Notes on To Kill a Mockingbird

1. Notes on To Kill a Mockingbird 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.

2. Author • Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama in 1926. • Her novel was published in 1960 but is set in the 1930’s. • The novel is loosely based on Lee’s experiences, family, and acquaintances. • Lee’s novel mirrors the major social issues and attitudes of her time period.

3. Background • The novel is set during the Great Depression. • Millions of Americans lost jobs, homes, land, and dignity. • Many people lived in flimsy shacks and stood in bread lines to receive food handouts from the government.

4. Background Continued • At the beginning of the Great Depression, half of the African American population lived in the South. • Few jobs available to anyone—blacks were often edged out by whites for even the poorest paying jobs. • Racial tensions increased greatly

5. Background Continued: • Segregation still existed in the South during the 1930’s. • Schools, restaurants, churches, courtrooms, hospitals, and other public places had separate facilities for African Americans.

6. Background continued: • After a fight erupted between African Americans and Caucasians on railroad boxcar in 1931, the Caucasians involved falsely accused the African Americans of raping two females that were present. Scottsboro Nine

7. Background continued: • Nine African Americans were arrested and charged. • Trials were held for over five years. • Despite evidence of innocence, 8 out of 9 were found guilty and sentenced to die. • The case was appealed to the Supreme Court. • 4 out of the 9 were freed and the others were sentenced to long prison terms.

8. Historical Correlationbetween novel and time period • Scottsboro Trials share several similarities with the fictional trial of Tom Robinson in To Kill a Mockingbird. • The crime each defendant is accused of committing is the same. • Racial Tension • Both have white juries • In the South in the 30s, Blacks were usually excluded from serving on juries. • Atticus Finch (the fictional character) and Judge James E Horton are quite similar. • Both act in the interest of justice

9. At a White House ceremony in 2007, President Bush awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to author Harper Lee. Bush praised Lee’s book as a “gift to the entire world” and one that “has influenced the character of our country for the better.”