TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD BY HARPER LEE
Setting- History Maycomb, Alabama Poor region of the South Recovering from the Great Depression Racial injustice: Jim Crow laws, and Scottsboro trials
Main Characters Scout (Jean Louise Finch)- six-year-old narrator of story Jem (Jeremy Finch)- her older brother Atticus Finch- Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman Arthur (Boo) Radley- a 33-year old recluse who lives next door
Main Characters cont. Charles Baker (Dill) Harris- Jem and Scout's friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer Tom Robinson- a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman Calpurnia- the Finch’s black cook
Harper Lee- the author Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama Youngest of four children 1957- submitted manuscript and urged to rewrite Spent over two years working on it 1960- TKM published (her only novel)
Inspiration for TKM Novel based upon her own life growing up in the South The character “Dill” was based upon Lee’s actual neighbor, Truman Capote Capote is famous for In Cold Blood and Breakfast at Tiffany’s It is said that Capote once gave her a mockingbird as a present
To Kill a Mockingbird- The Movie In 1962, the book was turned into a movie starring Gregory Peck It received a humanitarian award and several Academy Award nominations Don’t worry- we’ll watch it! :0
Mockingbird symbolism “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, they don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”