To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
Background to the Novel
SETTING OF THE NOVEL
• Alabama
• 1930’s
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Great Depression
Prejudice
Legal segregation
Ignorance
America in the 1930s
• WWI was over – WWII had not yet started
• Stock market crashed in 1929
• Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes President in
October 1932
1930’s - Great Depression
• Stock Market Crash –
October 1929
• Businesses failed and
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.”
Statistics
Population: 123,188,000 in 48 states
Life Expectancy: Male, 58.1; Female, 61.6
Average salary: $1,368
Unemployment rises to 25%
Food Prices:
• Milk – 14 cents a quart
• Bread – 9 cents a loaf
• Round Steak – 42 cents a pound
Prices in 1930
• $100 Converted from 1930 to 2005 it would
be equivalent to $1204
• Average new house – $7,145.00
• Average income per year – $1,970.00
• Gallon of gas –10 cents
• Average new car – $640.00
Fashion
Jim Crow Laws
• Slavery ended in 1864 but racial prejudice
was alive and well
• Jim Crow Laws referred to the legal
separation of races
• Blacks were not protected from
discrimination by individuals or private
companies
Racial separation (segregation)
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
Social Hierarchy in Alabama
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Aristocrats - White upper class
White middle class
White lower class
White trash
Blacks
Aristocrats -White upper class
• Educated
• Legitimate claim to “Old South” plantation
families.
• Real Wealth
White middle
Class
• White
• Some education
• Property owners
• White Lower
Class
• White
• Little or no education
• Sharecroppers/
Farmers
Poor White Trash
Refused education
Often alcoholic
Few or no work skills
Often had poor work ethic
Had the same opportunities
as other white classes
Blacks
• Lowest on the social hierarchy
• Formal public education was
prohibited
• Placed in lowest social class only
because of race
Legal Issues of the 1930’s
• 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
TO KILL A MOCKINBIRD
Prejudice
Race
Gender
Handicaps
Rich/Poor
Age
Religion
~ Characters ~
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Atticus Finch
Jeremey Atticus “Jem” Finch
Jean Louise “Scout” Finch
Tom Robinson
Arthur “Boo” Radley
Miss Maudie Atkinson
Charles Baker “Dill” Harris
Calpurnia
Aunt Alexandra
Mayella Ewell
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
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
“If you can learn a simple trick,
Scout, you’ll get along a lot
better with all kinds of folks.
You never really understand a
person until you consider things
from his point of view—until
you crawl into his skin and
walk around in it.”
– Atticus Finch