To Kill a Mockingbird

To Kill a Mockingbird By HarperLee

SETTING OF THE NOVEL • Southern United States • 1930’s • Great Depression • Prejudice and legal segregation • Ignorance

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, were forced to “live off the land.” • Why does Atticus accept goods and services from the people he represents?

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

Racial separation (segregation)

Social separation

Rober Frost “mending wall” • How does this poem’s theme relate • to the theme of the relationship between: • Ms. Maude Atkinson and the community • The Radleys and the community

The Radleys • Poor, uneducated white people who lived on “relief “ • lowest social class, even below the poor blacks • prejudiced against black people • felt the need to “put down” blacks in order to elevate themselves

Prejudice in the novel Race Gender Handicaps Rich/Poor Age Religion

Characters • Atticus Finch - an attorney whose wife has died, leaving him to raise their two children: -Jem – 10-year-old boy -Scout – (Jean Louise), 6-year-old girl Ms. Maude Atkinson - next door neighbor who is the mother figure and teacher of life to the children. • Tom Robinson – a black man accused of raping white girl; he is defended at trial by Atticus • The Radley’s - Physically cut off from the community • Boo Radley - misunderstood and troubled is the unlikely hero

Point of View • First person • Story is told by Scout, a 10-year-old girl • Unreliable narrator

Reading the Novel • Setting - Where does the novel take places? • Point of View – First person, unreliable narrator, who are her influences, how does she process the information she receives • Themes - social morality (good v evil), do fences build good neighbors?

To Kill a Mockingbird