Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville,
Alabama
Youngest of four children
1957 – submitted manuscript for her novel;
was urged to rewrite it
Spent over two years reworking it
1960 – To Kill a Mockingbird (her only novel)
published
1966 - was one of two persons named by
President Johnson to the National Council of
Arts
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narrator · Scout narrates the story herself, looking back in retrospect an
unspecified number of years after the events of the novel take place.
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point of view · Scout narrates in the first person, telling what she saw
and heard at the time and augmenting this narration with thoughts and
assessments of her experiences in retrospect. Although she is by no
means an omniscient narrator, she has matured considerably over the
intervening years and often implicitly and humorously comments on the
naïveté she displayed in her thoughts and actions as a young girl. Scout
mostly tells of her own thoughts but also devotes considerable time to
recounting and analyzing Jem’s thoughts and actions. It is this point of
view that reveals the genre as memoir.
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tone · Childlike, humorous, nostalgic, innocent; as the novel progresses,
increasingly dark, foreboding, and critical of society
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tense · Past
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setting (time) · 1933–1935
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setting (place) · The fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama
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protagonist · Scout Finch
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major conflict · The childhood innocence with which Scout and
Jem begin the novel is threatened by numerous incidents that
expose the evil side of human nature, most notably the guilty
verdict in Tom Robinson’s trial and the vengefulness of Bob Ewell.
As the novel progresses, Scout and Jem struggle to maintain faith
in the human capacity for good in light of these recurring
instances of human evil.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YklUzAYs9Vg (TKAM turns 50)
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TKAM has a very controversial past and
present. Due to its language content, themes
of race, class, gender, and justice, it has been,
and continues to be greatly censored in
schools.
However, it remains one of the most popular
and widely acclaimed books of all time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePMkFm1
fs0U&feature=related (Harrison Ford)
HARPER LEE’S CHILDHOOD
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Grew up in 1930s - rural southern
Alabama town
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Father - Amasa Lee - attorney
who served in state legislature in
Alabama
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Older brother and young
neighbor (Truman Capote) are
playmates
Harper Lee - an avid reader
Six years old when Scottsboro
trials were meticulously covered
in state and local newspapers
SCOUT FINCH’S CHILDHOOD
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Grew up in 1930s - rural southern
Alabama town
Father - Atticus Finch - attorney
who served in state legislature in
Alabama
Older brother and young
neighbor (Dill) are playmates
Scout reads before she enters
school; reads Mobile Register
newspaper in first grade
Six years old when the trial of
Tom Robinson takes place
Maycomb,
ALABAMA
OR
Monroeville,
ALABAMA
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There are many parallels between the trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a
Mockingbird and one of the most notorious series of trials in the nation's
history ‚ the Scottsboro Trials. On March 25, 1931, a freight train was
stopped in Paint Rock, a tiny community in Northern Alabama, and nine
young African American men who had been riding the rails were
arrested. As two white women - one underage - descended from the
freight cars, they accused the men of raping them on the train. Within a
month the first man was found guilty and sentenced to death. There
followed a series of sensational trials condemning the other men solely
on the testimony of the older woman, a known prostitute, who was
attempting to avoid prosecution under the Mann Act, prohibiting taking
a minor across state lines for immoral purposes, like prostitution.
Although none of the accused were executed, a number remained on
death row for many years. The case was not settled until 1976 with the
pardon of the last of the Scottsboro defendants.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_RoceBB7k&feature=related
THE SCOTTSBORO TRIALS
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Took place in the 1930s
Took place in northern Alabama
Began with a charge of rape made by white
women against African American men
The poor white status of the accusers was a
critical issue.
A central figure was a heroic judge, a
member of the Alabama Bar who
overturned a guilty jury verdict against
African American men.
This judge went against public sentiment in
trying to protect the rights of the African
American defendants.
The first juries failed to include any African
Americans, a situation which causeed the
U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the guilty
verdict.
The jury ignored evidence, for example,
that the women suffered no injuries.
Attitudes about Southern women and poor
whites complicated the trial.
TOM ROBINSON’S TRIAL
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Occurs in the 1930s
Takes place in southern Alabama
Begins with a charge of rape made by a
white woman against an African American
man
The poor white status of Mayella is a critical
issue.
A central figure is Atticus, lawyer, legislator
and member of the Alabama Bar, who
defends an African American man.
Atticus arouses anger in the communtiy in
trying to defend Tom Robinson.
The verdict is rendered by a jury of poor
white residents of Old Sarum.
The jury ignores evidence, for example, that
Tom has a useless left arm.
Attitudes about Southern women and poor
whites complicate the trial of Tom
This is probably
similar to how class
structure existed
during the 1930’s in
the South. The
wealthy, although
fewest in number,
were most
powerful. The
blacks, although
great in number,
were lowest on the
class ladder, and
thus, had the least
privileges.
Wealthy
Country Folk
"White Trash"
Black
Community
Examples of each social class:
Wealthy - Finches
Country Folk - Cunninghams
“White Trash” – Ewells
Black Community – Tom Robinson
Journal: What are you
thinking/feeling as you
view the following images?
A cafe near the tobacco market. (Signs:
Separate doors for "White" and for
"Colored.“) North Carolina, 1940
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Handout/Reading: Everything I Need to Know
I learned from Harper Lee:
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/everything-ineed-to-know-i-learned-from-harper-leecms-18397
Throughout the reading of this novel, you will
see how author’s ideologies (beliefs and
systems of belief) are woven in to the stories
they tell.
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Continue to ask yourself how your own
ideology plays out in your own lives, the
decisions you make, and the stories you tell.
By reading this novel, you will know from
where Lee’s beliefs about race, gender, and
class stem, and you will clearly see what it is
she values and feels is worth standing up for.
Now you need to decide for yourself what
you believe, why you hold such beliefs, and
what it is you feel is worth standing up for.
Scout (Jean Louise Finch) – six-year-old narrator of story
Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother
Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer
who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman
Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who
lives next door
Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who
comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer
Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a
white woman
Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook
"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‘0t do
one thing but sing their
hearts out for us. That's why
it's a sin to kill a
mockingbird."