To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird By HarperLee

SETTING OF THE NOVEL • Southern United States in the 1930’s • Great Depression • Prejudice and legal segregation • Ignorance

1930’s – The 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)Notice the signs over the doors.

Segregation: taken for grantedNotice the Waiting Room sign.

Separate but equal?

In movie theaters, “coloreds” were required, by law, to sit in the balcony.

How cana whole category of human beings besegregatedand attackedin a“civilized” society???

Prejudice of all kinds • African-Americans • Irish, Scottish, Swedish • Italians, Latin Americans • Polish & other Eastern European immigrants • Jews • Women • Mentally Challenged, Mentally Ill • Physically Challenged • Migrant Workers

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

“Woman’s Work” • Cooking 3 full meals a day – from scratch (no instant or prepackaged foods no microwave) wood-fueled stoves, from garden or barnyard to table… • Washing dishes by hand – no electric dishwashers; no efficient, hand-softening soaps • Sweeping and cleaning floors – no vacuums, just scrubbing on hands and knees or hanging up carpets and beating out the dust • Additional Cleaning: polishing silver, polishing shoes, washing windows, dusting every day, picking up after the whole family

“Woman’s Work” continued • Clothes – cutting out material and sewing the clothes from cloth, mending them until they couldn’t be fixed anymore • Gardening – hoeing, planting, weeding, weeding, harvesting, canning or preserving, starting over each year • Raising the children – washing out cloth diapers by hand, getting up at night, teaching them manners, etc. • No right to an education or a job or to vote. • No right to have an opinion about politics, society, laws, money, or anything outside the home. • No rights at all regarding money, abuse, divorce, child support.

“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

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 Race, Gender, Handicaps, Rich/Poor, Age, Religion

Characters • Atticus Finch - an attorney whose wife has died, leaving him to raise their two children: -Jem – 10-year-old boy -Scout – (Jean Louise), 6-year-old girl • Tom Robinson – a black man accused of raping white girl; he is defended at trial by Atticus

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. We, the readers, see more than she does. • Wisdom vs. Ignorance is an important theme • Notice Hypocrisy vs. Honor and the theme of Courage

Notice Character

a GREAT book! • Many Honors, such as: Pulitzer Prize for Literature Presidential Medal of Freedom • Figure out for yourself why MILLIONS of people all over the world have read – and reread – this book, ever since it was published in 1960.

To Kill a Mockingbird