To Kill a
Mockingbird
BY HARPER LEE
Historical Context and Setting
 Historical Context – Time period in history when a
work take place
 Setting – The time and place where the action occurs
 The historical context plays an important role in the
plot, setting and characters
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
What decade is To Kill a Mockingbird set in?
Important events


What are some events that we discussed last week?
Important people

Who are some people we discussed last week?
Life During the 1930s
 The Great Depression sweeps the nation –
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Many families do not even have money for
basic needs such as food, clothing, and
shelter.
Hitler is Chancellor of Germany
 He believes that Jews, African Americans,
and other races are inferior to AngloSaxons.
The per capita income for families in
Alabama (and Oklahoma) is $125 - $250 a
year
Franklin D. Roosevelt is President
Legal Segregation
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Separate schools
No interracial marriages
Segregated water fountains
Segregated theatres
Setting
 The time and place
where the action in the
novel happens
 Maycomb, Alabama
(fictional town)

Small town in Alabama –
All of the characters know
one another
 1933-1935
Theme
Theme = topic + author’s opinion on the topic
 A Theme is the fundamental and often universal idea explored
in a literary work.
 Topics for themes in To Kill a Mockingbird:
 Racial Prejudice
 Social Snobbery
 Morality
 Tolerance
 Patience
 Equality
 The Need for Compassion
 The Need for Conscience
Characterization
 The way that an author uses descriptive language
including dialogue to give a character personality
traits in a text.


Indirect characterization – When an author uses dialogue and
actions to teach the reader something about the character.
(Example: You learn through the characters speaking to one
another that one of them is lying. Therefore, you judge that
character is dishonest.)
Direct characterization – When an author tells you about the
character. (Example: The author tells you what the character
looks like.)
Characters in To Kill a Mockingbird
 Jean Louis Finch – “Scout”

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The story’s narrator
Scout is six when the story begins
She is naturally curious about life
 Jem Finch
o Scout’s older brother
o Looks up to his father Atticus
o Usually looks out for Scout but the typical older brother at times
o Smart and Compassionate
o Matures as the story progresses
o Direct characterization – “his left arm was somewhat
shorter than his right...”
More Characters...
 Atticus Finch
 Father of Scout and Jem
 A widower
 A highly-respected attorney by profession
 Instills good values and morals in his children
 Honest and Brave
 Typical southern gentleman
 Calpurnia
 The Finch’s black housekeeper and nanny
 A positive influence on the children
 Indirect Characterization – Calpurnia takes the children
to her church where she interacts with other people. We
learn she has good standing in the community and is well
respected from her interactions.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices
that can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes

Gothic Details


Gothic refers to a style of fiction first popularized in
eighteenth-century England, featuring supernatural
occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons
Small-Town Life

Counterbalancing the Gothic motif of the story is the
motif of old-fashioned, small-town values, which
manifest themselves throughout the novel
Tone and Mood
 Tone is set by the author’s word choice, use of
motifs, and other literary devices – The author
attitude towards the subject makes you feel a
certain way....The author’s tone creates a...
 MOOD – The way the reader feels when reading the
novel
 You know that Lee will use Gothic and Small-town
motifs...what moods may be present due to this
choice?
Tones to look for in To Kill a Mockingbird
 Humorous (at times)
 Somber
 Serious
 Thought-provoking
Moods that Harper Lee’s Tone Creates
 Child-like
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inquisitiveness
Closeness of family ties
Protective
Suspenseful
Community pride
Embarrassment
Anger
Compassion
Symbolism/Symbols
 Symbolism is when an author has a figurative
meaning for a thing...it is literally a red rose, but it
stands for love...and just any love...romantic love 
 Common symbols
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Four-leaf clover
White doves
Olive branches
Fire
Water
Ice
Symbol – Mockingbird
 The title 
 Atticus tells Scout, “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.”
 In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the
“mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of
innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy
innocence.
Symbol – Boo Radley
 The children’s changing attitude toward Boo
Radley is an important measurement of their
development from innocence toward a grown-up
moral perspective
 Pay attention to how they interact with Boo
throughout the novel
 How does this symbol go hand in hand with the
mockingbird symbol?
Personification
 Literary element where
an author gives human
qualities to non-human
things

Example: The leaves
danced in the wind.

