To Kill a Mockingbird
a Southern Gothic Novel by Harper Lee
Harper Lee
Born April 28, 1926
About the author
 Harper Lee grew up in Monroeville, Alabama
 Her father, a lawyer and state legislator, was a
descendant of General Robert E Lee
 Lee was an avid reader and from a young age wanted
to become a writer
 Attended University of Alabama and later moved to
NYC to pursue a writing career
 After two years of writing and revising, To Kill a
Mockingbird was published in 1960
About the novel
 To Kill a Mockingbird was an immediate success
 Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961
 Voted best novel of the century by Library Journal in 1999
 1991 survey by the Library of Congress asked readers to
rank books that had made a significant difference in their
lives. TKM ranked second after the Bible.
 TKM is the only novel Lee ever published
 For more than 40 years, Lee has declined to comment on
her novel, letting it speak for itself
Gothic Literature
 Gothic Literature is defined as
 Germanic and medieval
 Popular in the early 19th century
 Common characteristics like brooding atmosphere,
haunted castles/mansions, isolated settings, ghosts,
spirits, vampires, mysterious
disappearances/reappearances, supernatural
occurrences, sensational plot lines
 Central Aim – to evoke terror in its reader
American Gothic
 Mid 18th century onwards
 Teresa A Goddu suggests that the gothic has “an
intimate relation to the romance” and thus “American
literature is infiltrated by the popular, the disturbing, and
the hauntings of history.”
 She further suggests that “American gothic literature
criticizes America’s national myth of new-world
innocence by voicing the cultural contradictions that
undermine the nation’s claim to purity and equality.”
American Gothic Cont.
 “Showing how these contradictions contest and
constitute national identity even as they are denied, the
gothic tells of the historical horrors that make national
identity possible yet must be repressed in order to
sustain it.”
 Examples of contemporary American gothic include the
horror fiction of Stephen King and the vampire fiction
of Anne Rice
Southern Gothic
 Often seen as the primary site of American gothic
because the South is the repository of values and
attributes not necessarily welcome in the rest of the
country
 Edgar Allan Poe cited as the first writer of gothic and
his status as a Southerner makes him the first southern
gothic writer
 Issues of race, alienation, and otherness are central to
southern gothic
Southern Gothic Cont.
 Toni Morrison, in Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the
Literary Imagination (1992), wrote:
 Black slavery enriched the country’s creative
possibilities. For in that construction of blackness and
enslavement could be found not only the not-free but also,
with the dramatic polarity created by skin color, the
projection of the not-me. The result was a playground for
the imagination. What rose up out of collective needs to
allay internal fears and to rationalize exploitation was an
American Africanism – a fabricated brew of darkness,
otherness, alarm and desire that is uniquely American.
(Quoted by Goddu, 74)
Southern Gothic Cont.
 "My mother, Southern to the bone, once told me all
Southern literature can be summed up in these words:
`On the night the hogs ate Willie, Mama died when she
heard what Daddy did to Sister.'" Pat Conroy From the
South Watch web page
(http://www.uncg.edu/~rsginghe/far9596.htm)
Gothic Elements in TKM
 Race: Trial of Tom Robinson based on deep racial fears
 Otherness: Boo Radley is an unseen and unknown figure hence
he is a ghost like presence in the novel; the Ewells, Cunninghams
and other country folk are the others to Scout
 Alienation: many characters are profoundly alienated from their
culture – Scout, Atticus, Miss Maudie, Mrs. Dubose
 Setting: the crumbling mansions and homes of the south, as well
as the crumbling southern way of life, are analogous to the castles
and medieval settings of British gothic
 Hauntings and the Supernatural: the mysterious gifts in the
knothole in the tree, the rescue from the murder attempt, these are
examples of supernatural like events
Style
 Bildungsroman: “novel of education” or “novel of formation” – Lee
chooses a form of fiction that explicitly deals with the maturation of
its protagonist
 Protagonist - Hero
 Antagonist - Villain
 Duality: the novel is structured at virtually every level around
dualities. The tension created by the opposition of themes,
narrative points of view, communities, genders and so on provides
a cohesiveness in the novel.
 Narration: double-layered narration is used. The mature Scout
explicitly tells the story at the outset of the novel and at its end. In
the middle, the story is told from the perspective of Scout as a
child. However, there are points in the novel where the two
narrators are almost co-existing.
