1. To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee

2. Historical Context and Setting
Historical Context – Time period in history when a work take place
Setting – The time and place where the action occurs
The historical context plays an important role in the plot, setting and characters
What decade is To Kill a Mockingbird set in?
Important events
What are some events that we discussed last week?
Important people
Who are some people we discussed last week?

3. Life During the 1930s Legal Segregation
The Great Depression sweeps the nation – Many families do not even have money for basic needs such as food, clothing, and shelter.
Hitler is Chancellor of Germany
He believes that Jews, African Americans, and other races are inferior to Anglo-Saxons.
The per capita income for families in Alabama (and Oklahoma) is $125 - $250 a year
Franklin D. Roosevelt is President
Legal Segregation
Separate schools
No interracial marriages
Segregated water fountains
Segregated theatres

4. Setting The time and place where the action in the novel happens
Maycomb, Alabama (fictional town)
Small town in Alabama – All of the characters know one another

5. Theme = topic + author’s opinion on the topic
A Theme is the fundamental and often universal idea explored in a literary work.
Topics for themes in To Kill a Mockingbird:
Racial Prejudice
Social Snobbery
Morality
Tolerance
Patience
Equality
The Need for Compassion
The Need for Conscience

6. Characterization
The way that an author uses descriptive language including dialogue to give a character personality traits in a text.
Indirect characterization – When an author uses dialogue and actions to teach the reader something about the character. (Example: You learn through the characters speaking to one another that one of them is lying. Therefore, you judge that character is dishonest.)
Direct characterization – When an author tells you about the character. (Example: The author tells you what the character looks like.)

7. Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird
Jean Louis Finch – “Scout”
The story’s narrator
Scout is six when the story begins
She is naturally curious about life
Jem Finch
Scout’s older brother
Looks up to his father Atticus
Usually looks out for Scout but the typical older brother at times
Smart and Compassionate
Matures as the story progresses
Direct characterization – “his left arm was somewhat shorter than his right...”

8. More Characters... Atticus Finch Calpurnia Father of Scout and Jem
A widower
A highly-respected attorney by profession
Instills good values and morals in his children
Honest and Brave
Typical southern gentleman
Calpurnia
The Finch’s black housekeeper and nanny
A positive influence on the children
Indirect Characterization – Calpurnia takes the children to her church where she interacts with other people. We learn she has good standing in the community and is well respected from her interactions.

9. Motifs Gothic Details Small-Town Life
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes
Gothic Details
Gothic refers to a style of fiction first popularized in eighteenth-century England, featuring supernatural occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons
Small-Town Life
Counterbalancing the Gothic motif of the story is the motif of old-fashioned, small-town values, which manifest themselves throughout the novel

10. Tone and Mood
Tone is set by the author’s word choice, use of motifs, and other literary devices – The author attitude towards the subject makes you feel a certain way....The author’s tone creates a...
MOOD – The way the reader feels when reading the novel
You know that Lee will use Gothic and Small-town motifs...what moods may be present due to this choice?

11. Tones to look for in To Kill a Mockingbird
Humorous (at times)
Somber
Serious
Thought-provoking

12. Moods that Harper Lee’s Tone Creates
Child-like inquisitiveness
Closeness of family ties
Protective
Suspenseful
Community pride
Embarrassment
Anger
Compassion

13. Symbolism/Symbols
Symbolism is when an author has a figurative meaning for a thing...it is literally a red rose, but it stands for love...and just any love...romantic love 
Common symbols
Four-leaf clover
White doves
Olive branches
Fire
Water
Ice

14. Symbol – Mockingbird
The title 
Atticus tells Scout, “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, 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.”
In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the “mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy innocence.

15. Symbol – Boo Radley
The children’s changing attitude toward Boo Radley is an important measurement of their development from innocence toward a grown-up moral perspective
Pay attention to how they interact with Boo throughout the novel
How does this symbol go hand in hand with the mockingbird symbol?

16. Personification
Literary element where an author gives human qualities to non-human things
Example: The leaves danced in the wind.
What is being personified? What human characteristic is the item given?
Let’s practice!

17. “Mr. Radley’s older son lived in Pensacola; he came home at Christmas, and he was one of the few people we ever saw enter or leave the place. From the day Mr. Radley took Arthur home, people say the house died” (Lee 12).
Personification

18. “The house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street we thought we saw an inside shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible movement and the house was still” (Lee 15).
Personification

19. “There he was, returning to me
“There he was, returning to me. His white shirt bobbed over the back fence and slowly grew larger. He came up the back steps, latched the door behind him, and sat on his cot” (Lee 55).
Personification

20. Metaphor
A figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance
Example:  “A mighty fortress is our God.”
What 2 things are being compared? Why would the writer make this comparison? What is s/he trying to say?
Let’s practice!

21. “Then I heard Atticus cough. I held my breath
“Then I heard Atticus cough. I held my breath. Sometimes when we made a midnight pilgrimage to the bathroom we would find him reading” (Lee 57).
Metaphor

22. “I knew when there was trouble in our street
“I knew when there was trouble in our street. Soft taffeta-like sounds and muffled scurrying sounds filled me with helpless dread” (Lee 69).
Metaphor

23. Simile
A figure of speech where two unlike things are explicitly compared. The phrase uses “like” or “as”
 “She is like a rose.”
What is being compared here?
Let’s practice!

24. “The Radley place fascinated Dill
“The Radley place fascinated Dill. In spite of our warnings it drew him as the moon draws water…” (Lee 8).
Simile

25. “Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” (Lee 6).
Simile

26. Simile
“It must have been two o’clock. The moon was setting and the lattice-work shadows were fading into fuzzy nothingness. Jem’s white shirt-tail dipped and bobbed like a small ghost dancing away to escape the coming morning” (Lee 57).

