1. To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee

2. Author - Harper Lee Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama
Youngest of four children
1957 – submitted manuscript for her novel; was urged to rewrite it
Spent more than two years reworking it
1960- To Kill a Mockingbird (her only novel) was published
1966 – was one of two named by President Johnson to the National Council of Arts

3. SETTING OF THE NOVEL Southern United States 1930’s Great Depression
Prejudice and legal segregation
Ignorance

4. Social Class in the Novel
Wealthy - Finches
Country Folk - Cunninghams
“White Trash” – Ewells
Black Community – Tom Robinson
This is how the class structure was during the 1930’s in the South. The wealthy, although few in number, were the most powerful. The black community, although large, had the least privileges.

5. 1930’s - Great Depression began when the stock market crashed in October, 1929
Businesses failed, factories closed
People were out of work
Even people with money suffered because nothing was being produced for sale.
Poor people lost their homes, were forced to “live off the land.”

6. Racial prejudice was alive & well
Racial prejudice was alive & well. Although slavery had ended in 1864, old ideas were slow to change.

7. Racial separation (segregation)

8. Gender Bias (Prejudice)
Women were considered “weak”
Women were generally not educated for occupations outside the home
In wealthy families, women were expected to oversee the servants and entertain guests
Men not considered capable of nurturing children

9. “White trash” Poor, uneducated white people who lived on “relief “
low social class
prejudiced against black people
felt the need to “put down” blacks in order to elevate themselves

10. Legal Issues of the 1930’s which impact the story
Women given the vote in 1920
Juries were MALE and WHITE
“Fair trial” did not include acceptance of a black man’s word against a white man’s

11. Race Gender Handicaps Rich/Poor Age Religion
Prejudice in the novel
Race
Gender
Handicaps
Rich/Poor
Age
Religion

12. Characters
Atticus Finch - an attorney whose wife has died, leaving him to raise their two children:
-Jem (Jeremy Finch) – 10-year-old boy
-Scout – (Jean Louise) - 6-year-old girl; narrator of the story
Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white girl; he is defended at trial by Atticus

13. Characters Continued
Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three year old recluse who lives next door to the Finches
Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer
Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

14. Point of View First person Story is told by Scout, a 10-year-old girl
Harper Lee is actually a woman; Scout represents the author as a little girl although the story is not strictly autobiographical

15. Reading the Novel Setting is all important –be aware of the
“where” and “when” as you begin
Point of View – the novel is shaped by the voice of a young girl who sees the story from a position of naïve acceptance
“Goodness vs. Ignorance (Evil)” is an important theme