Possible Conflicts
 Jem breaking his arm
 Radley house – explanation left unfinished; mystery
 Miss Caroline? Might be an antagonist.
Style Cont.
 Language: Lee employs colloquial language – esp. in
the speech of the characters (dialogue) and in the
descriptions of setting
 Metaphors: Lee employs several central metaphors in
the novel:
 Mockingbird
 Snowman
 Mad dog
 Boo Radley
 Clothing – esp. Scout’s clothes
 Buildings
Theme
 Theme is the underlying meaning of the story, a
universal truth, a significant statement the story is
making about society, human nature, or the human
condition.
 The theme of a fable is its moral. The theme of a
parable is its teaching. The theme of a piece of fiction is
its view about life and how people behave.
Theme Continued
 In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach.
In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it
from the characters, action, and setting that make up
the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme
yourself.
 The writer's task is to communicate on a common
ground with the reader. Although the particulars of your
experience may be different from the details of the
story, the general underlying truths behind the story
may be just the connection that both you and the writer
are seeking.
Themes
 Race Relations
 History vs. the Present
 Growing up
 Conformity vs. Individuality
 Search for Identity
 Gender Roles
 America divided
 Stereotypes Exposed
 Justice vs. the Law
 Myths of Childhood
 Innocence
 Compassion
 Education
 Prejudice/Discrimination
 Good vs Evil
 Social Inequality
 Morals
 Courage/Bravery
Characters
 Scout – narrator; girl; 6 years old; good reader; first
grade; teacher doesn’t like her; her teacher is
threatened by Scout’s intelligence; Finch;
 Finch Family – Simon Finch was stingy. Methodist.
Pious. Owned slaves. Trapper. apothecary (old time
pharmacist). Died rich. Land rich.
 Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s Dad. Lawyer
(attorney).
 Atticus’ brother (John Hale Finch) - doctor
Charcters
 Jem – boy; 5th grade; 10 years old; Scout’s older
brother; broke his arm; loves football; doesn’t want to
hang with Scout at school; close to Scout at home
 Dill – neighbor (summer with Miss Rachel); boy; friends
with Jem and Scout; curious boy; points out mysteries
in neighborhood; 7 years old; little; Southern; talkative;
Charles Baker Harris
 Miss Caroline Fisher – Scout’s teacher; doesn’t like
Scout because Scout already knows how to read; 21;
high heels; peppermint; bad first impression
Characters
 Arthur “Boo” Radley – Son of Mr. Radley. Lives in the
Radley house. Neighbor to Jem and Scout. High
strung at times. Mr. Radley locked him away and for 15
years he was never seen. One day, Boo stabbed his
dad. He was 33 years old.
 Calpurnia – Finch’s cook; woman; teaches Jem and
Scout handwriting; like a mother to Jem and Scout;
strong; black
Compassion
 Thematic Statement:
 A lot, some none
 Finches have much compassion
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Each other
Tom Robinson
Tom’s family
Calpurnia
Atticus to kids
Boo
Neighbors – Mrs. Dubose
Compassion
 Compassion: a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow
for anothwho is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by
a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.
 Aunt Alexandra
 Towards Scout; Motherless/ Tomboy
 Tom Robison has compassion for Mayella
 Scout has compassion for Jem – wants to help him heal
Compassion
 Atticus has compassion for Boo
 Sheriff has compassion for Boo – Mr. Ewell “fell on his
knife”
 Boo has compassion for the kids – saves them from Mr.
Ewell
 Atticus has compassion for the Cunnighams. Accepts
food from Mr. C for legal service.
 Mr. C has compassion for Atticus when the mob came.
Compassion
 Black community have compassion for Atticus –
reverse racism for defending Tom; stand and support
him as he leaves the courtroom.
 Rev Sykes towards the kids – let’s them sit with him in
the courtroom.
 Atticus has compassion for Dill – he treats him as one
of his own
 Miss Rachel – let’s Dill stay for the summer
 Aunt Alexandra has compassion for Atticus – hard to be
a single parent
Compassion
 Thematic Statement:

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Compassion can be expressed in many different ways.
We all need to have compassion for others.
We comes in different ways and towards different people.
Different people show compassion in different ways.
We all need to have compassion for others because it
encourages others and makes them feel good.
 If you have compassion, you will go far in life.