To Kill a Mockingbird

1. To Kill a Mockingbird Introductory Notes

2. The Novel • Written in 1957 (published in 1960) • Spent 80 weeks on best seller list • Won Pulitzer Prize in 1961 • Became Oscar-winning movie in 1962 • 30 million copies in print, translated in 40 different languages

3. Harper Lee • Nelle Harper Lee • Born in Alabama, 1926 • Studied Law at University of Alabama • This is Lee’s first and only novel • In 2007, Harper was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor) for her contribution to literature.

4. Grew up in small Alabama town Every summer, Truman Capote came to visit Father was a lawyer Was considered a “tomboy” A recluse Setting is small Alabama town Every summer Dill came to visit Atticus is a lawyer Does not like to be called a girl Lives next to Boo Radley, a recluse ParallelsLee Scout

5. Historical Information • Written during the time of the Civil Rights Movement (1960’s) when groups were attempting to integrate blacks and whites. • Inequality was at its height • The novel is a comment on the inequality and injustice that existed between two racial groups. • The novel emphasizes that racial views had not changed much since the 1930’s when Harper was growing up in the South (30 years earlier).

6. Novel Background • The story begins in summer 1933 and ends Halloween night 1935 • Country is in the midst of the Great Depression • Setting- Maycomb is a very poor county in Alabama. (Said to be Monroeville) • Professionals don’t make much b/c clients can’t afford to pay them • Maycomb is slow to respond to change- newcomers and new ideas are not easily accepted

7. 1930’s - Great Depression • The Great Depression was caused by the Stock Market Crash • Businesses failed, factories closed • 13 million Americans 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.” • 750,000 farmers lost their land.

8. Life in the 1930s

9. 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 Legal Issues of the 1930’s which impact the story

10. Major Prejudices of the 1930’s • Racial • Gender • Social

11. Racial separation (segregation)

12. Racial Prejudices • Slavery ended in 1864, with the passing of the 14th amendment, but the Civil Rights movement did not begin until the 1950’s • Many African Americans were forced by circumstance (not by law) to take menial jobs (housekeeper, cook, janitor, etc.)

13. Racial Prejudices contd. • In the South, in the 1930’s, blacks were denied equal rights and access to education as a result of Jim Crow Laws. • Under the Jim Crow Laws, segregation was legal and African Americans were regulated to second class citizens. • If Jim Crow Laws were not abided by, violence, such as lynching, would ensue.

14. Jim Crow Laws • A black male can not offer to shake hands with a white male (because it implies social equality) • Blacks are not to be referred to as Mr., Mrs., Sir, or Ma’am, but rather by their first names. • Blacks must wait for whites at an intersection

15. Jim Crow Laws contd. • Blacks were never to • Assert that a white person is lying. • Impute dishonorable intentions to a white person. • Suggests that a white person is from an inferior class. • Lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or intelligence • Curse at a white person • Laugh at a white person • Comment on the appearance of a white woman

16. Gender Prejudices • 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

17. Social Prejudices • “White Trash” • Poor, uneducated white people who lived on “relief “ • lowest social class, even below the poor blacks • prejudiced against black people • felt the need to “put down” blacks in order to elevate themselves

18. Historical Parallels The Scottsboro Boys • In 1931, The trial of the nine falsely accused teens would draw North and South into their sharpest conflict since the Civil War, yield two momentous Supreme Court decisions and give birth to the Civil Rights Movement.

19. The Scottsboro Boys • March 25: In the depths of the Depression, a fight breaks out between white and black young men who are riding as hoboes on a Southern Railroad freight train. The train is stopped by an angry posse in Paint Rock, Alabama, and nine black youths are arrested for assault. Rape charges are added, following accusations from two white women who have also come off the train, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates. The accused are taken to Scottsboro, Alabama, the Jackson County seat. The women are examined by Drs. R. R. Bridges and Marvin Lynch.

20. The Scottsboro Boys, contd. • 8 of the boys are sentenced to death • The other boy was 13; 11 jurors voted death, one life in prison – a hung jury • A letter surfaces from one of the “victims” written to her boyfriend in which she denies being raped. She later testifies in court that both girls were lying • Even after her testimony, boys still sentenced to death

21. The Scottsboro Boys, contd. • A mob of white men tried to break into the jail where the boys were being held

22. Genre • Bildungsroman • [bil-doongz-roh-mahn] • German. Type of novel concerned with the education, development, and maturing of a young protaginist • A “coming of age” novel • It also includes • Parent/Mentor playing a role in that growth (negatively/positively) • Rituals or rites of passage • Protagonists faces a crisis which helps to find his/her identity and role in the world

23. Genre • Scout, narrator, is six when novel begins • Scout has a limited point of view (first person limited) and she lacks understanding of how things work in the “real world” • The story follows Scout over the course of three years as she learns about herself, society, and her family • Use of past tense signifies that the narrator is reflecting back on her childhood.

24. Themes in TKaM • Loss of Innocence • Attaining Courage • Social Inequality • Coexistence of Good & Evil • Importance of Moral Education