To Kill A Mockingbird The Author The Novel Historical Content- Great Depression Social Content Time Line

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - HARPER LEE Related to Robert E. Lee Born in Monroeville, Alabama, on April 28, 1926

HARPER LEE continued Grew up during the Great Depression Began writing at the age of seven Attended Huntington College then was an exchange student at Oxford University Studied law at the University of Alabama but never finished her degree

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR - HARPER LEE Moved to New York where she worked as an airlines reservations clerk She then began writing full time for publication purposes Wrote To Kill a Mockingbird in 1957 Her cousin Truman Capote encouraged her to expand one of her many short stories in order to create her only novel It won a Pulitzer Prize in Literature in 1961

ABOUT THE NOVEL The story is about two children growing up in the South during the Great Depression and a Southern lawyer, in face of murderous threats and impossible odds, who stands up for what he believes is right and tries to show those around him a better way

THE NOVEL continued It focuses on the people, attitudes, and laws of the South during this time period. The plot of To Kill a Mockingbird reflected Ms. Lee’s own childhood in Alabama and was greatly influenced by the training she received in law school

MORE ABOUT THE NOVEL Lee’s life parallels the two children in the novel. She lived in a small Southern town, had a lawyer for a father, and even sat in a courthouse balcony to watch him defend his clients

ABOUT THE NOVEL To Kill a Mockingbird has been translated into ten languages and it has been adapted into a movie

ABOUT THE NOVEL CONT. Told in flashback 2 story lines – each with its own climax First-person point of view Bildungsroman Covers approx. 3 years

ABOUT THE NOVEL CONT. Originally submitted to the publisher in 1957 Took 2 ½ years to revise and edit Finally published in 1960

MAJOR THEMES OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Education is not limited to the classroom but is an important part of a person’s everyday life. Prejudice is responsible for much social injustice. People often fear what they do not understand.

MAJOR THEMES OF TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Courage is doing what you think is right when the odds of succeeding are against you. Maturation Pride

THE HISTORICAL CONTENT The Great Depression The stock-market crash of 1929 paralyzed the nation’s economy. Banks curtailed their loans to businesses, businessmen cut back on production, and millions lost their jobs. Spending dwindled, factories and stores closed, and consumption of farm products declined.

Migrant Mother At the height of the Great Depression in 1933, about 13 million Americans had no jobs, many had only part-time jobs, and more than 750,000 farmers had lost their land

Elderly Couple during the Great Depression

Soup Kitchen during Great Depression

Family during Depression

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL TIME LINE 1861 Civil War Begins 1863 President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation freeing the black slaves

1865 Civil War Ends 1865 The 13th Amendment to the Constitution was the first of three amendments that were a consequence of the Civil War. It states that slavery must end in the United States and all of its territories.

1868. In the 14th. Amendment the. black Americans. were granted 1868 In the 14th Amendment the black Americans were granted citizenship and guaranteed their Civil Rights

1870 The 15th Amendment dealt with Black Voting Rights. It sought to protect the rights of citizens, particularly former slaves, to vote in federal and state elections

THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF THE NOVEL TIME LINE 1880’s Jim Crow Laws Although African Americans now supposedly had the same rights as white society, they were still segregated. Jim Crow laws segregated blacks politically by making it difficult for them to vote. For instance, they required voters to pay a poll tax as well as prove that they could read.

1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson The Supreme Court went even further to legalize racism by ruling that segregation was lawful as long as blacks and whites had access to equal facilities. (EX. Separate Water Fountains)

Realize that not all of the Justices supported this view, many felt that the “Constitution is colorblind and neither knows or tolerates classes among citizens.”

1929 Beginning of the Great Depression It’s been almost sixty years since blacks had been held in slavery, and unfortunately at this time they were still considered “2nd class” citizens.

Realize that it took almost 100 years from the time the Civil War ended for the nation’s blacks to finally obtain equal civil rights as their white counterparts

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