Post on 31-Mar-2015
Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make
music for us to enjoy…
That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird.
To Kill A Mockingbird– Author
• Born
• Life
• Harper Lee
• 1926
• Grew up in Alabama• Lived in New York for a
Period of Time• After success of To Kill a
Mockingbird became somewhat of a recluse avoiding interviews and only writing sporadically
To Kill A Mockingbird– Response
• Critics
• Sales
• Mixed reviews upon release
• Enormous success with general population
• Has sold over 15 million copies
• One of the most popular stories read at the high school level
To Kill a Mockingbird
– Movie Version
– Other Awards
• Starred Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch
• Academy Award-winning film
• Won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961
• To Kill a Mockingbird– Background Information
• Probably at least partly based on Lee’s own experiences growing up in Alabama
• During Lee’s youth she witnessed the famous Scottsboro Trial – In the trial black men were
accused of raping 2 white women and were unfairly sentenced
– The result of the Scottsboro trial is largely thought to be inspiration for Lee’s novel
• Literary Focus– Published
– Genre
– Setting (PLACE)
• 1960
• Social Protest; courtroom drama
• Maycomb, Alabama
– Slow and old-fashioned; slightly backwards; still has very strong racist elements
• Literary Focus
– Setting (TIME)
– Point of View
• 1933-1935• Maycomb is struggling
mightily through the Great Depression
• Scout Finch’s 1st Person Point of View– Told from the Point of View
of Scout as an adult reflecting back on her childhood experiences and growth
• Overview • Scout Finch is the narrator of the story and opens the novel as an adult woman reflecting back on key events in her childhood.
• The novel covers a two-year period during Scout’s youth and focuses on her maturation from an innocent child to someone who witnesses both the good and evil of man’s nature
• She lives with her father, Atticus, a widowed lawyer, and her older brother, Jem
• Overview– Part I: The Reclusive Boo
Radley
– Part II: The Trial of Tom Robinson
• The novel is divided into two primary sections: – Part I: The focus is on the
Scout and Jem’s fascination with a reclusive neighbor named Boo Radley.
– Scout, Jem and a close friend, Dill, develop a strange relationship with Boo over the course of the novel
– Part II: The focus is on the trial of Tom Robinson, who is accused of raping a white woman. Scout’s father, Atticus, defends Tom. The family must deal with the racial repercussions that follow.
• Themes and Conflicts • Racism• Unfair Judgment• Social Structures• Sympathy and
Understanding• Moral Nature of Man• Childhood Innocence• Human Capacity for
Goodness versus Human Capacity for Evil
• Moral Education versus Academic Education
• Literary Focus– Symbols
• Mockingbirds
• Symbolize the innocence and kind nature of many individuals
• “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but…sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
• A large majority of the novel focuses on the sin of injuring those individuals who who are innocent and “mockingbirds.”
• Some of these “mockingbirds” include both Boo Bradley and Tom Robinson
• Characters– Scout Finch
• Narrator and protagonist
• Intelligent and tough; tomboy
• Loses some of her innocence throughout the novel and sees that all men are not necessarily good
• Atticus Finch • Scout and Jem’s father
• Widowed• Respected lawyer,
who has a strong beliefs connect to morality and justice
• Jem Finch • Scout’s brother• 4 years older than
Scout and grows away from her imaginative games as the novel progresses
• Guards Scout and is protective of her
• Dill Harris • Loosely based on the famous writer Truman Capote
• Summer friend to Jem and Scout
• Confident and imaginative
• Boo Radley • Reclusive neighbor of Jem and Scout
• Product of an abusive childhood and family
• Symbolically a “mockingbird”—an innocent torn down by the unkind acts of others
• Tom Robinson • A black man accused of raping a white woman
• Tom’s generous nature and responsibility stand in sharp contrast to the lies and irresponsibility of the people who have accused him of breaking the law