To Kill a Mockingbird
- 1. Introduction:To Kill a MockingbirdBy HarperLee
- 2. SETTING OF THE NOVELSouthern United States1930’sGreat DepressionPrejudice and legal segregationIgnorance
- 4. 1930’s - Great Depression began when the stock market crashed in October, 1929 Businesses failed, factories closedPeople were out of workEven people with money suffered because nothing was being produced for sale. Poor people lost their homes, were forced to “live off the land.”
- 5. Social Class in the NovelThis 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. Examples of each social class:Wealthy - FinchesCountry Folk - Cunninghams“White Trash” – EwellsBlack Community – Tom Robinson
- 6. Racial prejudice was alive & well. Although slavery had ended in 1864, old ideas were slow to change.
- 8. Gender Bias (Prejudice)Women were considered “weak”Women were generally not educated for occupations outside the homeIn wealthy families, women were expected to oversee the servants and entertain guests Men not considered capable of nurturing children
- 9. Legal Issues of the 1930’s which impact the storyWomen given the vote in 1920Juries were MALE and WHITE “Fair trial” did not include acceptance of a black man’s word against a white man’s
- 10. Legal Segregation in Alabama, 1923-1940No white female nurses in hospitals that treat black menSeparate passenger cars for whites and blacksSeparate waiting rooms for whites and blacksSeparation of white and black convictsSeparate schoolsNo interracial marriagesSegregated water fountains Segregated theatres
- 11. Prejudice in the novelRaceGenderHandicapsRich/PoorAgeReligion
- 12. Main CharactersScout (Jean Louise Finch) – six years, old narrator of story
- 13. Jem (Jeremy Finch) – her older brother
- 14. Atticus Finch – Jem and Scout’s father, a prominent lawyer who defends a black man accused of raping a white woman
- 15. Arthur (Boo) Radley – a thirty-three-year-old recluse who lives next door
- 16. Charles Baker (Dill) Harris – Jem and Scout’s friend who comes to visit his aunt in Maycomb each summer
- 17. Tom Robinson – a respectable black man accused of raping a white woman
- 18. Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cookLanguageSometimes the language of Scout will be that of her as a child; other times, she will be speaking in the voice of an adultAtticus uses formal speechCalpurnia uses “white language” in the Finch house and switches to “black jargon” when amidst blacksThe Ewells use foul words and obscenitiesJem, Scout, and Dill will use slang words, typical of their ageTom Robinson uses language typical of the southern black such as “suh” for “sir” and “chillun” for “children”Various derogatory terms for blacks will be used such as “nigger,” “darky,” “Negroes,” and “colored folk” – Lee uses such language to keep her novel naturally in sync with common language of the times
- 19. Reading NotesWhile you are reading, take notes on the following five topics:InjusticeJem and Scout growing upWords of WisdomConflictFamily relations
- 20. "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't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."