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

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

3. 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.

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

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

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

7. Biographical Lens

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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)

11. Historical Lens

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

13. 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?

14. Class and Race

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

17. Gender

18. 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

19. 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?

20. Archetypes

21. Religious Imagery

22. Hero
Atticus Finch

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

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

25. Villain
Bob Ewell

26. Victim/Scapegoat
Tom Robinson

27. Paradise Lost

28. Part I is full of images of childhood and innocence

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

30. Southern Gothic

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

32. 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)

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

34. 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

35. 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