English I Honors

1. English I Honors • Bellringer • Finish pre-reading activity • Mockingbird Intro Notes • Reading groups

2. Bellringer "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Coleridge is an excellent poem about some freaky things that happen to this guy while on a boat.Read the following excerpt:“Water, water, everywhere,And all the boards did shrink;Water, water, everywhere,Nor any drop to drink.” What is the above an example of? a. hyperbole b. imagery c. situational irony d. unreliable narrator

3. Yesterday’s groups of 3 • Discuss your given question as a group and be ready to provide a meaningful answer. • You can share personal experiences, relate the topic to something we have read before, or just share what you discussed as a group.

4. To Kill a Mockingbird: Notes • This is the background information you will be expected to know. • I will tell you what the most important information is

5. By Harper Lee

6. Harper Lee • Born April 28th, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama • To Kill a Mockingbird (Lee’s only published novel) was published in 1960 • Youngest of four children • Won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961, Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007 (Highest civilian award in U.S.) • Over 30 million copies, 40 different languages, 80 weeks on the best seller list

7. POINT OF VIEW • 1st Person • Story told by Scout • Bildungsroman--a “coming of age story” • Harper Lee is a woman and Scout represents her as a child; although the story is not strictly autobiographical

8. SETTING • “Maycomb”, Alabama • Monroeville • 1930’s • Great Depression • Prejudice and legal segregation

9. 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 • 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 • Calpurnia – the Finches’ black cook

10. 1930’s – Great Depression Began when the stock market crashed in October 1929 • Businesses failed, factories closed • People were out of work • Even people with money suffered because nothing was being produced for sale • Poor people lost their homes and were forced to “live off the land.”

11. Racial prejudice was alive and well. Although slavery had ended in 1864 , old ideas were slow to change.

12. Social Class is Maycomb, Alabama Families reputations are based on how long the family has lived in Maycomb. Black people are in the lower class. Drunks are in the lower class. Prejudice, racism, and discrimination are sociably accepted. Girls are to be ladies and boys are to be gentlemen. Kids go through phases, including swearing and fighting. Politeness and being social are necessities. Generally, black people worked as servants and laborers. Children respect their elders. Girls should wear dresses and boys shouldwear pants.

13. Legal Issues of the 1930’s that impact the story • Women given the vote in 1920 • Juries were MALE and WHITE • “Fair trial” did not include acceptance of a black man’s word against a white man’s

14. Gender Bias (Prejudice) • Women were considered “weak” • Women were generally not educated for occupations outside the home • In wealthy families, women were expected to oversee the servants and entertain guests • Men not considered capable of nurturing children

15. Themes & Topics

16. Prejudice as a theme

17. To Kill a Mockingbird takes place in the South during the 1930’s. In those years, many Southern states still followed a policy of racial segregation.

18. True or False? • Black people during the 1930’s could not speak to white people on the street. • TRUE: Although there was no law stating this; it was not socially accepted. White people would often walk right passed as if not seeing anyone.

19. True or False? • Blacks and whites attended separate schools during the Great Depression. • TRUE: School segregation wasn’t legally abolished until 1954 with the Supreme Court’s decision that schools could no longer be segregated in Brown v. Board of Education.

20. True or False? • Blacks and whites lived in separate parts of town. • TRUE: Although in the novel Calpurnia spends the night at the Finches to help out, the Finches had no black neighbors in the part of Maycomb that they resided. Blacks lived on the outskirts of town.

21. True or False? • Even though segregation was practiced, it was never considered legal by the courts. • FALSE: Jim Crowe laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965 that mandated segregation in all public facilities, with a supposedly "separate but equal" status for black Americans. The reality was that Jim Crowe laws led to treatment and accommodations that were usually inferior to those provided for white Americans.

22. True or False? • Segregation was a matter of wealth. Well-to-do blacks enjoyed the same legal rights and privileges as well-to-do whites. • FALSE: Socially the poorest white person still had a higher social status than the wealthiest black person. In Maycomb, Mr. Ewell, the town drunk, has a higher social status than Tom Robinson.

23. Reading Group Tasks • First, complete your study guide questions for chapter 1 as a group. • Answer your study guide questions on a separate sheet of paper. • Continue reading in chapter 2. • You need to read to the end of chapter 11 for Monday, 5/6quiz.