Effect of Setting on Character Development/Plot-Mia Shaeffer

Maycomb is introduced both as a sleepy town set in a historical period, but also as a town with old-fashioned values, and a very strict code of what it is right to do and what it is not to do. I agree that because it is such a small town, it shapes the characters and their childhoods. There would have been a dramatic difference if they were living in a big town. Jem and Scout have to learn how the way things are done in Maycomb, and respect the people in it. The setting also effects the challenges of growing up, because they learn about how complex life can be, and in a town where everyone knows everyone, it can be difficult. You pick up the traits of people you are around. That can be how racism and other bad qualities are passes around, because Jem and Scout where around so many of these people. That was why it was so important for the kids to grow up, and mature in their own way.

I agree. If this trial took place in a big city no one would give it much thought because there were no Black lawyers back then so that means only white men would defend black men. Since they lived in a small town everyone knew everyone. In the book the only kid who gave Scout a hard time was Bob Ewell's son. The chance of the defendant and the victims family knowing each other before the case is very slim. The courtroom was full not because a white man was defending a black man but because Tom Robinson was accused of a terrible crime and everyone came to see him get the death sentence. Everyone knew this happened because they were in such a small town and the news spread quickly. If this happened in a big city only the people who were directly impacted would have known and cared because they did not have CNN or channel five news to tell them about it.

Living in Maycomb definitely effected how Jem and Scout grew up. Had they grown up in a big city they would not have known about many of the people that they did and would not have been as affected by them. Living in a small town where everybody knew them, they had to be careful what they did unless they offended someone. If they had grown up in a big town, they wouldn't have been as affected by what some people did or said as they were in Maycomb where everybody was talking about it and they had all heard and seemed to care.

I agree that living in a larger town would not only have made less of a problem for Jem and Scout, but I feel as if this story would not have taken as dramatic of an effect as it did in the small town. Once Atticus made it obvious that he had won the crowd's opinion, accused or not, Jem and Scout's lives really entered the danger of the situation. Ewell was going to try and take them out to get back at Atticus. I feel as if this would not have happened in a larger town.

I do agree that the fact that Jem and Scout growing up in a small town does put them under a lot of scrutiny, but i still think that they would still be insulted if the were to move to the "big city" because during the time period "To kill a Mockingbird" was set in racism in America was still quite big so their beliefs would be pretty much frowned upon no matter if it was a tight-knit community or the "big city".