Notes: To Kill a Mockingbird Mooritian
Background Text Analysis:
 Many different cover designs for the novel – 5 different covers
 Harper Lee – this is her only novel – wrote it to make a point not to make money
Genre #1
 Coming-of-Age novel:
 Over the course of the novel, Scout (narrator) learns to act in a more adult way, even a more ladylike way, and to see the people around her as actual human beings
 While Scout and Jem face some disappointments as they learn more about how their world works, they also develop identities that might be able to hold back the world’s darker influences.
 Begs the questions: It is possible to become an adult, to join an adult community, and still keep a child’s sensitivity to injustice.
Genre #2
 Considered a Southern Gothic novel:
 Haunted house
 Fear of ghosts
 Inexplicable human evil
 Terrifying nightmare encounters
 All of this is offset by humor as well
Key Conflicts
 Man vs. Society
 Prejudices, and the values that the society holds
 The individual that poses a different view than the society is discriminated against
 Man vs. Man
 Vengeful – getting back at someone for a wrong
 Present due to a feud, disagreement with principles or an actual physical confrontation, expressed and enacted in varying ways
Major Issues
 Flawed Education
 Tom Robinson’s innocence – Racism
 Atticus’ hidden courage – Tolerance
 Mob Mentality – Racism in Numbers
 Social Class Division
 Jem and Sout’s experiences with Boo Radley – Lessons Learned
 Mrs. Dubose’s Mentality – Old School vs. New School

 The Cunningham’s Financial Status s. The Ewell’s Financial Status
Social Class in the Novel: 1930’s in the South
 Wealthy – represented by the Finches
 Country Folk – represented by the Cunningham’s
 Low Class Whites – represented by the Ewell’s
 Black Community – represented by Tom Robinson
The largest group is the Black Community – but they are on the bottom of the pyramid of society.
The Wealthy Class is the top of the pyramid – it is the smallest group of people.
Living in a world of Discrimination: Alabama 1930’s
 Restaurant – has two doors – one for Whites and one for “Colored”
 Prices are different at the same restaurant
 Different titles or names on the window of the restaurant – “Farmer’s Café” sounds nicer than the other “Quick Lunch” .
Writing Style:
 First Person Point of View (limited)
 Scout as narrator - doesn’t comment much on the action – just presents what happens as a series of facts – Remembers things in a childish way (like
Hughes’ “Salvation”) but it is told by an older Scout, looking back.
 Note: In this way, the narration presents a sort of “doubled” perspective on the events.
Jim Crow South
 Found in Southern USA
 Separate but Equal
Minstrel Shows:
 Jim Crow song, by Rice, a white man wearing blackface makeup
 Jim Crow character – does a song and dance routine, from Louisville to
Cincinnati to Pittsburg to Philadelphia.
 Used Jim Crow as a racial epithet or racial slur- not as offensive as the word
“nigger” but offensive.
 Rice and his imitators, by their stereotypical depictions of Blacks perpetuated and popularized the belief that Blacks were inherently less human and therefore unworthy of integration.
What were the Jim Crow Laws?
 1880’s – 1960’s

 Majority of American states enforced segregation through “Jim Crow” laws
(so called after a black character in minstrel shows).
 Many states (and cities, too) could impose legal punishments on people for consorting with members of another race.
 The most common types of laws forbade intermarriage and ordered business owners and public institutions to keep their businesses separate.
 How do the Jim Crow Laws come to be?
 Media (radio shows, TV)
 History – Civil War 1845 Salves set Free – South Loses
 Most states in South pass anti-African American legislation
 Propaganda (posters, cartoons, signs)
 Pop Culture (music, novels, art)
 Novel 1905 - The Clansman by Thomas Dixon, describes blacks as “half-child, half-animal” acts on impulse, described at a savage brute.
 This aggravates the fear in people –
 Newspapers, news – fear mongering of the news, sensationalism
 Movie – Birth of a Nation – a girl is raped, both girl and mother commit suicide. – A black man is lynched by the KKK – The book The Clansman was the model for Birth of a Nation.
 Native Son – another book about a white woman raped by a black man
 1903 – Dr. Wm. Howard in his journal – stated that Black men can not help themselves, it is their birthright to attack white women, “sexual madness and excess”.
 Emmit Till
 1955 – a black 14 yr old is beaten to death by a white man for saying something they thought was inappropriate, he may have referred to the woman as “Baby”. When done he threw his body in the river.
 Blacks were not allowed to vote:
 Voting privileges were restricted
 Marriage laws, merchants, societal
 Education
 Scottsboro Boys:
 9 Black men are convicted of raping two white girls (poor white trash).
 A New York lawyer came to represent them – lost the case
 This case was Harper Lee’s inspiration for To Kill a Mockingbird.