What is being personified?
What human
characteristic is the item
given?
 Let’s practice!
“Mr. Radley’s older son lived in Pensacola; he came
home at Christmas, and he was one of the few people
we ever saw enter or leave the place. From the day
Mr. Radley took Arthur home, people say the house
died” (Lee 12).
Personification
“The house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we
stared down the street we thought we saw an inside
shutter move. Flick. A tiny, almost invisible
movement and the house was still” (Lee 15).
Personification
“There he was, returning to me. His white shirt bobbed
over the back fence and slowly grew larger. He came
up the back steps, latched the door behind him, and
sat on his cot” (Lee 55).
Personification
Metaphor
 A figure of speech in
which a term or phrase is applied to
something to which it is not literally applicable in o
rder to suggest a resemblance

Example: “A mighty fortress is our God.”

What 2 things are being compared? Why would the writer make
this comparison? What is s/he trying to say?
 Let’s practice!
“Then I heard Atticus cough. I held my breath.
Sometimes when we made a midnight pilgrimage to
the bathroom we would find him reading” (Lee 57).
Metaphor
“I knew when there was trouble in our street. Soft
taffeta-like sounds and muffled scurrying sounds
filled me with helpless dread” (Lee 69).
Metaphor
Simile
 A figure of speech where two unlike things are explicitly
compared. The phrase uses “like” or “as”


“She is like a rose.”
What is being compared here?
 Let’s practice!
“The Radley place fascinated Dill. In spite of our
warnings it drew him as the moon draws water…”
(Lee 8).
Simile
“Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock
naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with
frostings of sweat and sweet talcum” (Lee 6).
Simile
Simile
“It must have been two o’clock. The moon was setting
and the lattice-work shadows were fading into fuzzy
nothingness. Jem’s white shirt-tail dipped and
bobbed like a small ghost dancing away to escape the
coming morning” (Lee 57).
Quick Discussion – Chapters 1 and 2
 What does Dill dare Jem to do?
 What do the children think they see at the end of
chapter 1? How does this add to suspense?
 How does the description of the Radleys home and
family fit in to the gothic motif?
 Who is Miss Caroline Fisher?
 What is the problem with Walter Cunningham?
Characterization – Chpts 1-5
 Walter Cunningham and his family
 How does Scout describe Walter?
 What 2 events take place that give us insight into Walter’s
home life?
Hint: Miss Caroline
 Hint: Lunch with Calpurnia
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What does Scout tell us about her father’s interaction with the
Cunninghams?
How do you feel about the Cunningham family based on this
instances in the novel?
Characterization – Chpts 1-5
 Burris Ewell and his family
 What are the Ewell’s reputation at school?
 What is Burris Ewell’s problem on the first day?
 What interaction does Burris have with Mis Caroline?
 How do you feel about Burris and his family based on the
information presented already?
Two Poor Depression-Era Families
The Cunninghams
The Ewells
 Poor white family
 Poor white trash
 Hard-working
 Dirty
 Honest
 Lazy
 Proud
 Good-for-nothing
 Survive on very little
 Never done a day’s work
 Always pay back their
 Foul-mouthed
debts – even if it is with
hickory nuts, turnips, or
holly.
 Dishonest
 Immoral
Preparing to Write – Mood
Mood: The atmosphere that pervades a literary work
with the intention of evoking a certain emotion or
feeling from the audience.
For example: The moods in a Edgar Allen Poe story, might be
gloomy, horrific, or desperate.
Mood is used to:
 create a feeling in the reader
 Show how the characters are feeling
 Foreshadow upcoming events in the text
Test Review for Chapters 4 & 5
 What does Scout find in the tree at the Radley house first?
 What do Scout and Jem find in the tree at the Radley house
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second?
Who comes back to Macomb for the summer? How much
time has gone by between chapter 1 and chapter 5?
What does Scout hear inside the house at the end of
Chapter 4?
Who’s Miss Maudie?
What do we find out about Arthur from Miss Maudie?
How does Atticus react when he sees Jem and Scout playing
the Boo Radley game?
Characterization – Chpts 1-5
 Walter Cunningham and his family
 How does Scout describe Walter?
 What 2 events take place that give us insight into Walter’s
home life?
Hint: Miss Caroline
 Hint: Lunch with Calpurnia
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

