To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a MockingbirdBy Harper Lee

Author - Harper Lee• Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama• Youngest of four children• 1957 – submitted manuscript for her novel; was

urged to rewrite it• Spent more than two years reworking it• 1960- To Kill a Mockingbird (her only novel) was

published• 1966 – was one of two named by President

Johnson to the National Council of Arts

SETTING OF THE NOVEL

• Southern United States• 1930’s

– Great Depression– Prejudice and legal

segregation– Ignorance

Social Class in the Novel

• This is how the class structure was during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although few in number, were the most powerful. The black community, although large, had the least privileges.

1930’s - Great Depression began when the stock market crashed in

October, 1929• Businesses failed,

factories closed– People were out of work– Even people with money

suffered because nothing was being produced for sale.

• Poor people lost their homes, were forced to “live off the land.”

Racial prejudice was alive & well. Although slavery had ended

in 1864, old ideas were slow to change.

Racial separation (segregation)

Gender Bias (Prejudice)

• Women were considered “weak”• Women were generally not educated for

occupations outside the home• In wealthy families, women were expected

to oversee the servants and entertain guests • Men not considered capable of nurturing

children

“White trash” • Poor, uneducated white people who lived on “relief “

– low social class– prejudiced against black people – felt the need to “put down” blacks in order to elevate

themselves

Legal Issues of the 1930’s which impact the story

• Women given the vote in 1920

• Juries were MALE and WHITE

• “Fair trial” did not include acceptance of a black man’s word against a white man’s

Prejudice in the novel

RaceGender

HandicapsRich/Poor

AgeReligion

Characters

• Atticus Finch - an attorney whose wife has died, leaving him to raise their two children:

-Jem (Jeremy Finch) – 10-year-old boy-Scout – (Jean Louise) - 6-year-old girl; narrator of the story

• Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white girl; he is defended at trial by Atticus

Characters Continued

• Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three year old recluse who lives next door to the Finches

• Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer

• Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

Point of View

• First person– Story is told by Scout, a 10-year-old girl

– Harper Lee is actually a woman; Scout represents the author as a little girl although the story is not strictly autobiographical

Reading the Novel

• Setting is all important –be aware of the “where” and “when” as you begin

• Point of View – the novel is shaped by the voice of a young girl who sees the story from a position of naïve acceptance

• “Goodness vs. Ignorance (Evil)” is an important theme