1. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD
BY HARPER LEE

2. Setting- History Maycomb, Alabama Poor region of the South
Recovering from the Great Depression
Racial injustice: Jim Crow laws, and Scottsboro trials

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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)

7. 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

9. 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

10. 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.”