27. Quick Discussion – Chapters 1 and 2
What does Dill dare Jem to do?
What do the children think they see at the end of chapter 1? How does this add to suspense?
How does the description of the Radleys home and family fit in to the gothic motif?
Who is Miss Caroline Fisher?
What is the problem with Walter Cunningham?

28. Characterization – Chpts 1-5
Walter Cunningham and his family
How does Scout describe Walter?
What 2 events take place that give us insight into Walter’s home life?
Hint: Miss Caroline
Hint: Lunch with Calpurnia
What does Scout tell us about her father’s interaction with the Cunninghams?
How do you feel about the Cunningham family based on this instances in the novel?

29. Characterization – Chpts 1-5
Burris Ewell and his family
What are the Ewell’s reputation at school?
What is Burris Ewell’s problem on the first day?
What interaction does Burris have with Mis Caroline?
How do you feel about Burris and his family based on the information presented already?

30. Two Poor Depression-Era Families
The Cunninghams
Poor white family
Hard-working
Honest
Proud
Survive on very little
Always pay back their debts – even if it is with hickory nuts, turnips, or holly.
The Ewells
Poor white trash
Dirty
Lazy
Good-for-nothing
Never done a day’s work
Foul-mouthed
Dishonest
Immoral

31. Preparing to Write – Mood
Mood: The atmosphere that pervades a literary work with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or feeling from the audience.
For example: The moods in a Edgar Allen Poe story, might be gloomy, horrific, or desperate.
Mood is used to:
create a feeling in the reader
Show how the characters are feeling
Foreshadow upcoming events in the text

32. Test Review for Chapters 4 & 5
What does Scout find in the tree at the Radley house first?
What do Scout and Jem find in the tree at the Radley house second?
Who comes back to Macomb for the summer? How much time has gone by between chapter 1 and chapter 5?
What does Scout hear inside the house at the end of Chapter 4?
Who’s Miss Maudie?
What do we find out about Arthur from Miss Maudie?
How does Atticus react when he sees Jem and Scout playing the Boo Radley game?

33. Characterization – Chpts 1-5
Walter Cunningham and his family
How does Scout describe Walter?
What 2 events take place that give us insight into Walter’s home life?
Hint: Miss Caroline
Hint: Lunch with Calpurnia
What does Scout tell us about her father’s interaction with the Cunninghams?
How do you feel about the Cunningham family based on this instances in the novel?

34. Quick Discussion – Chapters 6-8
What happened in chapter 6? (Hint – We read it in class on Monday! Dill, Jem, & Scout had a close call...)
What does Jem reveal about the night’s escapade in chapter 6 to Scout that he hadn’t revealed before? Why is this cause for concern for them?
The tree yields 5 more gifts for Jem and Scout in Chapter 7 what are they? (f,m,g,w,t)
What does Nathan Radley do to the tree? At the end of chapter 7 we are left wondering who left the gifts, but we have a solid clue that leads us to believe it’s someone....who? And what is the clue?

35. Quick Discussion – Chapters 6-8
In chapter 8, what happens that hasn’t happened in a long time in Maycomb?
What happens to Miss Maudie’s barn? Why do you think the author added this happening?
Who gives Scout the blanket? Why is this significant?
Get ready for a change! At this point in the novel, the focus goes from Boo Radley and the children to Atticus and his court case!

36. Let’s prepare to read Chapter 9-10 Characterization: Atticus
Think about our background information...The Scottsboro case, the segregation, the accepted racism, the time period of the 1930s in southern states.
Consider the character Atticus – He’s a lawyer. What kind of person is he based on what we have seen so far? What does he believe in?
“Do you know what a compromise is?...an agreement reached by mutual concessions...”
“I’m going to tell you something and tell you one time: Quit tormenting that man.”
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view….”

37. Preparing to Read Chapters 9-10 The Black Community in Maycomb, AL
Simple
Honest
Clean
Hard-working
God fearing
Proud
Would never take anything with paying it back
Respectful
Oppressed
Uneducated
Discriminated against
Talked about badly
Deserve better than what is dished out to them by society

38. Preparing to Read Chapter 11 Morphine: A Southern Lady’s Drug
In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Finch children will become acquainted with a morphine addict named Mrs. Dubose. Although only a fictitious character, she personifies the American morphine addict of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
1930s Typical Morphine Addict:
White female
Middle-aged or older
Widowed
Homebound
Lives in the south
Property owner
Began using morphine for medical reasons (pain relief)

39. Chapter 13 and 14 Quick Review
Why all of the talk about family “history?”
Aunt Alexandria’s take on teaching Jem and Scout their history
Atticus’ take on teaching the kids their history
Why does Aunt Alexandria want to get rid of Calpurnia?
Jem is trying to “teach” Scout something about Atticus – What is it? Pg 138
How does this show he Is growing up?
What is under Scout’s bed?
What is Dill’s point about his parents? pg143

40. Language
Sometimes the language of Scout will be that of her as a child; other times, she will be speaking in the voice of an adult
Atticus uses formal speech
Calpurnia uses “white language” in the Finch house and switches to “black jargon” when amidst blacks
The Ewells use foul words and obscenities
Jem, Scout, and Dill will use slang words, typical of their age
Tom Robinson uses language typical of the southern black such as “suh” for “sir” and “chillun” for “children”
Various derogatory terms for blacks will be used such as “nigger,” “darky,” “Negroes,” and “colored folk” – Lee uses such language to keep her novel naturally in sync with common language of the times