Compare the presentation of the social and historical contexts in 'The Mill on the Floss' and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' paying particular attention to the use of form, structure and language.
"Prejudice is the child of ignorance"'The Mill on the Floss' by George Eliot (1860) and 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee (1960) provide the reader with a thorough understanding of how social and historical contexts are presented in two different eras. Eliot's novel is set in the Victorian period whereas Lee's is a depiction of a typical Southern American society in the 1930's, following the life of the protagonist Scout and events that affect her growth into adulthood whilst tackling issues such as racism, gender prejudice and class prejudice. Similarly, Eliot's novel follows the life of Maggie Tulliver, which ends in tragedy whilst issues such as women and education, class and gender prejudice are addressed.
President George W. Bush awards the Presidential M...
Lee Vining, California
Lee With A Chance To WinBoth novels are semi-autobiographic accounts, so contexts are realistically displayed with a detailed portrayal of representational conventional codes and customs of two contrasting time periods.
Lee's novel set in Alabama gives an accurate reflection of race relations and interlinks the main plot with several subplots that expose the realism of Southern culture. Its publication coincided with the early Civil Rights Movement, the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Martin Luther King's rise to leadership - events that condemned prejudicial attitudes.
The narrative convention of realism is employed throughout both novels. Eliot's novel is her "most Wordsworthian novel" since she considers the lives of ordinary people just like Wordsworth, a Romantic writer, whose style was greatly admired by Eliot. However, this style was critisised by John Ruskin who believed that Eliot shouldn't depict the "blotches, blurs and pimples" of everyday life.
Lee's novel depicts an intolerant racist Southern society. However, many believe...