To Kill a Mockingbird Notes

1. To Kill a Mockingbird Notes • Author: Harper Lee • Setting: Story begins in the year 1933 in Maycomb County, Alabama. The U.S. was in the midst of the Great Depression. Many people were unemployed and had little money. • Race relations were strained. African Americans and women did not have the same social standing as whites and men. • The novel is written using dialect: a regional variety of language; language used by a particular group or class of people

2. Characters • Scout (Jean Louise Finch): Atticus’s young daughter who is the narrator of the story. • Jem Finch: Scout’s brother, 4 years older than she is. • Atticus Finch: Scout and Jem’s father, a lawyer in a small southern town. • Calpurnia: The Negro cook who has been responsible for raising the Finch children. • Dill (Charles Baker Harris): Scout and Jem’s friend who lives in Mississippi but comes every summer to Maycomb; he’s 1 year older than Scout.

3. Boo Radley (Arthur): The mysterious neighbor whom the children have never seen. • Miss Rachel: Dill’s aunt who lives next door to the Finches • Mr. Nathan Radley: Stern, distant brother of Boo who seldom speaks even though he is seen every day. • Miss Stephanie Crawford: a gossipy neighbor who knows the family histories of the entire neighborhood.

4. Mrs. Dubose: An old lady who lives down the street and screams at the children as they pass her house. • Miss Maudie Atkinson: a neighbor lady who is very open-minded and well liked by Jem and Scout. • Mr. Walter Cunningham: an upright farmer who refused to accept charity and trades crops to pay debts. • Walter Cunningham: Son of above who doesn’t have money to buy his lunch. • Heck Tate: The sheriff who is a good friend of the Finchs. • Dolphus Raymond: kind wealthy white man who lives with, and has children with, a black woman