What does Scout tell us about her father’s interaction with the
Cunninghams?
How do you feel about the Cunningham family based on this
instances in the novel?
Quick Discussion – Chapters 6-8
 What happened in chapter 6? (Hint – We read it in
class on Monday! Dill, Jem, & Scout had a close
call...)
 What does Jem reveal about the night’s escapade in
chapter 6 to Scout that he hadn’t revealed before?
Why is this cause for concern for them?
 The tree yields 5 more gifts for Jem and Scout in
Chapter 7 what are they? (f,m,g,w,t)
 What does Nathan Radley do to the tree? At the end
of chapter 7 we are left wondering who left the gifts,
but we have a solid clue that leads us to believe it’s
someone....who? And what is the clue?
Quick Discussion – Chapters 6-8
 In chapter 8, what happens that hasn’t happened in
a long time in Maycomb?
 What happens to Miss Maudie’s barn? Why do you
think the author added this happening?
 Who gives Scout the blanket? Why is this significant?
 Get ready for a change! At this point in the novel,
the focus goes from Boo Radley and the children to
Atticus and his court case!
Let’s prepare to read Chapter 9-10
Characterization: Atticus
 Think about our background information...The Scottsboro
case, the segregation, the accepted racism, the time period of
the 1930s in southern states.
 Consider the character Atticus – He’s a lawyer. What kind of
person is he based on what we have seen so far? What does he
believe in?



“Do you know what a compromise is?...an agreement reached by
mutual concessions...”
“I’m going to tell you something and tell you one time: Quit
tormenting that man.”
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from
his point of view….”
Preparing to Read Chapters 9-10
The Black Community in Maycomb, AL
Simple
Honest
Clean
Hard-working
God fearing
Proud
Would never take anything
with paying it back
 Respectful
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Oppressed
Uneducated
Discriminated against
Talked about badly
Deserve better than what is
dished out to them by
society
Preparing to Read Chapter 11
Morphine: A Southern Lady’s Drug
 1930s Typical Morphine
Addict:
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White female
Middle-aged or older
Widowed
Homebound
Lives in the south
Property owner
Began using morphine for
medical reasons (pain
relief)
 In “To Kill a Mockingbird,” the Finch
children will become acquainted with
a morphine addict named Mrs.
Dubose. Although only a fictitious
character, she personifies the
American morphine addict of the late
nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
Chapter 13 and 14 Quick Review
 Why all of the talk about family “history?”


Aunt Alexandria’s take on teaching Jem and Scout their history
Atticus’ take on teaching the kids their history
 Why does Aunt Alexandria want to get rid of Calpurnia?
 Jem is trying to “teach” Scout something about Atticus – What
is it? Pg 138

