Harper Lee’s Early Years
• Born Nelle Harper Lee, spring 1926
• Grew up in Monroeville, Alabama
• Youngest of four children
Parents
• Father: Amasa Coleman Lee
• Mother: Frances Finch Lee
• Father: practiced law in Monroeville
• Father: editor of The Monroe Journal
Childhood
• Personality
• Childhood friend
Capote
Father and Daughter
“It was my plan for her to
become a member of our
law firm – but it just
wasn’t meant to be. She
went to New York to be a
writer.”
—Amasa Lee, 1961
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Peck
Harper Lee’s Adult Years
• Attended Huntingdon
College
• Attended the University of
Alabama to study law
University Years
• Worked for student
publications
• Editor of RammerJammer
• Attended Oxford
University
1950-1957
• Worked for Eastern
Airlines in NYC
• Pursued writing career
full time in NYC
• Wrote and submitted
To Kill a Mockingbird
1957-1959
• To Kill A Mockingbird
manuscript rejected
• Research assistant for
Truman Capote’s In Cold
Blood
The Writer Emerges!
• Published To Kill A
Mockingbird
• Received Pulitzer Prize
for novel
Novel Goes to the Movies
• Did not initially attract
producers
• Gregory Peck starred as
Atticus Finch
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1930s Statistics
• Facts about the 1930s:
– Population: 123,188,000 in 48
states
– Life Expectancy: Male, 58:1;
Female, 61:6
– Average annual salary: $1,368
– Unemployment rises to 25%
– Car Sales: 2,787,400
– Food Prices: Milk, 14 cents a qt.;
Bread, 9 cents a loaf
– Round Steak, 42 cents a pound
– Lynchings: 21
Social Order
• Wealthy and educated
• Working-class whites
• Nonworking-class
whites
• African Americans
Jim Crow Laws
• Racial caste system
• Perpetuated racism
Affluent White’s Homes
Scottsboro Trial
• On March 25, 1931, a
freight train was
stopped in Paint Rock,
Alabama
• Nine young African
American men arrested
• Two white women
accused men of raping
them on the train
The Scottsboro Trial v. Tom Robinson’s Trial
• Scottsboro:
• Robinson:
– 1930s event
– 1930s event
– Northern Alabama
– Southern Alabama
– The poor white status of
accusers was important
– The poor white status of
Mayella was important
The Scottsboro Trial v. Tom Robinson’s Trial
• Scottsboro:
• Robinson:
– James E. Horton, judge, overturned the guilty jury verdict
– Atticus, lawyer, defends the
African-American man
– All-white jury
– All poor, white jury
– The jury ignored evidence—
that the women suffered no
injuries, for example
– The jury ignores evidence—
that Tom has a useless left
arm, for example
Horton
Atticus and Tom
Writing To Kill A Mockingbird
• Themes
• Viewpoint
• Characters
• Major Conflicts
Themes
• Moral nature of man
• Innocence to
experience
• How children learn
morality
• Social inequality
• Vulnerability of
innocent
Point of View
• First person narrative through
Scout
• “When he was nearly thirteen,
my brother Jem got his arm
badly broken at the elbow.
When it healed, and Jem’s
fears of never being able to
play football were assuaged,
he was seldom self-conscious
about his injury.”
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Characters
Middle-Class Whites – The Finches
Working-Class
Whites
Cunningham
Family
Non-Working Whites
The Ewell Family
African Americans
Tom Robinson, Calpurnia and Others
Major Characters
Jean Louise “Scout”
Finch--The narrator and
protagonist of the story
Atticus Finch--Scout
and Jem’s father, a
lawyer in Maycomb
Arthur “Boo” Radley-- A
recluse who never sets
foot outside his house
Bob Ewell--A drunken,
mostly unemployed
man
Tom Robinson--The
black field hand
accused of rape
Calpurnia--The
Finches’ black cook,
Calpurnia is a stern
disciplinarian
Mayella Ewell--Bob
Ewell’s abused, lonely,
unhappy daughter
Jeremy Atticus “Jem”
Finch--Scout’s brother
and constant playmate
Charles Baker “Dill”
Harris--Jem and
Scout’s summer
neighbor and friend
Aunt Alexandra-Atticus’ sister, a strongwilled woman with a
fierce devotion to her
family. Alexandra is the
perfect Southern lady
Minor Characters
Link Deas--Tom Robinson’s
employer
Mrs. Henry Lafayette
Dubose--An elderly, illtempered, racist woman
who lives near the
Finches
Miss Maudie
Atkinson--The
Finches’ neighbor, a
sharp-tongued
widow, and an old
friend of the family
Mr. Dolphus Raymond--A wealthy
white man who lives with his black
mistress and mulatto children
Mr. Underwood--The publisher
of Maycomb’s newspaper
Walter Cunningham-Son of Mr. Walter
Cunningham and
classmate of Scout
Mr. Walter Cunningham--A
poor farmer
Harper Lee v. Scout Finch
•
She grew up in the 1930s in a
rural Southern Alabama town.
