Lesson on “Lenses” two column notes Prompt 37 To Kill a Mockingbird Lesson on “Lenses” two column notes Prompt 37

HOMEWORK: Prompt 36 “Methods of Exposition” Choose one method to explain ONE of the following claims:

CHOOSE ONE • Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees is just. • Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees is unjust. • Trump’s ban on Syrian refugees is both just and unjust.

Methods of Exposition •Analogy • Cause and Effect • Classification/Division • Definition • Comparison/Contrast • Example •Process Analysis

Critical Lenses • Biographical • Historical • Class (“Marxist”) • Racial • Gender • Stylistic (Gothic) • Archetypal/Religious

Critical Lenses • Psychological • Philosophical (Freud, Erikson, Brown) • Philosophical (Existentialism)

Biographical Lens

Nelle Harper Lee (1926- February 2016) To Kill a Mockingbird was her only novel until Go Set a Watchman (published 2015, written before TKAM) Recluse throughout most of her life Main character, Jean Louise (Scout) Finch, based heavily on her childhood

Her father was a lawyer, like Atticus Finch Dill based off of writer Truman Capote She grew up in 1930’s Alabama Tomboy like Scout

Biographical Questions How are the writer’s values reflected in the work? Are characters and events in the work versions of the writer’s own experiences? (Yes)

Historical Lens

Set in fictional county, Maycomb County, Alabama During the 1930s (Great Depression) Era of Jim Crow (segregation) Belief in white supremacy

Historical Questions How does the work reflect the period in which it was written? What can we determine about the author’s stance toward the historical context?

Class and Race

Race and Class (Marxist) Questions How do economic conditions determine characters’ lives? Does the work challenge or affirm the social order is describes?

Gender

Gender Roles=Rigid Upper class women are expected to be lady-like Upper class men are expected to be gentleman Manners reflect where you are on the social ladder Scout is a tomboy and does not fit in

Gender Questions How are the lives of men and women portrayed in the book? Do characters accept or reject these roles? Does the work challenge or affirm traditional ideas about men and women?

Archetypes

Religious Imagery

Hero Atticus Finch

Atticus = Christ Figure p. 117 (new), 88 (old)

“Father, if it be possible, take this cup away from me; but not my will, but thine, be done.” Luke 22:42

Villain Bob Ewell

Victim/Scapegoat Tom Robinson

Paradise Lost

Part I is full of images of childhood and innocence

The whole book takes place in less than a one- mile radius Finch household Radley’s household The town jail Courthouse

Southern Gothic

Gothic Conventions: “Darker” Elements Murder Death Suicide Ghosts Demons Gloomy settings Family secrets Dungeons Curses Torture Vampires Spirits Castles Tombs Terror

Modern Gothic Novels The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1765) Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1818) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronté (1847) Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté (1847) Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (1938)

Other Gothic Writers Anne Rice Edgar Allan Poe Stephen King Stephenie Meyer

Note the following images that build suspense and suggest mystery, danger, or the supernatural wind, especially howling sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds rain, especially blowing clanking chains doors grating on rusty hinges characters trapped in a room footsteps approaching crazed laughter lights in abandoned rooms baying of distant dogs (or wolves?) ruins of buildings unusual weather

Note the following images that build suspense and suggest mystery, danger, or the supernatural wind, especially howling sighs, moans, howls, eerie sounds rain, especially blowing clanking chains doors grating on rusty hinges characters trapped in a room footsteps approaching crazed laughter lights in abandoned rooms baying of distant dogs (or wolves?) ruins of buildings unusual weather