How does this show he Is growing up?
 What is under Scout’s bed?
 What is Dill’s point about his parents? pg143
Quick Quiz – Chapter 17
What does Heck Tate tell the jury about Mayella’s injuries?
1.
1.
2.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
Where was she injured?
How severe were the injuries?
Who is Bob Ewell?
Briefly describe the Ewell family home.
Why does the judge keep giving Mr. Ewell cautioning looks as
he’s giving his testimony?
Why does Reverend Sykes tell Jem to take Scout out of the
courtroom?
Is it ironic that Mr. Ewell says that the black community is
“devaluin’ my property”? Why or why not?
Why does Mr. Ewell say he didn’t send for a doctor for Mayella?
Why does Atticus confirm that Mr. Ewell agrees with Mr. Tate’s
testimony?
What do we find out about Mr. Ewell on the last page of the
chapter and why is this important?
Quick Quiz – Chapter 18-20
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The narrator (Scout) says that Mayella is like a cat with a
twitching tail when she takes the stand. Why do you think she
compares her to this animal?
At the end of chapter 18, we see that Tom could not have
possibly committed the crime. How do we know?
How many times had Tom Robinson been to Mayella’s home
and why did he go?
How does Tom say Mayella got the kids to leave the house on
the day in question?
What does Tom say Mayella did to him when he came inside
the house?
What does Tom say that Bob Ewell said when he saw Mayella
with him? (paraphrase your answer)
What was Tom convicted of previously and why does Mr.
Gilmer bring up this point?
Who talks to Dolphus Raymond?
Quick Quiz – Chapter 18-20 Continued
1.
What do we learn about Dolphus Raymond’s drinking habit?
Will Justice Be Served?
We’ll start reading on page 203 so get ready..First, let’s
review what we already know about the case…
Who is being accused?
Who is the accuser?
What is he accused of?
Who is the prosecutor?
Who is opposing counsel?
Who choose the jury?
Who has testified?
Who do we believe?
What side do you think the Jury is on? What side do
you guess the judge is on? What side are you on?!
Themes – Let’s revisit…
Theme = topic + author’s opinion on the topic
A Theme is the fundamental and often universal idea
explored in a literary work.
Topics for themes in To Kill a Mockingbird:
Racial Prejudice
Social Snobbery
Morality
Tolerance
Patience
Equality
The Need for Compassion
The Need for Conscience
Motif - Let’s revisit…
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that
can help to develop and inform the text’s major themes
Gothic Details
Gothic refers to a style of fiction first popularized in
eighteenth-century England, featuring supernatural
occurrences, gloomy and haunted settings, full moons
Small-Town Life
Counterbalancing the Gothic motif of the story is the motif
of old-fashioned, small-town values, which manifest
themselves throughout the novel
To think about for your essay…
•
•
•
How does the mood set by the author support a theme
in the novel?
How does a motif in the novel help create a mood for
the reader?
These are questions that you will want to answer as a
part of your paper!
You guessed it! POP QUIZ Chapters 24-27
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Why does Atticus interrupt the mission society luncheon?
What does Bob Ewell mean when he says, “one down and
about two more to go?”
True or False – Atticus gets reelected to the state legislature.
Chapter 26 highlights a severe case of hypocrisy. It has to do
with Scout’s teacher – Miss Gates and Hitler...did you catch
it? If you did, I will be SO PROUD OF YOU and give you
credit for this question. Please tell me what Scout figures out
about Miss Gates.
According to Scout 3 things “out of the ordinary” happened
in Maycomb. What are they? (3 points)
What is the next holiday and what is going to happen to
celebrate? (hmmm, I see another example of motif being
demonstrated here...)
You’re Last Pop Quiz (for TKaM)!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Who tries to kill Scout and Jem?
Who saves Scout and Jem?
Why does Atticus have the conversations with Boo, Sherriff
Tate, and the children out on the porch?
Who does Atticus think kills Bob Ewell?
Who actually kills Bob Ewell?
Why does the knife that killed Bob prove that Jem did not do
it?
Let’s read a couple passages from the very end…
•
Character Development
•
Atticus is deeply respected in the community and he
deserves respect….WHY?
•
Let’s read page 273 and think about what this means
about Atticus’ personality
•
Does Atticus have a strong character arc?
Just a bit more…
•
Character Development – pg 278
•
Jem changes from beginning of the story
•
How does he start?
•
Attitude towards Atticus
•
Attitude towards Boo Radley
•
How does he end?
•
Scout changes from beginning to end
•
How does she start?
•
Attitude towards Calpurnia & Aunt Alexandria
•
Attitude towards Boo Radley
•
How does she end?
Symbol – Mockingbird
 The title 
 Atticus tells Scout, “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.”
 In this story of innocents destroyed by evil, the
“mockingbird” comes to represent the idea of
innocence. Thus, to kill a mockingbird is to destroy
innocence.

Who are our mockingbirds?
Symbol – Boo Radley
 The children’s changing attitude toward Boo
Radley is an important measurement of their
development from innocence toward a grown-up
moral perspective


At the beginning the children see Boo as....
At the end the children see Boo as...
 How does this symbol go hand in hand with the
mockingbird symbol?
Our Final Due Dates for this Unit
 Monday, March 11 – Rough Draft of your essay due
 Monday, March 11 – Counseling registration form




due
Monday, March 11 – CAHSEE review
Tuesday/Wednesday, March 12-13 – CAHSEE
Thursday, March 14 – get your rough draft back
Friday March 15 – Final draft of your essay due, To
Kill a Mockingbird Yearbook due, TKaM Packet due
BUSY, BUSY, BUSY...don’t waste time these
next few days!