To Kill a Mockingbird
By: Harper Lee
OVERVIEW OF THE NOVEL
• AUTHOR: Harper Lee
• PUBLICATION DATE: 1960
• SETTING: Maycomb, Alabama 1933-1935
• POINT OF VIEW: First person narrative
• THEMES:
– Lack of need for human compassion.
– Need for individual conscience.
HARPER LEE
(Nellie) Harper Lee
BORN: April 28, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH: Monroe, Alabama
PARENTS: Amasa C. and Frances (Finch)
Lee.
•
Related to Robert E. Lee.
•
•
•
•
AWARDS
• 1960 Pulitzer Prize for
Distinguished Fiction by an
American author
• National Conference of Christian
and Jews Brotherhood Award
• Paperback of the Year Award
• Book-of-the-Month Club
EDUCATION
• Monroe, Alabama Public School
• Huntington College in
Montgomery, Alabama
(1944)
• attended Oxford College one year
as a Fullbright scholar
AUTHOR’S LINKS TO THE NOVEL’S
PLOT AND CHARACTERS
• Harper Lee’s father was a Southern lawyer. He
served as the prototype for Atticus Finch.
• Harper Lee’s age (6 to 8) correlates with Scout’s age
during 1933-1935, the time period of the book.
• The courtroom in Maycomb is patterned after the
one in Monroeville where Harper Lee observed her
father in courtroom proceedings.
• Tom Robinson’s trial appears to be a composite of
many trials in the South, specifically the Scottsboro
trials.
• Some of the novel’s characters are composites of
people Harper Lee knew personally; for example, the
author Truman Capote as Dill.
CHARACTERS
• ATTICUS FINCH – lawyer, father of Scout
and Jem; widower
CHARACTERS
• JEAN LOUISE “SCOUT” FINCH – adult
narrator as story begins; narrates
story in retrospect; relates events that
begin when she is 6 years old.
CHARACTERS
• JEM FINCH – Scout’s brother, who is 4
years older than she.
CHARACTERS
• CHARLES BAKER “DILL” HARRIS – 7year-old visitor to Maycomb; acts as a
catalyst
MORE CHARACTERS
• ARTHUR “BOO” RADLEY –
neighborhood recluse
MORE CHARACTERS
• CALPURNIA – the black housekeeper for
the Finch family
MORE CHARACTERS
• AUNT ALEXANDRA – Scout & Jem’s
aunt
MORE CHARACTERS
• MAUDIE ATKINSON – friend and
neighbor of Finch family
MORE CHARACTERS
• TOM ROBINSON – black man
accused of raping a white girl
MORE CHARACTERS
• MAYELLA EWELL – the girl who
accuses Tom of rape
• BOB EWELL – Mayella’s father
MORE CHARACTERS
• HECK TATE – sheriff of Maycomb
ATTICUS
Justice
JEM
Innocence
SCOUT
DILL
CALPURNIA
&
Helpfulness
MAUDIE
CHARACTERS
AS
SYMBOLS
BOB
Bigotry
&
Or
Mayella
Prejudice
Ewell
TOM
ROBINSON
Helplessness
&
BOO
Major Historical Happenings that
Impact the Novel...
• Jim Crow
Laws/Racial
Injustice
• Scottsboro Trials
• Recovering from
the Great
Depression/Poor
South
• Gender Bias
Jim Crow
"Jim Crow" was a fixture of the
minstrel shows that toured the
South in which a white man,
dressed up as a black man,
sang and mimicked stereotypical
behavior in the name of comedy.
Sheet music cover
illustration with
caricatures of
ragged AfricanAmerican
musicians and
dancers.
1847
Jim Crow Laws
• After the American Civil War most
states in the South passed anti-African
American legislation. These became
known as Jim Crow laws.
• These laws included segregation in…
– Schools
-- Hospitals
– Theaters
-- Water fountains
– Restaurants
– Hotels
– Public transportation
– Some states forbid inter-racial marriages
SAMPLE LAWS
•The officer in charge shall not bury, or allow to be buried,
any colored persons upon ground set apart or used for the
burial of white persons.
•It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play
together or in company with each other at any game of pool or
billiards.
•It shall be unlawful for any amateur white baseball team to
play baseball on any vacant lot or baseball diamond within
two blocks of a playground devoted to the Negro race, and it
shall be unlawful for any amateur colored baseball team to
play baseball in any vacant lot or baseball diamond within
two blocks of any playground devoted to the white race.
•Books shall not be interchangeable between the white and
colored schools, but shall continue to be used by the race first
using them. (North Carolina)
Waco, Texas
1939
Memphis, Tennessee
1943
Durham, North Carolina
1940
So, what was the punishment for
breaking a Jim Crow law?
Whipping
Intimidation
The costumes and
rituals of the new Ku
Klux Klan became
symbols of terror in
America during the
first three decades of
the twentieth century.
(1915). The new Klan
spread all over the
nation with a
membership
numbering over three
million in the 1920s.
Cross Burning
FICTIONAL BEGINNING
• 1905 The Clansman written
by Thomas Dixon – modern
father of the Ku Klux Klan.
• 1915 Birth of a Nation –
movie based on above book.
• Ku Klux Klan adopted the
ritual as a means of
intimidation and violence.
Lynching
(the illegal execution
of an accused person by a mob )
These laws were instituted in 1896 and
were not abolished till the late 1950’s
(even then still not completely).
• 9 young AfricanAmerican men (1320) accused of raping
2 white girls in 1931
• Immediately
sentenced to death
• Trials went on for
nearly 15 years
before all the men
were dismissed
• Started on a train bound for Memphis
• Several white men boarded and picked a fight
with the black men
• Whites were forced off train by the 12 black
men. The white men reported the black men
had raped two white girls on the train to
authorities
• They were immediately arrested and tried in
front of an all-white jury.
The Great Depression
1929-1939
• Stock market
crash
• Didn’t realize the
effect it would
have
• No money to
replenish what
was borrowed
Many found being broke
humiliating.
Why was this bad?
• Credit system
– People didn’t really have
the money they were
spending
• WWI
– The U.S. was a major
credit loaner to other
nations in need
– Many of these nations
could not pay us back
• Farmers were already feeling the effects
– Prices of crops went down
– Many farms foreclosed
• People could not afford luxuries
– Factories shut down
– Businesses went out
• Banks could not pay out money
• People could not pay their taxes
– Schools shut down due to lack of funds
• Many families became homeless and had to
live in shanties
Many waited in unemployment lines
hoping for a job.
People in cities would wait in line for bread
to bring to their family.
Some families were forced to relocate because
they had no money.
A drought in the South lead to dust
storms that destroyed crops.
“The Dust Bowl”
The South Was Buried
•
•
•
•
•
Crops turned to dust=No food to be sent out
Homes buried
Fields blown away
South in state of emergency
Dust Bowl the #1 weather crisis of the 20th
century
The Roaring 20’s
• The new concept of
“credit”
• People were buying:
– Automobiles
– Appliances
– Clothes
• Fun times reigned
– Dancing
– Flappers
– Drinking
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
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
(Prediction)
1. What was America like during the time of
this book?
2. What experiences and people did Harper
Lee rely on in order to develop her plot
and characters?
3. Is there still prejudice in America today?
4. **What is the significance of the title with
regards to the plot and symbolism?