Unit: Race Relations and Morality in Literature

Unit: Race Relations and Morality in Literature By Sara Carr

Lesson 1

Warm Up As you watch the clip about The Great Depression, write down one fact that you deem important. http://www.history.com/shows/america-the-story-of-us/videos/playlists/exclusive-video#the-great-depression

The Great Depression The stock market crashed on Oct. 29, 1929. The depression would last until the early 1940s. Unemployment rose to 25%. Many consider Roosevelt’s New Deal to be the cause of the recovery. http://www.history.com/topics/great-depression Dorothea Lange's "Migrant Mother“ (right)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Lesson 2

Lesson 2 Warm Up Based on reading the first two chapters, what is your first impression of the novel? Do you like it so far? Why or why not?

Quote from the novel. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view . . . until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.” Lee, Harper. (1960). To Kill a Mockingbird. New York: Grand Central Publishing, page 39.

Point of View First Person: “I” or “we”. The narrator is one of the characters in the story. Second Person: “You”. This is rarely used. Third Person: “He”, “She”, “It”, “They”. The narrator is not a character in the story. Think of the story as a rock. Then think if a group of people were to stand around that rock, that each person would have a different point of view or perspective of that same rock. Some may say that it is smooth or others may say that it is jagged: it all depends on what side of the rock they see, but they are all still looking at the same rock.

Lesson 3

Warm Up: Lesson 3 Who are the two new characters introduced in Chapters 3-6? Describe the characters and why you think that Harper Lee chose to include them in her novel.

Directions for Boo Radley Drawing In groups, you will draw the picture of Boo Radley as he is portrayed by either the children or Miss Maudie in the novel. (I will give you your assignment). You will have ten minutes to read over the descriptions and to draw Boo Radley based on those description. You will then have five minutes to prepare a two minute (or less) presentation of your picture using evidence from the novel to back up your artistic choices.

Expectations for the Drawing and the Presentation In your group of four, you should have a secretary to write down your support quotations, two illustrators, and one presenter who explains your picture and the evidence from the text. The drawing can only include details that are actually in the text! *I am not grading the drawing on artistic ability. I want to see the evidence from the text in your portrait of Boo Radley.* The presentation should identify: the evidence to support your depiction as well as a general statement on the perspective/prejudice/point-of-view of the children or Ms. Maudie.

Quotes/Journal Entry • Each of the following quotes from the novel displays a form of prejudice. Please respond to each quote and identify the type of prejudice it displays. • “He ain’t company, Cal, he’s just a Cunningham—” (Page 33) • Shoulder up, I reeled around to face Boo Radley and his blood fangs; instead, I saw Dill ringing the bell with all his might in Atticus’s face.” (Page 64)

Lesson 4

Warm Up: Lesson 4 What happened in chapters 7 and 8? Describe how the children’s perspective of Boo Radley has changed.

Race Relations and Banning To Kill a Mockingbird

The Law of Segregation: Jim Crow Laws The Jim Crow laws, which were created in 1877 following the Civil War, were still in effect at the time of the novel (1930s). These laws called for the segregation of Black citizens and White citizens in public transportation, public schools, restaurants, theaters, etc. These rules were upheld by the Supreme Court ruling of “separate but equal” in the case Plessy vs. Ferguson (1896). The Supreme Court overturnedtheir previous decision in order to rule against segregation in public schools in the case Brownv. Board of Education of Topeka(1954). The court determined that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. This ruling was then applied to all other public institutions. http://www.history.com/topics/jim-crow-law

The Civil Rights Movement: An Overview December 1, 1955: This is the day that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. Many cite this incident as the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. 1964: The Civil Rights Act is enacted into law. This legislation focused on ending, “discrimination based on race, color, religion, or national origin.” August 6, 1965: The Voting Rights Act is signed by President Johnson and is intended to protect the voting rights of African Americans that had previously been impeded upon in local elections. http://www.history.com/topics/voting-rights-act http://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-movement http://www.history.com/topics/civil-rights-act

Is Racism still an issue? This upcoming trailer is about a high school in Mississippi that had it’s first racially integrated prom…in 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_zAEGAZoFQ

The Context Behind the Story Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama. When she was five years old, 9 black men were convicted of raping 2 white women in the nearby town of Scottsboro, Alabama. The men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms despite the fact that the American public felt that the decision was purely was made with racial prejudice over evidence. Did this inspire the central trial in To Kill a Mockingbird? http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/mocking/context.html

Why is To Kill a Mockingbird a Banned Book? What is the meaning of Banned Books? Banned Books are pieces of literature that have been removed from circulation in either a country, local town, school or public library, or from a school curriculum. The act of banning begins by challenging a book, or trying to get a book banned. It is challenged because of its depiction of racism, its use of offensive language (the “n” word), and because it is considered to be unsuitable for young adult readers. It has consistently been on the banned books list and it was the fourth most challenged book in 2009. "Banned & Challenged Books." ALA | Home - American Library Association. Web. 27 November 2010.

Journal Prompt If you were the teacher, would you assign this novel? Why or why not?

Unit: Race Relations and Morality in Literature