TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD Team Duty #4 Team #1: Jaren Robinson, Landen Knight, Mathew Standish, Mikaela Smith & Marissa Snihur

ABOUT THE AUTHOR  Things about the Author  Birth date: April 26th 1926  Education: Huntington College, University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, Oxford University.  Place of Birth: Monroeville, Alabama.  -Graduated high school in 1944 and went to the all-female Huntington College in Montgomery. She transferred to the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and accepted into the university’s law school.  -Contributed to the school newspaper in the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa.  -Went to the University of Oxford as an exchange student.  -dropped out in the first semester of law school and moved to New York to become a writer.  , met Michael Martin Brown who gave her enough money to completely focus on writing novel and found her an agent. To Kill a Mockingbird had two other names before it settled with its known name. The manuscript was finished in To Kill a Mockingbird was published in July 1960.

MAIN THEMES OF TKAM  1. The Coexistence of Good and Evil  One of the main themes is the coexistence between good and evil. I was trying to find a phrase or word to describe this, and as soon as I read the above title I knew that it fit perfectly. The book itself goes back and forth in between two different voices; one of childhood innocence, and one of an adult who has confronted evil and is familiar with it.  Many people in this book as well are shown to be either evil or good, but it also makes you question what good and evil really are and where to draw the line and lets you realize that many people aren’t just good or evil and normally have some traits of both, such as the case of Mrs. Dubose.

MAIN THEMES OF TKAM  2. The importance of Moral Education.  Seeing as most of the larger moral problems and such takes place from the perspective of children, the moral education of these children is necessary in the development of almost all of the novels themes. The novel actually sort of follows Scout’s moral education in a way, as she is exposed to situations in which she see’s different people’s morals in use and faces situations that test her own morals. This theme is best seen through Atticus teaching his children, not only with the reading and such, but how he tries his hardest to raise them with good morals. There is also a contrast in the ways he teaches and the way someone who is stuck in a specific viewpoint and believes it needs to be taught that way exactly like Miss Caroline

MAIN THEMES OF TKAM  3. The Existence of Social Inequality/injustice  The theme of social inequality is probably one of the most important themes, and it is one of the main driving points of the story. There is a sort of social hierarchy in place in maycomb, with the well-off families at the top, some country farmers like the Cunninghams around the middle, and the Ewells close to the bottom. Below them even is the negro community. Even while they have some very good qualities, they’re disrespected just because of their skin color. The children not understanding or agreeing with this type of social hierarchy is sort of like the author’s way of sort of critiquing this kind of thing.

WHERE IS THIS NOVEL SET?  To Kill a Mockingbird is set in Maycomb County, an imaginary district in southern Alabama.  The time is the early 1930s, the years of the Great Depression when poverty and unemployment were widespread in the United States.  “Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it…there was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go.” P.5  “In rainy weather the streets turn to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalk, it was hotter then; the courthouse sagged in the square.” P.5

WHY IS THE NOVEL CONSIDERED A CLASSIC?  To kill a mockingbird is considered to be a classic around the globe because of how it exposes the raw human innocence that we are all born with. It also shows how social injustice can rip away the innocence and leave a permanent mark on the identity of a person. As well as exposing other people's innocence it also relates to each persons innocence differently, anyone who reads the book can find some way to relate it to their own lives and how they have had to deal with a transition in their lives. Each time you read this book you see a different side of the story and have a different understanding of the human identity and of social injustices. This means any type of person can read this book over and over again and always be interested by how it affects them.

SCOTTSBORO RAPE TRIALS  March 25 th 1931, on a train going to Memphis there was a fight between a group of colored people and a group of whites. The colored boys won and threw the whites off the train. The whites then proceeded to call the sheriff and the train was stopped just outside of Scottsboro, Alabama.Victoria Price and Ruby Bates were on the train going to Memphis at this time. They claimed that they were raped by the 12 black males who were riding in railroad freight cars hoping to get to a town that had work in it. Only nine of the twelve men were arrested and charged with the crime, Haywood Patterson, Charles Weems, Clarence Norris, Ozzie Powell, Andrew Wright, Leroy Wright, Olen Montgomery, Eugene Williams and Willie Roberson. Their trial took place twelve days later in Scottsboro, Alabama. The men’s defense attorney was drunk throughout the entire trial. All nine men were found guilty, eight were sentenced to death and the youngest (Leroy Wright) was given life of imprisonment. At the second trial, Ruby Bates testified that Victoria Price invented the whole rape story, all of the nine men were still found guilty. At the third trial, all nine of the men were still found guilty. January 4 th 1936: Four men were released. 1940s: Four more men were released. June 9 th 1950: Andy Wright was released. October 1976: The nine men were pardoned, even though only was still alive. This man was Clarence Norris.

SCOTTSBORO RAPE TRIALS VS. TKAM  These two stories connect in the fact that they both are based on a racist society. Scottsboro Trials more so than the book because after the two ladies in the trial admitted to having lied, the nine men still were found guilty twice.

SCOTTSBORO RAPE TRIALS VS. TKAM  Both the fictional and the historical cases take place in the 1930s.  In both the defendants were African-American men, the accusers whit women.  In both instances the accused where charge with rape.  Both trials caused scandal and uproar.  Both had white lawyers.  Both Attics and Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes believe, black and whites should have equal wrights  Both took place around the same time frame (great depression).

BIBLIOGRAPHY  Spartacus Educational Publishers Ltd. (2011) Scottsboro Boys. Retrieved on February 6 th 2013 from:  Marotous, G. (2006) Setting – Time and Place. Retrieved on February 6 th 2013 from:  Shmoop University. (2013) To Kill A Mockingbird Setting. Retrieved on February 6 th 2013 from:  English 11. (2012, March 14) Scottsboro Trials. Retrieved on February 6 th 2013 from:  Tranceking. (2007, November 15) Scottsboro and Mockingbird. Retrieved on February 5 th 2013 from:  Rrteacher. (2012, February 20) To Kill A Mockingbird. Retrieved on February 5 th 2013 from: between-tom-robinson-trial http:// between-tom-robinson-trial  SparkNotes Editors. (2002). SparkNote on To Kill a Mockingbird. Retrieved February 5th, 2013 from