To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee The story To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is set in 1932 in the midst of the Great Depression in a Deep South town called Maycomb, Alabama . During this time, African Americans were segregated and despised in America and especially in southern states like Alabama. In his 1932 inaugural address, FDR stated that “we have nothing to fear but ourselves.” He said this because in a time of economic depression there was no hope. Without hope in a society things can start to fall apart and people go crazy. Harper Lee illustrates this skillfully. African Americans and the poor were the most vulnerable during the Great Depression. Bob Ewell was a malevolent piece of trash who lived near the town dump in an old nigger house. When he saw Tom Robinson helping Mayella in the kitchen he beat his daughter for interacting with a black man, then accused Tom of rape. Mayella, who was too ashamed to say that her father had beaten her, agreed with the story that Tom had raped her. Atticus Finch proved that Tom was innocent by asking questions to Mayella, Bob...