To Kill A Mocking BirdBy Harper Lee

Story Overview

• Story is based on a false accusation of rape by a white woman against a black man who turns down her advances

Story Overview

• Racial issues

• Story of one man standing up for what is right when no one else will.

Time and Place

• Small town in rural Alabama in early 1930’s

• Set during the Great Depression

Time and Place

• About half of the African American population lived in the south

• Racial tensions, which existed since the Civil War, increased

• Discrimination Laws, segregation, and a strict social code governed interactions between races.

Jim Crow Laws

• These “laws” influenced the ways African Americans lived and interacted with others

• White people were “innocent until proven guilty,” while black people were not given the same justices

Jim Crow Laws

• Many whites administered their own “justice” to accused African American citizens themselves.

• Lynchings dramatically increased in the 1930’s.

The Great Depression

• To Kill a Mockingbird is set in the midst of the Great Depression

• In 1933 the United States had a 25% unemployment rate

The Great Depression

–Millions of American without jobs- no homes, land, food

–Black people not allowed to have the jobs that there were. White people got them.

• The Great Depression ended in the late 1930’s with the need or war materials b/c of WWII

Main Characters

• The Finch Family

–Atticus

–Jem

–Scout- first person/her point of view (Jean Louise Finch)

Main Characters

• Calpurnia- maid, housekeeper

• Tom Robinson

• Boo Radley

• Scout’s Classmates

–Ewell family

–Walter Cunningham

Purpose• “Mockingbirds don’t do on

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 is a sin to kill a mockingbird.”

Themes

• Prejudice and superstition can lead to injustice

• Individuals have a responsibility to protect the innocent

• One person’s wrongdoings can release evil into the entire community

Themes

• People often fear what they don’t understand

• The most important part of a child’s education may take place in the home and the community, rather then the school

• Insight, maturity, and integrity have no necessary relation to age, social position, or formal education.

• Appearances do not always reflect easily

Southern Style and Dialect

• Chilun- Southern pronunciation for children

• Collards- A variety of greens grown in the South

• Crokersak- Originally a crocus sack: a burlap sack, named b/c the bulbs of crocus flowers were shipped in similar sacks

Southern Style and Dialect

• Britches- Pants or trousers

• Knowed- Variation of knew

• Po’- Pronunciation of poor

• Sho”- Pronunciation of sure

• Tol’able- Pronunciation of tolerable, meaning fair, pretty good

• Totin’- Pronunciation of toting- meaning to carry

Atticus Finch