history, which affected both the poorer classes as well as the wealthier classes. The Great Depression is only mentioned in explicit terms at a few points in the novel, but during each of these moments, the problem of money is addressed. For example, Mr. Cunningham is unable to payAtticus for his legal services, so Atticus accepts goods instead of money. Though Atticus is not a poor farmer himself, some of his clients are poor farmers; when they cannot pay their fees to Atticus, he also suffers from their financial deprivation.

The main reason why the people of Maycomb didn’t have any money was because the book was set during the Great Depression of the 1930s.  In 1929, there was a stock market crash that left many investors penniless.  Banks went bankrupt, and jobs were scarce.  The president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, implemented relief programs to help the economy.  In the story, Bob Ewell got a job with the WPA, a relief organization meant to give men jobs.  Harper Lee described Maycomb as a place where “there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy, and no money to buy it with.”  Harper Lee also alluded to the famous inauguration speech of Roosevelt’s when she mentioned that they have been told they have “nothing to fear but fear itself.”

Maycomb was a small town whose way of life was slowly dying as well. There weren't any major industries to keep the town solvent, and like many small towns in America, Maycomb was on the verge of social and economic collapse.   Maycomb was mainly a farming community that struggled during this time.

The extreme poverty caused by the Great Depression was best shown through the living conditions of the Ewells and the discrimination against black members of the community.  Blacks would have been the last segment of the population to get jobs during this time, and their segregation from Maycomb showed the depth of poverty they experienced.

It is important to recognize that the book is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression. The entire country was facing economic hardship, so Maycomb was not unique its struggles.

That said, we also know that Maycomb is a small, rural town. The town doesn't create much opportunity to earn money; they are not a seat of industry or agriculture, for example. Geographically, it is far from most everything, too. So Maycomb is not exactly a tourist or economic hub. The town members appear to be scraping by and supporting themselves as best they can.

We see many of the townsfolk, like the Cunninghams, paying for services with food rather than with money simply because they are able to grow their food but unable to earn much or any cash to spend.