TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

1. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD • PowerPoint by Sister Sue

2. The Author -- Harper Lee Born: 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama Family: Father and sister were practicing lawyers in Monroeville Education: Public schools and college Law courses at U. of Alabama – did not finish for a degree

3. Writing Wrote since she was 7 years old. After college, she moved to NY and tried to publish work. 1960 – short story expanded and published TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD 1961 – Lee was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. Oscar award winning movie made of TKAM

4. Story Background – The South 1930’s in Maycomb, Alabama (small, quiet, southern town) Depression times – poverty; the rise of Hitler in Europe 1931 – Trial of the Scottsboro Boys (basis for TKAM???)

5. Blacks in the South Impressions – blacks were lazy, content to let time pass by, ignorant Law – under slavery, they had more protection than under freedom (What is “Jim Crow”) Work – working black was not treated on an equal basis with white workers. Positions of authority – almost unheard of Segregation – restaurants, buses, churches, schools Changes later on in the 1950’s: Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King

6. “Poor” Whites in the South Most of these people suffered misfortune either through loss of property (Depression) or by virtue of birth. “Poor White Trash” These people were usually ignorant, unclean, lacking in ambition. They survived through hunting and fishing. They had large families, one-room houses, poor tracts of land for minimal farming which was not properly cared for. Some were related to prosperous kinfolk, but were considered “…the least ambitious elements of white Southern society.”

7. The Story The setting: Maycomb, Alabama Themes: Education Mockingbird Courage Race, class, sex (women) Two Parts: Boo Radley Story and the Trial Time Span: Approximately 2 ½ years First person narrative technique – Scout’s point of view