on their work. Their beauty is hidden behind their efforts to support their family. As the townspeople wandered throughout the town, the buildings and people seemed to “sag in the square.”
The alliteration suggests that Maycomb’s citizens have countless problems weighing upon them. Their problems are breaking them down physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Harper Lee characterizes the small town of Maycomb, Alabama, as a dejected place full of tragic characters and situations. There is very little optimism in the heavy-hearted town, but its hardened heart continues to beat.
Maycomb, a very contradictory place, full of differing opinions and views, represents the south in the early 1900s. Maycomb and its citizens trudged through the Depression’s hurdles, because of their hope that the world would get better.
