“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.”

To Kill a Mockingbird

By: Harper Lee

The Author Born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926 in

Monroeville, Alabama Descendeant of Southern Civil War

general, Robert E. Lee She studided law at the University of

Alabama before pursuing a writing career.

“I am still alive, although very quiet.”(Harper Lee)

In the five decades since her novel was published, she has avoided interviews and published only a few magazine articles.

Lee continues to live a quiet, private life in New York City and Monroeville. Active in her church and community, she usually avoids anything to do with her still popular novel.

She is known there as Nell

She lives a quietly philanthropic life making some wonder if she is writing secretly –possibly under another name.

TKAM is her first and only novel; she was 34 when it was published

It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 Lee insists that TKAM is fictional.

Merging Fact and Fiction The setting of TKAM is the small southern

town of Maycomb, Alabama, much like the small town of Monroeville that Lee grew up in.

As a child, Lee was “a rough ‘n’ tough tomboy, had short, cropped hair, wore coveralls, went barefoot and could talk mean like a boy.”

The novel’s narrator, Jean Louise Finch – known as Scout, is quite the tomboy.

She has an older brother, Jem, with whom she does everything. Dill is a friend of theirs who comes each summer to visit.

Truman Capote was the childhood friend of Lee’s and was her pal and confidante; they played constantly with Lee’s oler brother in the backyard tree house, swam in the creek and staged a Halloween party – much like Scout, Jim and Dill do in TKAM.

In the novel, Scout’s father, Atticus, is an attorney - just like Lee’s father.

She uses her mother’s maiden name, Finch, as her fictional family name.

Her mother was eccentric and not very close to her children. In the novel, Scout’s mother dies when she was two, “so she never felt her mother’s absence and does not miss her.”

Arthur “Boo” Radley is the town recluse much like a member of the Boular family who lived down the street from Lee. He was known as the neighborhood “boogeyman”

Events in History at the Time the Novel Takes Place

The Great Depression Overfarming of cotton had exhausted the

soil Southerners were reluctant to experiment

with new techniques on crops such as rice or sugar cane

Cotton prices fell in 1930 and stayed low for several years; Southern economy worsened

Mob Violence Hatred of mobs showed through the vicious

punishment they exacted Suspicion of rape gave the mob license to

be exceptionally cruel Economic hardships seem to cause more

violence; the number of lynchings rose in direct relation to decrease in price of cotton

A Woman’s Role Southern society called for these “ladies” to

be idle, well-mannered and skilled in the ways of hospitality”

Raising of children was left to hard-working black “mammies”

Were not encouraged to exercise their right to vote

Small Town life Class structure was tied to income and

achievements The ability to read and write, the record of

having voted in a number of elections, or a family heritage that included one-time ownership of a plantation were attributes that elevated one’s position in society.

The Scottsboro Trials There are many parallels between the trial

of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's history ‚ the Scottsboro Trials.

On March 25, 1931, a freight train was stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine young African American men who had been riding the rails were arrested.

As two white women - one underage - descended from the freight cars, they accused the men of raping them on the train.

There followed a series of sensational trials condemning the other men solely on the testimony of the older woman, a known prostitute, who was attempting to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act, prohibiting taking a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, like prostitution

Parallels Betweenthe Scottsboro and Tom Robinson

Trials The Scottsboro

Trials Took place in the 1930s Took place in northern

Alabama Began with a charge of

rape made by white women against African American men

Tom Robinson's Trial Occurs in the 1930s Takes place in southern

Alabama Begins with a charge of

rape made by a white woman against an African American man

The poor white status of the accusers was a critical issue.

A central figure was a heroic judge, a member of the Alabama Bar who overturned a guilty jury verdict against African American men

Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicated the trial.

The poor white status of Mayella is a critical issue.

A central figure is Atticus, lawyer, legislator and member of the Alabama Bar, who defends an African American man.

Attitudes about Southern women and poor whites complicate the trial of Tom Robinson.