To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee

Harper Lee§Born on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama

§Died on February 19, 2016

§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 published

§2015- Go Set a Watchman published

Setting

§Maycomb, Alabama

§1930’s—The Great Depression

Main Characters§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/housekeeper

Autobiographical?® Maycomb, AL is based on Monroeville, AL where

Lee grew up

® Finch was Lee’s mother’s maiden name—it’s the last name of the main character, Scout

® Lee’s father was a lawyer—so is the main character’s father, Atticus Finch

® Lee would have been about the same age as Scout when the Scottsboro Trials took place—similar to the trial in the book

® One of Lee’s childhood friend’s was Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood—the character of Dill is based on him

The Scottsboro Trial® On March 25, 1931, a fight broke out between two groups of

boys, one white, one black, on a train heading from Tennessee to Alabama

® When the train arrived, nine blacks were arrested and held for trial for allegedly raping two white women

® The trial began on April 6, 1931 and lasted 4 days

® Despite conflicting stories and a very weak case against the boys, they were found guilty and sentenced to death

® The case went through a lengthy appeals process, but most of the accused remained in jail for a decade

® It was the word of two white women against the word of the black men, and at the time, that was just part of the problem

Jim Crow laws® Enacted in 1877

® Brought about the segregation of whites and blacks in all aspects of life:

• Transportation

• Cemeteries

• Schools

• Parks

• Theaters

• Restaurants

Social Classes in the South

® “Old Family”—upper class; proud of their ancestry; try to preserve the pre-Civil War values of elegant Southern society

® “Poverty”—hard-working whites, often farmers, who had to struggle to make ends meet

® “Blacks”—worked mainly as servants or farm laborers; often subjected to deprivation and humiliation

Ë Racial prejudice was very evident—this can be seen throughout the novel