To Kill a Mockingbird
By Harper Lee
Why Do We Read To Kill A
Mockingbird?
• We can all agree on a few things…..racism
exists….we hate it, but it does.
• Racism is not just about color. It is about gender,
age, economic status….etc.
• The great Abraham Heschel once said, “Racism is
man’s gravest threat for a minimum of reason.”
• The truth is that people hate. There is never a good
reason, time, or place, but hatred rules this world.
Even though hating someone takes more energy,
people, sadly, prefer to hate rather than love.
Why Do We Read To Kill A Mockingbird?
• During the 1960’s, when Harper Lee wrote To Kill A
Mockingbird, she wasn’t just talking about racism. She wanted
to open the nation’s eyes to the fact that hatred existed in every
corner of the most secret and exposed portions of our lives.
• Harper Lee wanted to make the world take a hard look, not at
just racism, but hate. Why we hate and how we can change the
world if we take off our blinders and love the way we were
intended to love….without noticing color, gender, age, or
economic status.
• So, to answer the question, why do we read To Kill A
Mockingbird? The simple truth is that we still believe in the
world that Harper Lee believed could exist. A world that
looked past all the hatred and where for once love triumphed
over hatred.
A Few More Truths…
• Harper Lee never wrote another book…To Kill A
Mockingbird was her one and only, her biggest
message to the world.
• It has never been out of print. The only book to ever
outsell To Kill A Mockingbird is the Bible.
• There are words in this novel, just like any novel,
that are not appropriate and will be offensive. We
understand that Harper Lee is making a point, but I
won’t say them and you won’t say them….PERIOD.
• This book has stood the test of time…there is a
reason for that….figure it out.
Background….Where did Harper
Lee get her ideas?
SETTING OF THE NOVEL
Maycomb, Alabama
1930’s
– Great Depression
– Prejudice and
legal segregation
– Ignorance
1930’s – The Great Depression
began when the stock market
crashed in October, 1929
• Businesses failed,
factories closed
– People were out of work
– Even people with money
suffered because
nothing was being
produced for sale.
•
Poor people lost their
homes, were forced to
“live off the land.”
Racial prejudice was alive & well.
Although slavery had ended in 1864,
old ideas were slow to change.
Racial separation: Segregation
Gender Bias or 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 were not considered capable of
nurturing children
• Women were “encouraged” not to take
work away from men. Some states passed
laws against women working.
“White trash”
• Poor, uneducated white people who
lived on “relief “
– lowest social class, even below the poor
blacks
– prejudiced against black people
– felt the need to “put down” blacks in
order to elevate themselves
Legal issues of the 1930’s
which impact the story
• Women given the
right to vote in
1920
• Juries were MALE
and WHITE
• “Fair trial” did not
include acceptance
of a black man’s
word against a
white man’s
Prejudice in the novel
Race
Gender
Handicaps
Rich/Poor
Age
Religion
Scottsboro Trial
• 1931—9 black males ages 13 to 21 were arrested
while “riding the rails” for raping two women.
• After a quick trial (two weeks after their arrest)
all were found guilty and 8 sentenced to be
executed with the youngest sentenced to life
imprisonment—these verdicts were overturned by
a higher court
• One of the two women recanted her “story” and
testified at a second trial that neither she nor the
other woman had been raped
• In 1936, 4 of the men were acquitted (found
innocent). Four more were released in the 1940s
and the ninth man was released from prison in
1950.
• In 1976, the men were officially pardoned by the
state of Alabama. Only one still survived.
Characters
• Atticus Finch - an attorney whose
wife has died, leaving him to raise
their two children:
– Jem – 10-year-old boy
– Scout – (Jean Louise), 6-year-old girl
• Tom Robinson – a black man accused
of raping a white girl; he is defended
at trial by Atticus
Point of View
• First person
– Story is told by Scout, a 6-year-old girl
at the beginning of the novel
– Harper Lee is a woman; Scout represents
the author as a little girl, although the
story is not strictly autobiographical
Reading the Novel
• Setting is all important –be aware of the
“where” and “when” as you begin
• Point of View – the novel is shaped by the
voice of a young girl who sees the story
from a position of naive acceptance
• “Goodness vs. Ignorance or Evil” is an
important theme