•
She grew up in the 1930s in a
rural Southern Alabama town.
•
Her father, Amasa Lee, is an
attorney who served in the state
legislature in Alabama.
•
Her father, Atticus Finch, is an
attorney who served in the state
legislature in Alabama.
•
Her older brother and young
neighbor (Truman Capote) are
playmates.
•
Her older brother (Jem) and
young neighbor (Dill) are
playmates.
•
Harper Lee is an avid reader as
a child.
•
Scout reads before she enters
school and reads the Mobile
Register newspaper in first grade.
•
She is six years old when the
Scottsboro trials are widely
covered in national, state and
local newspapers.
•
She is eight years old when the
trial of Tom Robinson takes place.
Conflicts
• Person versus society
• Person versus person
• Person versus self
“What did your father see in the window, the crime of rape
or the best defense to it? Why don’t you tell the truth,
child, didn’t Bob Ewell beat you up?”
—Atticus Finch questioning Mayella on the witness stand
Harper Lee’s Style
• Allusions
• Idioms
• Colloquial Language
• Autobiographical
• Symbolism
Allusions
“nothing to fear
but fear itself”
Battle of Hastings
Dracula
John Wesley
“Let the cup
pass from
you”
Rosetta stone
Indian-head
penny
Willam Jennings
Bryan
Ivanhoe
Andrew Jackson
Stonewall
Jackson
Idioms
“get Miss Maudie’s
goat”
“walked on eggs”
“set my teeth
permanently on
edge”
“break camp”
“when the chips
are down”
“he had seen the
light”
“looked daggers”
“blue in the face”
“into the limelight”
Symbolism
The Mockingbird
Tom Robinson
Boo Radley
Colloquial Language
“Hush your mouth! Don’t matter who they are,
anybody sets foot in this house’s yo’ comp’ny,
and don’t you let me catch you remarkin’ on
their ways like you was so high and mighty!”
—Calpurnia
“I scurried to my room and went to bed. Uncle
Jack was a prince of a fellow not to let me
down. But I never figured out how Atticus knew
I was listening, and it was not until many years
later that I realized he wanted me to hear every
word he said.”
—Scout
“It ain’t honest but it’s mighty helpful to folks.
Secretly, Miss Finch, I’m not much of a drinker,
but you see they could never, never understand
that I live like I do because that’s the way I want
to live.”
—Mr. Raymond
35th Anniversary of Novel
“Please spare ‘Mockingbird’ an
Introduction. As a reader I
loathe Introductions. To novels I
associate Introductions with
long-gone authors and works
that are brought back into print
after decades of Interment…
“Mockingbird” has never been
out of print and I am still alive…
It still says what it has to say; it
has managed to survive the
years without preamble.”
—Harper Lee
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Harper Lee: An Enigma
“But I think we can learn a lot about
her by reading To Kill A Mockingbird.
To think it is more autobiographical
than we realize… I suspect that she is
Scout, that Atticus Finch is her father,
and that her dear friend Truman
Capote is Dill. That is probably all she
wants us to know, and all we need to
know.”
—Judith Handschuh
In Conclusion: Harper Lee’s Legacy
• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Gives us new appreciation for
our childhood experiences
• Shows us how one’s sense of right
and wrong is learned
• Allows us to experience
destructiveness of hatred in society